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After being predictably sued by a bunch of Hollywood movie studios last week, RealNetworks has been forced to halt sales of its new DVD ripping and archiving product, RealDVD. The shutdown is a temporary one, though, with the judge expected to review all the paperwork related to the case by tomorrow and decide whether or not to continue the order.

The MPAA is alleging a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and breach of contract. Real, on the other hand, claims the application does not actually break CSS, as it merely copies the disc, including CSS, bit for bit with the decryption residing in the player. While DVD ripping tools have existed almost as long as DVD discs, this is one of the first efforts by a mainstream company to try to make such software legal. In the end, all this is probably just doing what RealNetworks wanted to achieve in the first place: generate controversy and free publicity for its product.

If you are a Linux user and have been wanting to run Google's photo organizing and editing software Picasa on that OS, your wait is now over. Google has released a
Linux port of the software based on its latest available version. The software reportedly utilizes portions of Wine to function, so it wouldn't be accurate to call it an actual “port”. As a result, there are a few features missing in this release due to Picasa relying on certain Windows components.

Picasa 3 Beta is also available for Windows now, which is no surprise, but not for the Mac. We wonder if this is some sort of trend setting at Google, let's remember that the company's month-old Chrome browser remains at large a Windows-only application.

Don't forget to voice in our weekend open forum feature.
This week's topic: Are netbooks here to stay?

Google News gets a facelift Still looking plain and googley, but you heard it here first. Apparently went live as we were gathering the weekend news. Google News.

Bank robber hires decoys on Craigslist, fools cops In an elaborate robbery scheme that's one part The Thomas Crowne Affair and one part Pineapple Express, a crook robbed an armored truck outside a Bank of America branch in Monroe, Wash., by hiring decoys through Craigslist to deter authorities. News.com.

Microsoft gives users six months longer to flee from Vista OEMs have been given an additional six months to sell PCs running Windows Vista with the ability to downgrade to Windows XP using an accompanying recovery disc. The Register.

Court Temporarily Shuts Down RealDVD A court has ordered RealNetworks to temporarily suspend distribution of its controversial RealDVD product until Tuesday so that the judge can review all of the papers filed in the case. NewTeeVee.

Amazon Kindle 2 pics leaked You’re looking at the first shots of Amazon’s Kindle 2. The unit didn’t go down too much in size which is unfortunate, but then again, you want something pretty large so it’s comfortable to read on. Boy Genius Report.

After struggling to become mainstream in the late 90s, the netbook market has seen somewhat of an unforeseen revival in 2008. While most PC literates would have agreed years before that a smallish, low-cost and straightforward laptop could easily carve its place in the PC market, a number of significant constraints like manufacturing costs and watt-heavy processors made it unfeasible for the netbook to arise, until now.

Widely available products like the Sony Vaio TX/TZ and the IBM Thinkpad X series used to provide ultra-portable accommodations to those who needed them and could afford them, but then late last year PC manufacturing giant Asus took the world by surprise by announcing its inexpensive Eee subnotebook line starting at just $300. You probably know the rest of the story. Asus reportedly sold 300,000+ Eee units in 2007 and expects to sell several millions more worldwide this year. Furthermore, support from Intel was almost immediate and now the Intel Atom processor is expected to compete in this segment with the likes of VIA and AMD.

Other PC manufacturers have been jumping aboard incessantly during this year, so while the Asus Eee line has been diversified, now there are several other players in the netbook market, to name a few: the Acer Aspire One, MSI Wind PC, Dell Inspiron Mini 9, OLPC XO-1, HP 2133 Mini-Note PC, Everex CloudBook, Intel Classmate PC, LG X110, and Lenovo IdeaPad.

So, are you a netbook owner now, or do you plan to buy one later this year? Would you consider this netbook movement pure novelty that will fade away in a matter of years or is the form factor here to stay? What do you think is cool about the format and/or what is it currently lacking to make it perfect?

Discuss.

CyberPower has just introduced the Gamer Xtreme XI, an Intel Core 2 Extreme based system designed with gaming and performance computing in mind. The Gamer Xtreme XI combines a factory overclocked Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770 quad-core processor running at an impressive 4.0GHz, with a pair of powerful Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 cards featuring SLI and PhysX support.

