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Connected Home EXPRESS, August 6, 2003

Connected Home EXPRESS--August 6, 2003

This Issue Sponsored By

HP & Microsoft Network Storage Solutions Road Show
http://www.winnetmag.com/roadshows/nas

===============

1. Getting Connected
- Digital Music Downloads Come to the PC

2. News and Views
- SBC Sues to Stop RIAA Court Orders
- Report: Downloaders Don't Care About the Law
- Government Increasingly Fearful of Internet Attacks
- Hormel Fights to Protect Spam's Good Name
- Next-Generation Game Consoles: 2005 or 2006?

3. Announcements
- Windows & .NET Magazine Connections Launches Exchange Event
- Need Help Managing Your Storage Investment?

4. Quick Poll
- Results of Last Week's Poll: Office Suites
- New Poll: Digital Music Services

5. Resource
- Tip: Take Advantage of TV Options

6. Event
- New--Mobile & Wireless Road Show!

7. New and Improved
- Audio Streams into Your Home

8. Contact Us
- See this section for a list of ways to contact us.

==== Sponsor: HP & Microsoft Network Storage Solutions Road Show ====

Missed the Network Storage Solutions Road Show?
If you couldn't make the HP & Microsoft Network Storage Solutions Road Show, you missed Mark Smith talking about Windows-Powered NAS, file server consolidation, and more. The good news is that you can now view the Webcast event in its entirety at:
http://www.winnetmag.com/roadshows/nas

==========

Editor's Note: We'd like your opinion about Connected Home EXPRESS! To improve the editorial quality of this email newsletter and determine the best delivery format, we need your feedback. Please take some time to answer our online survey. The survey gives you the opportunity to provide feedback in one online survey about all the Windows & .NET Magazine Network newsletters to which you subscribe. We appreciate your time, and we look forward to reading your comments. To answer the survey, go to
http://websurveyor.net/wsb.dll/12237/EditorsEmail.htm

==== 1. Getting Connected: Digital Music Downloads Come to the PC ====
By Paul Thurrott, News Editor, [email protected]

Greetings,

In the last issue of Connected Home EXPRESS, we discussed alternatives to Microsoft software running on Windows PCs (http://connectedhomemag.com/homeoffice/articles/index.cfm?articleid=39788). Although I promised to move ahead in this week's issue to the subject of completely replacing Windows with Linux, I think we should address another topic first. Connected Home EXPRESS readers probably know that Apple Computer released its excellent iTunes Music Store for Mac OS X users this spring and that the company plans to release a Windows version by the end of the year. Since Apple launched the store, the company's competitors have ramped up production on their PC alternatives, and the first such product, BuyMusic.com, launched recently to a lot of controversy. I spoke with BuyMusic.com CEO Scott Blum last week, and the results of our conversation were somewhat disconcerting.

BuyMusic.com seeks to out-do the iTunes Music Store on the PC end, and comparisons between the two services are impossible to ignore. Here's how they work. First, neither service has a subscription fee. In both cases, you simply set up a free account with the service (a .Mac account on the Mac end), without any further obligations. On the Mac, you can browse the iTunes Music Store by using only iTunes 4.0.1 or later, which means you must own Mac OS X 10.1.5 or later. On the PC, you must use Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) 5.0 or later to access BuyMusic.com. Browsing is similar on both services, which offer searching capabilities, browsing by categories, and featured selections. The BuyMusic.com site is busier, however, and has a lot more information than the spartan iTunes site offers. BuyMusic.com provides how-to videos and ways to purchase digital-audio devices, CD burners, and other hardware.

Songs on the Apple site cost 99 cents each, and you can often buy a full album for $9.99. Songs on BuyMusic.com start at 79 cents each, but all the music I purchased was 99 cents; likewise, albums start at $7.95, but most of the music I'm interested in was $9.99. Both services had odd lapses--albums you can purchase only by buying individuals songs, albums that are missing one or more songs, and other unexplained weirdness. Apple's songs are encoded in 128Kbps protected AAC format, which is roughly equivalent to the Windows Media Audio (WMA) 9-encoded songs that BuyMusic.com offers. I downloaded several identical songs from both services and in some cases found the WMA versions to be richer sounding (less tinny) and of higher quality, although both formats are excellent quality. Both services offer a large number of songs (more than 200,000 at iTunes Music Store versus 300,000 at Buymusic.com) from all the major record labels.

At this point, the services seem similar, right? Well, here comes the fun stuff. Because the market for iTunes is so small--only a subset of the 7 million Mac OS X users can even access the service--the five major record labels felt comfortable offering Apple standard licensing terms for their content. In other words, every song you buy from the iTunes Music Store has the same digital rights associated with it. You can burn the songs to CD-Rs an unlimited number of times (although Apple makes you create a new playlist if you burn the same playlist 10 or more times), you can copy the songs to your Apple iPod (but no other digital device), and you can share the songs with as many as three Macintosh computers in your household. The last item is particularly well done; Apple's system lets iTunes Music Stores customers add and remove Macs from their lists. That means you can sell or upgrade your Mac and still have access to your music.

Compared with the Apple scheme, BuyMusic.com's usage rights are downright Draconian because the major record labels were concerned that opening up their protected content to the hundreds of millions of Windows users who can potentially access the service might lead to piracy. As a result, some BuyMusic.com customers will get a nasty surprise some day, unless the music labels come around and let BuyMusic.com ease up on the restrictions. Even more confusing, the service has no standard licensing. Each song you purchase can have different rights for the number of computers you can share it with, the number of portable devices it can work with, and the number of times you can burn it to CD-R. And the service doesn't provide a way to automatically keep track of each title's rights. The system is a mess.

