digital

Nielsen Soundscan says that 2012 overall music purchases were up 3.1 percent and that's the news that most media outlets have focused on.

What they missed, however, is that overall sales of albums and track equivalents (albums typically have 10 songs) were down 1.8 percent. That's the figure that's much more reflective of whether the sector generated more money.

The truth is that neither number tells the complete story about the health of the industry. What Nielsen Soundscan's figures don't reflect is the money generated by Webcasters, satellite radio, and subscription services, such … Read more

Ah, release creep hits Samsung. It's been only 8 months since the company shipped its NX210 mirrorless interchangeable camera and the company's already lining up its replacement. Granted, the NX210 did feel a little like a stopgap -- it was essentially the same camera as its predecessor with some wireless capabilities tacked on -- but if I'd bought one, I'd be a little cranky about now, because the NX300 offers some significant enhancements that potentially make it a much better camera.

The most obvious difference between the generations is the new retro two-tone design, à la … Read more

InterDigital is on the patent warpath again.

The company, famous for holding a boatload of patents on wireless products, filed a complaint yesterday with the United States International Trade Commission against the usual round of tech players.

Citing infringement against seven of its patents, InterDigital wants the ITC to ban the U.S. import of products made by Samsung, Nokia, ZTE, and Huawei.

Specifically, InterDigital alleges that the companies in question have engaged in unfair trade practices by selling certain 3G and 4G wireless devices that violate the seven patents. Without naming any specific products, the complaint points to mobile … Read more

Research In Motion and InterDigital have extended an existing patent licensing agreement to cover 4G LTE technology.

Under the deal announced today, RIM will be able to use InterDigital's patents in its upcoming line of BlackBerry 10 products, which are set to debut later this month.

The deal comes just a few weeks after RIM settled a patent dispute with Nokia. In that case, RIM agreed to a one-time payment to Nokia and ongoing royalties for the use of its technology.

RIM is clearing the decks of any complications as it focuses on what is possibly the most important … Read more

The most popular reason nonprofessionals buy dSLRs or other types of interchangeable-lens cameras is because they want better photos or faster performance than a point-and-shoot can deliver; the power of manual controls and interchangeable lenses seem to be a secondary concern. Nevertheless, I'm still routinely surprised when someone hands me his dSLR and it's set to auto and equipped with a standard kit lens.

The best (and cheapest) way to advance your photography is to switch out of auto; here's a map for venturing into that new territory. But the next best -- and not-so-cheap -- way … Read more

If you've drooled over food photography with shallow depth of field or portraits where the subject is in sharp focus but the background is blurred, you probably think they were shot with a digital SLR and an expensive lens and aren't possible with your point-and-shoot. And, for the most part, you would be correct.

Without getting into the technical details (you can go here for that), cameras with large sensors, such as digital SLRs, are able to create more background blur than the much smaller sensors in an average point-and-shoot. Along with that, you can get lenses that … Read more

Fun, fun, fun!

That's what digital movies, music, and books are supposed to be about. But for the people who create and sell the stuff, it's been all crumbs, crumbs, crumbs.

The past year was another tough one for the sale of entertainment media on the Web. The irony is that as more entertainment fare is sold online, the less profitable the businesses become.

Few, if any, online music services are profitable. In Web movie distribution, download sales are dismal. Even Netflix, the Web's top video rental service, saw a slow down in the rate it added … Read more

Google is once again offering a glimpse into ancient history with online images of rare scrolls dating back more than 2,000 years.

Courtesy of Google, in collaboration with the Israel Antiquities Authority, the new Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library is now home to detailed digitized photographs of thousands of biblical and non-biblical manuscripts. These ancient scrolls were discovered in remote caves near the Dead Sea between 1947 and 1956.

Among them, the scroll of the Ten Commandments may be one of the most fascinating. Dating back to sometime between 30 B.C. and 1 B.C., the … Read more

Anyone wanting to download the SpongeBob Diner Dash game from Apple's iTunes app store today is out of luck.

Nickelodeon has removed the app from the store after an advocacy group filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission alleging the game violated children's online privacy rights by collecting their e-mail addresses without parents' permission.

According to the Center for Digital Democracy, which filed the complaint earlier today, cable network Nickelodeon and mobile game-maker PlayFirst are misleadingly marketing the game and are violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

SpongeBob Diner Dash is a free app … Read more