CyberPower claims their system can handle even the most graphically intense computer games, but as you might expect it also carries an obscenely high price tag. Starting at $4939, this beast features 4GB of Corsair’s DDR3 PC1333 Dual Channel memory, twin 500 GB SATA II 7200 RPM hard drives in a RAID-0 configuration and a LG Blu-ray / HD-DVD optical drive, all this enclosed in an NZXT Khaos full tower case – which offers no extraordinary features and at $400 is just a poor choice (read our review) for an already expensive gaming rig. For an already generous price tag, they could have done better in that aspect.

The CyberPower Gamer Xtreme XI should go head to head with the likes of the HP Blackbird 002 and Alienware Area-51 ALX and can be ordered now (and further customized) at CyberPower’s website.

It’s been a tough road so far, but it looks like the Xbox 360 might finally be making some headway in Japan. According to the latest data from Enterbrain, the Xbox 360 has outsold Sony’s PS3 for a full month – the first time ever in the country. Microsoft sold 53,547 units of the Xbox 360 in the four weeks to September 28, compared with 33,071 units of the PS3.

Xbox 360 sales in Japan were bolstered after a price cut on September 1, which brought the console’s price down to 19,800 yen ($189), but also due to strong demand for RPGs ‘Tales of Vesperia’ and ‘Infinite Undiscovery’. Unsurprisingly, though, the Nintendo Wii easily dominated the market in September with 109,548 units sold.

Apple has released software updates for both iTunes and Apple TV today, addressing performance issues with the former and security issues with the latter. Specifically, iTunes 8.0.1 fixes the bug in Vista machines that leads to the "blue screen of death" when connecting an iPod and another bug that leads to some HDTV shows getting deleted during downloads.

The company also released Apple TV firmware version 2.2, which addresses three security issues involving maliciously crafted video files or PICT image files that could lead to arbitrary code execution. In terms of new features, the new firmware brings Genius and On-The-Go playlist support for Apple TV and an improved standby mode. It also enables users to purchase and download HD television shows directly from the media hub.

As usual, you can find the latest iTunes version at our download section. Apple TV users can apply the updated firmware by choosing the "Update Software" option in the Settings menu.

Apple wants to sell 10 million iPhones this year. That is quite an ambitious goal, but well in the company’s reach thanks to its enormous success. It was this same success that ignited an industry frenzy and now we have a load of handset manufacturer after a piece of the action. Nokia is not the exception. Their new Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, as it name suggest has been designed to also work as multimedia player.

But is capabilities are not limited to playing music, as any iPhone rival, this phone has a GPS system, Wi-Fi connection, 8GB of internal memory, web browser, and of course a 3.2” touchscreen. Although there are many similarities, Nokia has tried to take a couple of things a step further. For example, the Nokia 5800 will be sold unlocked and not tied to a contract for 279 EUR, it ‘Comes with Music’ which means you can download content from the Nokia Music Store for free, its web browser has support for Flash, you can expand its storage through 16GB SD memory cards, and it has a 3.2-megapixel camera with LED flash and Carl Zeiss lens.

Apple might have its hands full with this one, but let’s not forget the iPhone has a clear head start, developers are already very interested in their platform, and the marketing machine led by Steve Jobs is probably working on a counterattack already. By that same token, Nokia has a well establish brand in the mobile market and sells over 500 million phones a year, 100 million of which are smartphones.

Asus is looking to cater to the “smaller is better” crowd with the introduction of a new Eee PC Model, the S101. The incredibly slim netbook boasts a closed height of only 1.8cm and a weight of only 1kg, making it one of the lightest and thinnest notebooks available. On top of the small profile, it also supports some newer features that earlier model Eee PCs do not – such as 802.11n wireless support, an SSD up to 64GB in size, Bluetooth support and more.

They've also tweaked the power consumption of the unit, which they claim has given this machine up to five hours of continuous use. Whether that means simply idly or actually using a demanding application they don't say, but five hours of battery in such a small machine is impressive.

What's not impressive is the price. The lowest-priced version, which has a tiny 16GB SSD with Windows XP, is $699. That's the same price a 32GB version with Linux costs. For the full 64GB SSD flavor, you're now running into the $799 range. That's beyond “low-end” laptop and right up into the “midrange” laptop. Asus has definitely made the Eee PC exit the market it originally broke into.