For example, consider Justin Timberlake's "Rock Your Body," one of the most-often downloaded songs currently available on the service. This title grants you the rights to download or share the song with as many as three PCs, transfer it to an unlimited number of portable devices, and burn it to CD-R as many as 10 times. Most of the songs I've purchased have different rights, however. For example, T.A.T.U.'s "All The Things She Said" lets you download the song to only one PC, although you have unlimited digital-device transfers and CD burns; this song is more typical of the songs I've downloaded.

So why do I have a problem with this scheme? Well, what happens when I upgrade my computer, as I will in the near future? Because I can't share these protected songs beyond the PC to which I downloaded it, I won't be able to listen to them on the new PC. Surely a way must exist to back up the Digital Rights Management (DRM) license and restore it on the new PC. BuyMusic.com wouldn't leave me and countless other customers stranded, would it?

Sadly, the service does leave us stranded. But it's not BuyMusic.com's fault. Instead, blame the tech-fearful recording labels. "That necessity may seem logical to us, but it's not logical to the record industry," Blum told me. "Computer users know that data must be backed up, and that these songs must be as reliable as the weather. \[The record industry\] doesn't understand that yet. Right now, the first thing I do is burn a CD of the music I've downloaded, so I know I have a perfect backup I can re-rip later. But licensing information is just data, and we know you should be able to back up your license." Blum said he's working with the recording industry to help them understand why these licensing concerns are so important.

I was surprised that BuyMusic.com would launch its service with such disconcerting licensing problems, and I suspect Blum was tired of fielding the same old, tired questions from hundreds of members of the press all week; he became rather agitated. But this problem is important, and it could make or break the service, in my mind. "Look, we're the first, so we're taking all the arrows," he said. "Why are there five DRM standards? Why can't we back up our licenses? \[The recording industry\] just doesn't understand that. We're going to try and fix it, and address these issues with the five major \[record label\] CEOs."

Blum also addressed some complaints that emerged in the wake of BuyMusic.com's launch (most of the complains came from the Mac community, which is understandably anxious that the new service is going to render the iTunes service obsolete). Apple, Blum said, supports only the iPod, which owns about 12 percent of the market for portable audio devices, whereas BuyMusic.com supports a much wider range of players, including a slew of popular players from Creative Labs. Blum said that BuyMusic.com's customers just need players that support a DRM technology called Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI). "Steve \[Jobs\] is a visionary," he said, "but for some reason he doesn't like to support Windows, and he gets burned every time. AAC is not Windows Media, and the largest OS, by far, is Windows. Windows Media Player penetration is the largest, and Microsoft will win on DRM as well. I'd be rather be on Microsoft's team than Apple's." BuyMusic.com's advertising and site are deliberately designed to ape Apple's in a sort of parody, he said. "This is for the rest of us, for the masses. It's not just music that's exclusive to a small group."

Sadly, iTunes is probably living on borrowed time, despite its head start and excellent quality, and most of that situation has to do with Apple's insistence to tying its service to the proprietary iPod device and AAC format. Mac users don't have a problem with that strategy, but the wider Windows market will. On that note, I can't recommend BuyMusic.com wholeheartedly until the service figures out its licensing problems. The songs are inexpensive enough that the service is worth investigating, however, and I've been happy with the quality. Regardless of which service "wins" (although even that scenario doesn't seem to be necessary--perhaps several services could coexist), the cat is out of the bag. The future of music is digital downloads through services such as the iTunes Music Store and BuyMusic.com. The only question, I suppose, is whether these services will continue to dominate or become historical footnotes. Only time will tell.

==== 2. News and Views ====
An irreverent look at some of the week's Connected Home news, contributed by Paul Thurrott and Keith Furman

SBC Sues to Stop RIAA Court Orders
This week, cable giant SBC Communications said it has filed a lawsuit against the recording industry that seeks to reverse a court order that requires Internet access providers to reveal the identities of users who share music online. SBC subsidiary Pacific Bell Internet Services sued the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), accusing the organization of being overly zealous in its pursuit of music traders; the RIAA had recently moved from prosecuting the most active traders to essentially suing any individuals it can find who are guilty of trading music. According to SBC, the ruling that lets the RIAA go after music traders is too vague and opens up SBC and other service providers to an endless stream of questionable lawsuits from other copyright holders who believe their property is being distributed illegally online. SBC says it has received more than 16,000 warnings from an independent copyright investigator since the RIAA suit began. "It's about the fact that anyone can, without any effort, obtain one of these DMCA \[Digital Millennium Copyright Act\] subpoenas," an SBC spokesperson said. "The action we are taking is intended to protect the privacy rights of our customers." We find it funny how these events have changed my perspective. If you'd told us a year ago that we'd be cheering on a cable company, we would have thought you were nuts.

Report: Downloaders Don't Care About the Law
And speaking of illegal digital-music sharing, a recent report from the nonprofit Pew Internet & American Life Project corroborates what we pretty much already knew. Two-thirds of users who download music and other copyrighted material online don't care that they're violating the law. According to the report, about 35 million Americans (or about 29 percent of Internet users worldwide) use file-sharing services such as KaZaA to illegally download music. Younger Americans aged 18 to 29 are the most unconcerned about the illegal aspects of their downloading activity; 72 percent said they just didn't care. Full-time students are the least concerned overall, with 82 percent saying they weren't worried about breaking the law. Maybe we're backing the wrong side in this whole RIAA-versus-the-Internet-access-companies affair.

