New and Noteworthy: Steve Jobs in "most-wanted" execs deck; Apple's music business a 'drop in the bucket'; more

Steve Jobs included in "most-wanted" execs deck According to the Salt Lake Tribune, Steve Jobs oddly appears in a deck of "most-wanted executives" cards, whre the ace of spades is Ken Lay, the ex-chairman and former CEO of Enron. The ace of clubs is Dennis Kozlowski, who was indicted and faces a September trial on larceny charges for allegedly stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from Tyco Inc. The ace of diamonds is Bernard Ebbers, ex-chairman and CEO of bankrupt Worldcom, from which investors have lost more than $180 billion from the plunge of its stock. More.

Apple's music business a "drop in the bucket" While acknowledging the amazing accomplishment of Apple's iTunes Store's 5 million track downloads, analysts Fader and Black note that 5 million downloads is a drop in the bucket compared with that of the illegal market. "To compare the two (legal and illegal) is sort of apples and oranges, when you look at their usage," Black notes. An estimated 5 billion tracks are traded on peer-to-peer networks such as Kazaa every month. Kazaa's file-sharing software has been downloaded nearly 300 million times. According to one survey, more than 40 million Americans use file-sharing software at least once a month. Fader points out that iTunes reinforces awareness of the benefits of downloading. "In some sense, it legitimizes the illegal services." More.

Is VOIP ready for prime time? As iChat AV seems poised to lower long distance bills, CNET analyzes the maturity of voice-over-IP technologies that are currently available - including Vonage. Ben Charmy writes "Independent VOIP providers such as Vonage and 8x8 are beginning to steal consumers from tradition phone operators with flat-rate VOIP plans that cost between $20 and $40 a month for local and long distance calls. Even as momentum for VOIP mounts, however, some of the biggest cable companies have begun to suggest that the technology isn't yet ready for the masses." More.

Alera latest firm to offer "all-in-one" DVD burner Alera Technologies is the latest company debut a "Dual Standard 8-in-1 DVD R/RW" drive that can write DVD-R, DVD R, DVD-RW, DVD RW, DVD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW and CD-ROM discs. The DVD Quad Cruiser is based on 4x DVD Dual technology and writes DVD±R at 4x (5.54MB/s), DVD-RW at 2x (2.77MB/s), DVD RW at 2.4x (3.3MB/s), CD-R at 16x (2.4MB/s) and CD-RW at 10x (1.5MB/s). It also reads DVD-ROM and DVD-Video, DVD R, DVD RW, CD-R, CD-RW, CD-DA (Audio CD), CD-ROM (Mode 1&2), CD-ROM XA, Video CD, Photo-CD (Single or Multi-session), CD-Extra, CD Plus, CD-Text, Hybrid CD. The device can be had at a street price of US$ 400, though it lists at US$ 500. More.

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