Early last month, we heard news about Nvidia looking to reduce the number of partners that resell their hardware. The intention, they claimed, was to reduce market clutter, thinking it would be easier on end users to select from a handful of vendors rather than dozens.

Little information was revealed as to how many and specifically what vendors would be cut. The rumors hinted at primarily smaller partners. Today, a bit more information has been discovered. It's still not officially coming from Nvidia – they aren't saying a word about this – but apparently at least five partners in the EU will be cut, which may include Foxconn and Club 3D. If this is true, it lends more truth to the notion that Nvidia wants to remove “smaller” partners from the reseller list.

It may be an image issue that Nvidia is fearing, which would be especially bad for them given that current estimates put AMD at the head of the game in terms of GPU technology. Nvidia might see their large number of partners as detracting from the “Nvidia image.”

Sony has decided to take on Amazon, with the introduction of a new handheld book reader that is intended to compete with the Kindle. The new eBook reader will rely on a touch-screen interface that is intended to maximize screen space at the cost of bulky buttons. An interesting note is that Sony has already stated that this device was released in Japan – and did horribly. That might seem like a good sign to abandon the unit, especially after Sony concluded that many in the U.S. didn't like the idea of reading a book on a screen. So what is Sony's marketing plan? A rather viral one, in which Sony has trained a thousand people in using the device and have sent them around the U.S. to parade around stores and show it off.

That aside, it does have some interesting features. The interface can be gesture-driven, which might give people a more “real” experience when reading an eBook. It can be used with a stylus, or directly with the hands – another point that might make it attractive. Unfortunately, it also costs $399 – and I don't need to spend $399 in order to read a book. That's not much more than the Kindle, though, so if Amazon can make it succeed perhaps Sony can as well.

Asustek’s P45-based motherboards account for an 80% share of worldwide shipments, according to DigiTimes. The company’s motherboard shipments overall saw a 20% growth in the quarter compared to a year ago, with an estimated 6.12 million units shipped. An impressive feat, indeed, but since the company only managed to ship 11.1 million units in the first two quarters of the year, they still need to move 6.78 million units in the fourth quarter to reach its target of 24 million for 2008.

In an attempt to boost demand and strengthen competition with smaller rivals, the company recently announced today that it would be cutting the price of its Intel P45 chipset motherboards. The move will also help Asustek kick off holiday sales a bit early as it clears out inventory and prepares for the upcoming launch of Intel X58-based platforms designed for Intel Core i7 processors, which are expected to hit the market later this month.

Kingston has announced that it is teaming up with Intel to market flash memory-based drives for laptops and servers. The company plans to resell drives made by Intel to its partners, which include Dell, HP, IBM and others, and provide them with testing and technical support.

This is a bold move for Kingston, which traditionally has taken a “wait and see” approach to new technologies. A good example of this is how they waited years to enter the flash-based memory card market, which now makes up for a quarter of their $4.5 billion in yearly sales. The SSD market is not nearly as mature, but clearly the company sees the technology's potential. Teaming up with Intel certainly puts Kingston in a very good position going forward to sell drives for integration into notebook and netbook systems.

In an eagerly awaited decision, the Copyright Royalty Board announced that it will not increase the royalties paid by online music stores to members of the National Music Publishers Association, effectively ending Apple’s threats to shut down the iTunes store for profitability reasons.

The group also rejected a call to cut the rate to 4.8 cents and in the end agreed to freeze it at 9.1 cents a song for the next five years. While the NMPA was behind demands for a rise, it still hailed the five-year rate freeze as a positive development for all songwriters and music publishers, saying it should “bring clarity and order to an environment that for the past decade has been hampered by litigation and uncertainty on all sides.”

The iTunes shutdown was unlikely and almost certainly a bluff, but it's good to know we won't have to worry about music downloads getting any more expensive anytime soon.

newegg.com offers the 2.19-lb. Acer Aspire One Intel Atom 1.6GHz 8.9" Widescreen Notebook in Brown, model no. AOA150-1649, or Black, model no. AOA150-1029, for $349.99. With $14.43 for shipping, that's about $6 more than our mention last week, but still the lowest total in-stock price we could find. Features include an Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz processor, 8.9" 1024x600 widescreen LCD, 1GB RAM, 120GB hard drive, 0.3-megapixel webcam, 802.11g wireless, flash card reader, and Windows XP Home.

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