Government Increasingly Fearful of Internet Attacks
This week, government and industry experts reiterated concerns that attackers will take advantage of a well-publicized (but patched) Windows flaw to launch massive attacks that could cripple the Internet. These experts are practically begging systems administrators to apply the patch Microsoft released recently for a problem in the remote procedure call (RPC) subsystem in most Windows installations, a vulnerability that could let crafty attackers gain access to the system, run code, delete files, and perform other mayhem. As evidence of the possible problem, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it has detected a rising swell of Internet-based scanning of computers looking for weaknesses to exploit.

Hormel Fights to Protect Spam's Good Name
The maker of everyone's favorite lunchmeat is tired of junk mail sullying the Spam name and is now taking action. Hormel Foods, which makes the vaguely porklike food stuff, has filed two legal challenges with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to try to stop Spam Arrest from using the word spam, for which Hormel has owned the trademark for decades. Why Spam Arrest when so many other companies use the word spam? Maybe because SpamArrest recently tried to trademark its name. Hormel says it has carefully protected the Spam name since first introducing the product in 1937. Spam Arrest says most people think "junk mail" not "lunchmeat" when they hear the term. The case will be heard in court next year.

Next-Generation Game Consoles: 2005 or 2006?
Now that Sony's PlayStation 2 clearly dominates the current generation of video game consoles with the Microsoft Xbox and Nintendo GameCube picking up the leftovers, the attention of gamers, game makers, and industry analysts is starting to turn to the next generation. When, exactly, can we expect to see new console hardware from the big-three hardware makers? Game maker Electronic Arts (EA) says it won't happen until 2005 or 2006, a good 5 to 6 years after Sony launched the PlayStation 2--an epoch in the fast-moving tech industry. But the video game market has always relied on slow-moving product cycles to let companies maximize their investments in particular consoles. Maybe that's an idea OS and PC makers could emulate.

==== 3. Announcements ====
(from Windows & .NET Magazine and its partners)

Windows & .NET Magazine Connections Launches Exchange Event
Windows & .NET Magazine Connections will co-locate with Exchange Connections 2003. Stay competitive and invest your time to keep pace with technology. Learn the latest tips and tricks from gurus like Mark Minasi, Mark Russinovich, Tony Redmond, and Sue Mosher. Register now and get both conferences for the price of one--plus lock in your $300 early bird discount. Go online or call 203-268-3204 or 800-505-1201 for details.
http://www.winconnections.com

Need Help Managing Your Storage Investment?
Planning and managing your storage deployment can be costly and complex. Check out Windows & .NET Magazine's Storage Administration Web site for the latest advice, news, and tips to help you make the most of your storage investment. You'll find problem-solving articles, eye-opening white papers, a technical forum, and much more!
http://www.storageadmin.com

==== 4. Quick Poll ====

Results of Last Week's Poll: Office Suites
The voting has closed in Connected Home Online's nonscientific Quick Poll for the question, "Which office suite do you use for home computing?" Here are the results from the 323 votes:
- 58% Microsoft Office
- 3% Corel WordPerfect
- 2% Lotus SmartSuite
- 36% Open-source alternative (OpenOffice.org or StarOffice)
- 1% Other

New Poll: Digital Music Services
The next Quick Poll question is, "Are you using a digital music service to buy music online?" Go to the Connected Home Online home page and submit your vote for a) Yes, I use Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store, b) Yes, I use BuyMusic.com, c) Not right now, but I probably will sometime in the future, or d) No, and I don't plan to.
http://www.connectedhomemag.com

==== 5. Resource ====

Tip: Take Advantage of TV Options
by Paul Thurrott, [email protected]

In the old days, we had the Big Three TV networks--ABC, CBS, and NBC--and all was well with the world. Then we entered a rapid period of technological adoption with VCRs, cable TV and satellite, Pay-Per-View, DVDs, digital video recording (DVR) devices, High-Definition Television (HDTV), and more. Today, thanks to new levels of competition, our options are as varied as the number of channels a typical US TV can display. But make sure you're taking advantage of all the services your modern TV offers, whether you subscribe to cable or satellite. Most modern TV systems now offer optional HDTV services--which can increase the resolution of compatible channels by 600 percent--on at least 2 to 12 stations. Also, many systems now offer true Video on Demand (VOD), the next-generation version of Pay-Per-View that lets you start movies at any time, not just on the half hour; pause, rewind, and fast forward; and watch the movie repeatedly over a 24-hour period. Even without buying an expensive add-on--such as a TiVo system or a Media Center PC--for your TV, you can probably get more out of your TV than you realize. Check with your cable or satellite provider for more information about which services you can access.

Got a question or tip? Email [email protected]. Please include your full name and email address so that we can contact you.

==== 6. Event ====
(brought to you by Windows & .NET Magazine)

New--Mobile & Wireless Road Show!
Learn more about the wireless and mobility solutions that are available today! Register now for this free event!
http://www.winnetmag.com/roadshows/wireless

==== 7. New and Improved ====
by Jason Bovberg, [email protected]

Audio Streams into Your Home
SIRIUS, a coast-to-coast satellite-radio subscription service, announced the SIRIUS Home Unit, which lets you listen to SIRIUS's audio streams in your home. SIRIUS offers 60 streams of commercial-free music and 40 streams of news, entertainment, and sports, including ESPN Radio and live NBA coverage. The home satellite tuners from Kenwood and Audiovox will fit into any home with minimal installation. The SIRIUS Home Unit will be available at major consumer electronics retailers for $299.95. Subscription to the SIRIUS service costs $12.95 per month. For more information, contact SIRIUS on the Web.
http://www.sirius.com

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==========

==== 8. Contact Us ====

About the newsletter -- [email protected]
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About product news -- [email protected]
About your subscription -- [email protected]
About sponsoring UPDATE -- [email protected]

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Copyright 2003, Penton Media, Inc.

