New Danger Mouse album already a hit on torrent sites P2P Blog
That didn’t take long: The new Danger Mouse album Dark Night of the Soul found its way onto various torrent sites this weekend after reports surfaced that the Hip Hop producer won’t be able to legally publish the record due to a dispute with the major label EMI.

Sims 3 leaked to torrent sites weeks before retail release Ars Technica
While EA may be backing off the practice of using invasive DRM in its games, piracy continues. The newest casualty? Sims 3 has leaked to the torrent sites two weeks before the game’s release.

Repeat: AT&T may introduce $20 limited iPhone data plan AppleInsider
With next-generation iPhone hardware and software around the corner, a new report is adding to claims that AT&T is mulling changes to its iPhone monthly service and data plans that could reduce the cost of owning an iPhone and help Apple grow its share of the smartphone market. Citing people with knowledge of the company’s thinking, BusinessWeek claims the exclusive U.S. iPhone service provider “is considering cutting the price of its monthly service package or offering a range of lower-priced plans.” Among the new offerings would be a $20 monthly limited access iPhone data plan that could make its debut before month’s end. AT&T currently offers a one-size-fits-all $30 unlimited data plan as a mandatory add-on for iPhone subscribers, which helps push monthly services fees for those customers north of $70 with taxes and fees.

Bragg Urges Music Biz To Legalise P2P, Scrap ‘Three-Strikes’ paidContent.UK
Billy Bragg and his manager have renewed their call to legalise unauthorised P2P downloads. Writing on Comment Is Free, the songwriter, who spoke at paidContent:UK’s EconMusic seminar last year, said: “The next generation of music fans may no longer want to pay for music, but they are still hungry to hear it. The challenge to the industry is to find ways to monetise their behaviour … Clearly, some form of P2P subscription service is the way forward.”

Walmart Enters Used Game Business Via Kiosk Buyback Program Cheap Ass Gamer
Looks like Walmart is the newest retailer to enter the used video game business. CAG J7. posts a link to a story over at Neocrisis on how Walmart has started to implement kiosks that will buy back used video games. The writer at Neocrisis points out that the machine accepts used PS2, PS3, Xbox, Xbox 360 and Wii games and that the system seems to have a few bugs.

Guitar Hero 5 debuts ‘any instrument’ multiplayer TechRadar
The latest installment of the Guitar Hero franchise has been officially announced (aptly called Guitar Hero 5) with the game bringing new music tracks and in-game features to the table. The biggest shake-up of the game includes the ability to have multiple players of the same instrument compete against each other. This means that if four people want to play at being Keith Moon on the drums, they can providing four kits are available.

Oracle buys virtualisation specialists Virtual Iron Heise Online
Having recently purchased Sun Microsystems, Oracle has now bought virtualisation specialist Virtual Iron for an unspecified amount. The purchase gives Oracle another server virtualisation solution, including Virtual Iron’s management software. In a statement Wim Coekaerts, Oracle Vice President of Linux and Virtualisation Engineering, said “With the addition of Virtual Iron, Oracle expects to enable customers to more dynamically manage their server capacity and optimize their power consumption. The acquisition is consistent with Oracle`s strategy to provide comprehensive enterprise software management and will facilitate more efficient management of application service levels.

Attention Harry Potter, we’ll be needing some prior art TechFlash
We’ve been hearing rumors and reading speculation lately about what Microsoft executive J Allard has been doing. Apart from reports about a possible Zune/Xbox linkup, one source who has been accurate in the past recently cited the possibility of an Allard project reviving the Tablet PC. We don’t know if any of this is true, because there have been no official details about the recent undertakings of the exec credited with alerting Bill Gates to the Internet and leading Microsoft into the video-game business. J — no period, please — is officially listed as Microsoft’s “Chief Experience Officer (CXO) and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) … responsible for the technical architecture and user experiences related to products and services of the Entertainment and Devices (E&D) division.” Apparently that includes the secret magic wands.

Search Engine Wolfram Alpha Launches With Big Dreams And No Chance Silicon Alley Insider
Another next-generation search engine launches. It looks more differentiated than the much-ado-about-nothing known as Cuil, but that’s not saying much. Our prediction: Wolfram Alpha (terrible name) will see a nice spike in traffic for a few days, then it will disappear unnoticed along with all the other “next-generation” search engines. Why? Because search isn’t broken. It can be improved, yes, and companies like Wolfram Alpha will show Google how to improve it. But no search engine we’ve seen, including this one, comes close to making the quantum leap in performance required to get real volumes of Internet users to switch.

Woody Allen wins $5m settlement BBC
Woody Allen has won a $5m (£3.3m) out-of-court settlement from American Apparel after the US company used his image on adverts without consent. He sued the clothing firm for using an image of him from his 1977 film Annie Hall without permission on billboards. The firm had initially planned to bring up his personal life in its defence. American Apparel had argued Allen was not worth the $10m he was originally seeking because of the controversy surrounding his family life.

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May, 2009