Connected Home EXPRESS--August 6, 2003 ==== This Issue Sponsored By ====

HP & Microsoft Network Storage Solutions Road Show http://www.winnetmag.com/roadshows/nas

==========

1. Getting Connected - Digital Music Downloads Come to the PC

2. News and Views - SBC Sues to Stop RIAA Court Orders - Report: Downloaders Don't Care About the Law - Government Increasingly Fearful of Internet Attacks - Hormel Fights to Protect Spam's Good Name - Next-Generation Game Consoles: 2005 or 2006?

3. Announcements - Windows & .NET Magazine Connections Launches Exchange Event - Need Help Managing Your Storage Investment?

4. Quick Poll - Results of Last Week's Poll: Office Suites - New Poll: Digital Music Services

5. Resource - Tip: Take Advantage of TV Options

6. Event - New--Mobile & Wireless Road Show!

7. New and Improved - Audio Streams into Your Home

8. Contact Us - See this section for a list of ways to contact us.

==== Sponsor: HP & Microsoft Network Storage Solutions Road Show ==== Missed the Network Storage Solutions Road Show? If you couldn't make the HP & Microsoft Network Storage Solutions Road Show, you missed Mark Smith talking about Windows-Powered NAS, file server consolidation, and more. The good news is that you can now view the Webcast event in its entirety at: http://www.winnetmag.com/roadshows/nas

==========

Editor's Note: We'd like your opinion about Connected Home EXPRESS! To improve the editorial quality of this email newsletter and determine the best delivery format, we need your feedback. Please take some time to answer our online survey. The survey gives you the opportunity to provide feedback in one online survey about all the Windows & .NET Magazine Network newsletters to which you subscribe. We appreciate your time, and we look forward to reading your comments. To answer the survey, go to http://websurveyor.net/wsb.dll/12237/EditorsEmail.htm

==== 1. Getting Connected: Digital Music Downloads Come to the PC ==== By Paul Thurrott, News Editor, [email protected]

Greetings,

In the last issue of Connected Home EXPRESS, we discussed alternatives to Microsoft software running on Windows PCs ( http://connectedhomemag.com/homeoffice/articles/index.cfm?articleid=39788 ). Although I promised to move ahead in this week's issue to the subject of completely replacing Windows with Linux, I think we should address another topic first. Connected Home EXPRESS readers probably know that Apple Computer released its excellent iTunes Music Store for Mac OS X users this spring and that the company plans to release a Windows version by the end of the year. Since Apple launched the store, the company's competitors have ramped up production on their PC alternatives, and the first such product, BuyMusic.com, launched recently to a lot of controversy. I spoke with BuyMusic.com CEO Scott Blum last week, and the results of our conversation were somewhat disconcerting. BuyMusic.com seeks to out-do the iTunes Music Store on the PC end, and comparisons between the two services are impossible to ignore. Here's how they work. First, neither service has a subscription fee. In both cases, you simply set up a free account with the service (a .Mac account on the Mac end), without any further obligations. On the Mac, you can browse the iTunes Music Store by using only iTunes 4.0.1 or later, which means you must own Mac OS X 10.1.5 or later. On the PC, you must use Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) 5.0 or later to access BuyMusic.com. Browsing is similar on both services, which offer searching capabilities, browsing by categories, and featured selections. The BuyMusic.com site is busier, however, and has a lot more information than the spartan iTunes site offers. BuyMusic.com provides how-to videos and ways to purchase digital-audio devices, CD burners, and other hardware. Songs on the Apple site cost 99 cents each, and you can often buy a full album for $9.99. Songs on BuyMusic.com start at 79 cents each, but all the music I purchased was 99 cents; likewise, albums start at $7.95, but most of the music I'm interested in was $9.99. Both services had odd lapses--albums you can purchase only by buying individuals songs, albums that are missing one or more songs, and other unexplained weirdness. Apple's songs are encoded in 128Kbps protected AAC format, which is roughly equivalent to the Windows Media Audio (WMA) 9-encoded songs that BuyMusic.com offers. I downloaded several identical songs from both services and in some cases found the WMA versions to be richer sounding (less tinny) and of higher quality, although both formats are excellent quality. Both services offer a large number of songs (more than 200,000 at iTunes Music Store versus 300,000 at Buymusic.com) from all the major record labels. At this point, the services seem similar, right? Well, here comes the fun stuff. Because the market for iTunes is so small--only a subset of the 7 million Mac OS X users can even access the service--the five major record labels felt comfortable offering Apple standard licensing terms for their content. In other words, every song you buy from the iTunes Music Store has the same digital rights associated with it. You can burn the songs to CD-Rs an unlimited number of times (although Apple makes you create a new playlist if you burn the same playlist 10 or more times), you can copy the songs to your Apple iPod (but no other digital device), and you can share the songs with as many as three Macintosh computers in your household. The last item is particularly well done; Apple's system lets iTunes Music Stores customers add and remove Macs from their lists. That means you can sell or upgrade your Mac and still have access to your music. Compared with the Apple scheme, BuyMusic.com's usage rights are downright Draconian because the major record labels were concerned that opening up their protected content to the hundreds of millions of Windows users who can potentially access the service might lead to piracy. As a result, some BuyMusic.com customers will get a nasty surprise some day, unless the music labels come around and let BuyMusic.com ease up on the restrictions. Even more confusing, the service has no standard licensing. Each song you purchase can have different rights for the number of computers you can share it with, the number of portable devices it can work with, and the number of times you can burn it to CD-R. And the service doesn't provide a way to automatically keep track of each title's rights. The system is a mess. For example, consider Justin Timberlake's "Rock Your Body," one of the most-often downloaded songs currently available on the service. This title grants you the rights to download or share the song with as many as three PCs, transfer it to an unlimited number of portable devices, and burn it to CD-R as many as 10 times. Most of the songs I've purchased have different rights, however. For example, T.A.T.U.'s "All The Things She Said" lets you download the song to only one PC, although you have unlimited digital-device transfers and CD burns; this song is more typical of the songs I've downloaded. So why do I have a problem with this scheme? Well, what happens when I upgrade my computer, as I will in the near future? Because I can't share these protected songs beyond the PC to which I downloaded it, I won't be able to listen to them on the new PC. Surely a way must exist to back up the Digital Rights Management (DRM) license and restore it on the new PC. BuyMusic.com wouldn't leave me and countless other customers stranded, would it? Sadly, the service does leave us stranded. But it's not BuyMusic.com's fault. Instead, blame the tech-fearful recording labels. "That necessity may seem logical to us, but it's not logical to the record industry," Blum told me. "Computer users know that data must be backed up, and that these songs must be as reliable as the weather. \[The record industry\] doesn't understand that yet. Right now, the first thing I do is burn a CD of the music I've downloaded, so I know I have a perfect backup I can re-rip later. But licensing information is just data, and we know you should be able to back up your license." Blum said he's working with the recording industry to help them understand why these licensing concerns are so important. I was surprised that BuyMusic.com would launch its service with such disconcerting licensing problems, and I suspect Blum was tired of fielding the same old, tired questions from hundreds of members of the press all week; he became rather agitated. But this problem is important, and it could make or break the service, in my mind. "Look, we're the first, so we're taking all the arrows," he said. "Why are there five DRM standards? Why can't we back up our licenses? \[The recording industry\] just doesn't understand that. We're going to try and fix it, and address these issues with the five major \[record label\] CEOs." Blum also addressed some complaints that emerged in the wake of BuyMusic.com's launch (most of the complains came from the Mac community, which is understandably anxious that the new service is going to render the iTunes service obsolete). Apple, Blum said, supports only the iPod, which owns about 12 percent of the market for portable audio devices, whereas BuyMusic.com supports a much wider range of players, including a slew of popular players from Creative Labs. Blum said that BuyMusic.com's customers just need players that support a DRM technology called Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI). "Steve \[Jobs\] is a visionary," he said, "but for some reason he doesn't like to support Windows, and he gets burned every time. AAC is not Windows Media, and the largest OS, by far, is Windows. Windows Media Player penetration is the largest, and Microsoft will win on DRM as well. I'd be rather be on Microsoft's team than Apple's." BuyMusic.com's advertising and site are deliberately designed to ape Apple's in a sort of parody, he said. "This is for the rest of us, for the masses. It's not just music that's exclusive to a small group." Sadly, iTunes is probably living on borrowed time, despite its head start and excellent quality, and most of that situation has to do with Apple's insistence to tying its service to the proprietary iPod device and AAC format. Mac users don't have a problem with that strategy, but the wider Windows market will. On that note, I can't recommend BuyMusic.com wholeheartedly until the service figures out its licensing problems. The songs are inexpensive enough that the service is worth investigating, however, and I've been happy with the quality. Regardless of which service "wins" (although even that scenario doesn't seem to be necessary--perhaps several services could coexist), the cat is out of the bag. The future of music is digital downloads through services such as the iTunes Music Store and BuyMusic.com. The only question, I suppose, is whether these services will continue to dominate or become historical footnotes. Only time will tell.

==== 2. News and Views ==== An irreverent look at some of the week's Connected Home news, contributed by Paul Thurrott and Keith Furman

SBC Sues to Stop RIAA Court Orders This week, cable giant SBC Communications said it has filed a lawsuit against the recording industry that seeks to reverse a court order that requires Internet access providers to reveal the identities of users who share music online. SBC subsidiary Pacific Bell Internet Services sued the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), accusing the organization of being overly zealous in its pursuit of music traders; the RIAA had recently moved from prosecuting the most active traders to essentially suing any individuals it can find who are guilty of trading music. According to SBC, the ruling that lets the RIAA go after music traders is too vague and opens up SBC and other service providers to an endless stream of questionable lawsuits from other copyright holders who believe their property is being distributed illegally online. SBC says it has received more than 16,000 warnings from an independent copyright investigator since the RIAA suit began. "It's about the fact that anyone can, without any effort, obtain one of these DMCA \[Digital Millennium Copyright Act\] subpoenas," an SBC spokesperson said. "The action we are taking is intended to protect the privacy rights of our customers." We find it funny how these events have changed my perspective. If you'd told us a year ago that we'd be cheering on a cable company, we would have thought you were nuts.

Report: Downloaders Don't Care About the Law And speaking of illegal digital-music sharing, a recent report from the nonprofit Pew Internet & American Life Project corroborates what we pretty much already knew. Two-thirds of users who download music and other copyrighted material online don't care that they're violating the law. According to the report, about 35 million Americans (or about 29 percent of Internet users worldwide) use file-sharing services such as KaZaA to illegally download music. Younger Americans aged 18 to 29 are the most unconcerned about the illegal aspects of their downloading activity; 72 percent said they just didn't care. Full-time students are the least concerned overall, with 82 percent saying they weren't worried about breaking the law. Maybe we're backing the wrong side in this whole RIAA-versus-the-Internet-access-companies affair.

Government Increasingly Fearful of Internet Attacks This week, government and industry experts reiterated concerns that attackers will take advantage of a well-publicized (but patched) Windows flaw to launch massive attacks that could cripple the Internet. These experts are practically begging systems administrators to apply the patch Microsoft released recently for a problem in the remote procedure call (RPC) subsystem in most Windows installations, a vulnerability that could let crafty attackers gain access to the system, run code, delete files, and perform other mayhem. As evidence of the possible problem, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it has detected a rising swell of Internet-based scanning of computers looking for weaknesses to exploit.

Hormel Fights to Protect Spam's Good Name The maker of everyone's favorite lunchmeat is tired of junk mail sullying the Spam name and is now taking action. Hormel Foods, which makes the vaguely porklike food stuff, has filed two legal challenges with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to try to stop Spam Arrest from using the word spam, for which Hormel has owned the trademark for decades. Why Spam Arrest when so many other companies use the word spam? Maybe because SpamArrest recently tried to trademark its name. Hormel says it has carefully protected the Spam name since first introducing the product in 1937. Spam Arrest says most people think "junk mail" not "lunchmeat" when they hear the term. The case will be heard in court next year.

Next-Generation Game Consoles: 2005 or 2006? Now that Sony's PlayStation 2 clearly dominates the current generation of video game consoles with the Microsoft Xbox and Nintendo GameCube picking up the leftovers, the attention of gamers, game makers, and industry analysts is starting to turn to the next generation. When, exactly, can we expect to see new console hardware from the big-three hardware makers? Game maker Electronic Arts (EA) says it won't happen until 2005 or 2006, a good 5 to 6 years after Sony launched the PlayStation 2--an epoch in the fast-moving tech industry. But the video game market has always relied on slow-moving product cycles to let companies maximize their investments in particular consoles. Maybe that's an idea OS and PC makers could emulate.

==== 3. Announcements ==== (from Windows & .NET Magazine and its partners)

Windows & .NET Magazine Connections Launches Exchange Event Windows & .NET Magazine Connections will co-locate with Exchange Connections 2003. Stay competitive and invest your time to keep pace with technology. Learn the latest tips and tricks from gurus like Mark Minasi, Mark Russinovich, Tony Redmond, and Sue Mosher. Register now and get both conferences for the price of one--plus lock in your $300 early bird discount. Go online or call 203-268-3204 or 800-505-1201 for details. http://www.winconnections.com

Need Help Managing Your Storage Investment? Planning and managing your storage deployment can be costly and complex. Check out Windows & .NET Magazine's Storage Administration Web site for the latest advice, news, and tips to help you make the most of your storage investment. You'll find problem-solving articles, eye-opening white papers, a technical forum, and much more! http://www.storageadmin.com

==== 4. Quick Poll ====

Results of Last Week's Poll: Office Suites The voting has closed in Connected Home Online's nonscientific Quick Poll for the question, "Which office suite do you use for home computing?" Here are the results from the 323 votes: - 58% Microsoft Office - 3% Corel WordPerfect - 2% Lotus SmartSuite - 36% Open-source alternative (OpenOffice.org or StarOffice) - 1% Other

New Poll: Digital Music Services The next Quick Poll question is, "Are you using a digital music service to buy music online?" Go to the Connected Home Online home page and submit your vote for a) Yes, I use Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store, b) Yes, I use BuyMusic.com, c) Not right now, but I probably will sometime in the future, or d) No, and I don't plan to. http://www.connectedhomemag.com

==== 5. Resource ====

Tip: Take Advantage of TV Options by Paul Thurrott, [email protected]

In the old days, we had the Big Three TV networks--ABC, CBS, and NBC--and all was well with the world. Then we entered a rapid period of technological adoption with VCRs, cable TV and satellite, Pay-Per-View, DVDs, digital video recording (DVR) devices, High-Definition Television (HDTV), and more. Today, thanks to new levels of competition, our options are as varied as the number of channels a typical US TV can display. But make sure you're taking advantage of all the services your modern TV offers, whether you subscribe to cable or satellite. Most modern TV systems now offer optional HDTV services--which can increase the resolution of compatible channels by 600 percent--on at least 2 to 12 stations. Also, many systems now offer true Video on Demand (VOD), the next-generation version of Pay-Per-View that lets you start movies at any time, not just on the half hour; pause, rewind, and fast forward; and watch the movie repeatedly over a 24-hour period. Even without buying an expensive add-on--such as a TiVo system or a Media Center PC--for your TV, you can probably get more out of your TV than you realize. Check with your cable or satellite provider for more information about which services you can access.

Got a question or tip? Email [email protected]. Please include your full name and email address so that we can contact you.

==== 6. Event ==== (brought to you by Windows & .NET Magazine)

New--Mobile & Wireless Road Show! Learn more about the wireless and mobility solutions that are available today! Register now for this free event! http://www.winnetmag.com/roadshows/wireless ==== 7. New and Improved ==== by Jason Bovberg, [email protected]

Audio Streams into Your Home SIRIUS, a coast-to-coast satellite-radio subscription service, announced the SIRIUS Home Unit, which lets you listen to SIRIUS's audio streams in your home. SIRIUS offers 60 streams of commercial-free music and 40 streams of news, entertainment, and sports, including ESPN Radio and live NBA coverage. The home satellite tuners from Kenwood and Audiovox will fit into any home with minimal installation. The SIRIUS Home Unit will be available at major consumer electronics retailers for $299.95. Subscription to the SIRIUS service costs $12.95 per month. For more information, contact SIRIUS on the Web. http://www.sirius.com

==== Sponsored Links ====

Ultrabac FREE live trial-Backup & Disaster Recovery software w/ encryption http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;5945485;8214395;x?http://www.ultrabac.com/default.asp?src=WINTxtLAug03tgt=./

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==========

==== 8. Contact Us ====

About the newsletter -- [email protected] About technical questions -- http://www.winnetmag.com/forums About product news -- [email protected] About your subscription -- [email protected] About sponsoring UPDATE -- [email protected]

==========

This email newsletter is brought to you by Windows & .NET Magazine, the leading publication for IT professionals deploying Windows and related technologies. Subscribe today. http://www.winnetmag.com/sub.cfm?code=wswi201x1z

Manage Your Account You are subscribed as #EmailAddr#.

To unsubscribe to this email newsletter, send an email message to mailto:#mailing:unsubemail#.

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Copyright 2003, Penton Media, Inc.

Connected Home EXPRESS--August 6, 2003 ==== This Issue Sponsored By ====

HP & Microsoft Network Storage Solutions Road Show http://www.winnetmag.com/roadshows/nas

==========

1. Getting Connected - Digital Music Downloads Come to the PC

2. News and Views - SBC Sues to Stop RIAA Court Orders - Report: Downloaders Don't Care About the Law - Government Increasingly Fearful of Internet Attacks - Hormel Fights to Protect Spam's Good Name - Next-Generation Game Consoles: 2005 or 2006?

3. Announcements - Windows & .NET Magazine Connections Launches Exchange Event - Need Help Managing Your Storage Investment?

4. Quick Poll - Results of Last Week's Poll: Office Suites - New Poll: Digital Music Services

5. Resource - Tip: Take Advantage of TV Options

6. Event - New--Mobile & Wireless Road Show!

7. New and Improved - Audio Streams into Your Home

8. Contact Us - See this section for a list of ways to contact us.

==== Sponsor: HP & Microsoft Network Storage Solutions Road Show ==== Missed the Network Storage Solutions Road Show? If you couldn't make the HP & Microsoft Network Storage Solutions Road Show, you missed Mark Smith talking about Windows-Powered NAS, file server consolidation, and more. The good news is that you can now view the Webcast event in its entirety at: http://www.winnetmag.com/roadshows/nas

==========

Editor's Note: We'd like your opinion about Connected Home EXPRESS! To improve the editorial quality of this email newsletter and determine the best delivery format, we need your feedback. Please take some time to answer our online survey. The survey gives you the opportunity to provide feedback in one online survey about all the Windows & .NET Magazine Network newsletters to which you subscribe. We appreciate your time, and we look forward to reading your comments. To answer the survey, go to http://websurveyor.net/wsb.dll/12237/EditorsEmail.htm

==== 1. Getting Connected: Digital Music Downloads Come to the PC ==== By Paul Thurrott, News Editor, [email protected]

Greetings,

In the last issue of Connected Home EXPRESS, we discussed alternatives to Microsoft software running on Windows PCs ( http://connectedhomemag.com/homeoffice/articles/index.cfm?articleid=39788 ). Although I promised to move ahead in this week's issue to the subject of completely replacing Windows with Linux, I think we should address another topic first. Connected Home EXPRESS readers probably know that Apple Computer released its excellent iTunes Music Store for Mac OS X users this spring and that the company plans to release a Windows version by the end of the year. Since Apple launched the store, the company's competitors have ramped up production on their PC alternatives, and the first such product, BuyMusic.com, launched recently to a lot of controversy. I spoke with BuyMusic.com CEO Scott Blum last week, and the results of our conversation were somewhat disconcerting. BuyMusic.com seeks to out-do the iTunes Music Store on the PC end, and comparisons between the two services are impossible to ignore. Here's how they work. First, neither service has a subscription fee. In both cases, you simply set up a free account with the service (a .Mac account on the Mac end), without any further obligations. On the Mac, you can browse the iTunes Music Store by using only iTunes 4.0.1 or later, which means you must own Mac OS X 10.1.5 or later. On the PC, you must use Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) 5.0 or later to access BuyMusic.com. Browsing is similar on both services, which offer searching capabilities, browsing by categories, and featured selections. The BuyMusic.com site is busier, however, and has a lot more information than the spartan iTunes site offers. BuyMusic.com provides how-to videos and ways to purchase digital-audio devices, CD burners, and other hardware. Songs on the Apple site cost 99 cents each, and you can often buy a full album for $9.99. Songs on BuyMusic.com start at 79 cents each, but all the music I purchased was 99 cents; likewise, albums start at $7.95, but most of the music I'm interested in was $9.99. Both services had odd lapses--albums you can purchase only by buying individuals songs, albums that are missing one or more songs, and other unexplained weirdness. Apple's songs are encoded in 128Kbps protected AAC format, which is roughly equivalent to the Windows Media Audio (WMA) 9-encoded songs that BuyMusic.com offers. I downloaded several identical songs from both services and in some cases found the WMA versions to be richer sounding (less tinny) and of higher quality, although both formats are excellent quality. Both services offer a large number of songs (more than 200,000 at iTunes Music Store versus 300,000 at Buymusic.com) from all the major record labels. At this point, the services seem similar, right? Well, here comes the fun stuff. Because the market for iTunes is so small--only a subset of the 7 million Mac OS X users can even access the service--the five major record labels felt comfortable offering Apple standard licensing terms for their content. In other words, every song you buy from the iTunes Music Store has the same digital rights associated with it. You can burn the songs to CD-Rs an unlimited number of times (although Apple makes you create a new playlist if you burn the same playlist 10 or more times), you can copy the songs to your Apple iPod (but no other digital device), and you can share the songs with as many as three Macintosh computers in your household. The last item is particularly well done; Apple's system lets iTunes Music Stores customers add and remove Macs from their lists. That means you can sell or upgrade your Mac and still have access to your music. Compared with the Apple scheme, BuyMusic.com's usage rights are downright Draconian because the major record labels were concerned that opening up their protected content to the hundreds of millions of Windows users who can potentially access the service might lead to piracy. As a result, some BuyMusic.com customers will get a nasty surprise some day, unless the music labels come around and let BuyMusic.com ease up on the restrictions. Even more confusing, the service has no standard licensing. Each song you purchase can have different rights for the number of computers you can share it with, the number of portable devices it can work with, and the number of times you can burn it to CD-R. And the service doesn't provide a way to automatically keep track of each title's rights. The system is a mess. For example, consider Justin Timberlake's "Rock Your Body," one of the most-often downloaded songs currently available on the service. This title grants you the rights to download or share the song with as many as three PCs, transfer it to an unlimited number of portable devices, and burn it to CD-R as many as 10 times. Most of the songs I've purchased have different rights, however. For example, T.A.T.U.'s "All The Things She Said" lets you download the song to only one PC, although you have unlimited digital-device transfers and CD burns; this song is more typical of the songs I've downloaded. So why do I have a problem with this scheme? Well, what happens when I upgrade my computer, as I will in the near future? Because I can't share these protected songs beyond the PC to which I downloaded it, I won't be able to listen to them on the new PC. Surely a way must exist to back up the Digital Rights Management (DRM) license and restore it on the new PC. BuyMusic.com wouldn't leave me and countless other customers stranded, would it? Sadly, the service does leave us stranded. But it's not BuyMusic.com's fault. Instead, blame the tech-fearful recording labels. "That necessity may seem logical to us, but it's not logical to the record industry," Blum told me. "Computer users know that data must be backed up, and that these songs must be as reliable as the weather. \[The record industry\] doesn't understand that yet. Right now, the first thing I do is burn a CD of the music I've downloaded, so I know I have a perfect backup I can re-rip later. But licensing information is just data, and we know you should be able to back up your license." Blum said he's working with the recording industry to help them understand why these licensing concerns are so important. I was surprised that BuyMusic.com would launch its service with such disconcerting licensing problems, and I suspect Blum was tired of fielding the same old, tired questions from hundreds of members of the press all week; he became rather agitated. But this problem is important, and it could make or break the service, in my mind. "Look, we're the first, so we're taking all the arrows," he said. "Why are there five DRM standards? Why can't we back up our licenses? \[The recording industry\] just doesn't understand that. We're going to try and fix it, and address these issues with the five major \[record label\] CEOs." Blum also addressed some complaints that emerged in the wake of BuyMusic.com's launch (most of the complains came from the Mac community, which is understandably anxious that the new service is going to render the iTunes service obsolete). Apple, Blum said, supports only the iPod, which owns about 12 percent of the market for portable audio devices, whereas BuyMusic.com supports a much wider range of players, including a slew of popular players from Creative Labs. Blum said that BuyMusic.com's customers just need players that support a DRM technology called Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI). "Steve \[Jobs\] is a visionary," he said, "but for some reason he doesn't like to support Windows, and he gets burned every time. AAC is not Windows Media, and the largest OS, by far, is Windows. Windows Media Player penetration is the largest, and Microsoft will win on DRM as well. I'd be rather be on Microsoft's team than Apple's." BuyMusic.com's advertising and site are deliberately designed to ape Apple's in a sort of parody, he said. "This is for the rest of us, for the masses. It's not just music that's exclusive to a small group." Sadly, iTunes is probably living on borrowed time, despite its head start and excellent quality, and most of that situation has to do with Apple's insistence to tying its service to the proprietary iPod device and AAC format. Mac users don't have a problem with that strategy, but the wider Windows market will. On that note, I can't recommend BuyMusic.com wholeheartedly until the service figures out its licensing problems. The songs are inexpensive enough that the service is worth investigating, however, and I've been happy with the quality. Regardless of which service "wins" (although even that scenario doesn't seem to be necessary--perhaps several services could coexist), the cat is out of the bag. The future of music is digital downloads through services such as the iTunes Music Store and BuyMusic.com. The only question, I suppose, is whether these services will continue to dominate or become historical footnotes. Only time will tell.

==== 2. News and Views ==== An irreverent look at some of the week's Connected Home news, contributed by Paul Thurrott and Keith Furman

SBC Sues to Stop RIAA Court Orders This week, cable giant SBC Communications said it has filed a lawsuit against the recording industry that seeks to reverse a court order that requires Internet access providers to reveal the identities of users who share music online. SBC subsidiary Pacific Bell Internet Services sued the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), accusing the organization of being overly zealous in its pursuit of music traders; the RIAA had recently moved from prosecuting the most active traders to essentially suing any individuals it can find who are guilty of trading music. According to SBC, the ruling that lets the RIAA go after music traders is too vague and opens up SBC and other service providers to an endless stream of questionable lawsuits from other copyright holders who believe their property is being distributed illegally online. SBC says it has received more than 16,000 warnings from an independent copyright investigator since the RIAA suit began. "It's about the fact that anyone can, without any effort, obtain one of these DMCA \[Digital Millennium Copyright Act\] subpoenas," an SBC spokesperson said. "The action we are taking is intended to protect the privacy rights of our customers." We find it funny how these events have changed my perspective. If you'd told us a year ago that we'd be cheering on a cable company, we would have thought you were nuts.

Report: Downloaders Don't Care About the Law And speaking of illegal digital-music sharing, a recent report from the nonprofit Pew Internet & American Life Project corroborates what we pretty much already knew. Two-thirds of users who download music and other copyrighted material online don't care that they're violating the law. According to the report, about 35 million Americans (or about 29 percent of Internet users worldwide) use file-sharing services such as KaZaA to illegally download music. Younger Americans aged 18 to 29 are the most unconcerned about the illegal aspects of their downloading activity; 72 percent said they just didn't care. Full-time students are the least concerned overall, with 82 percent saying they weren't worried about breaking the law. Maybe we're backing the wrong side in this whole RIAA-versus-the-Internet-access-companies affair.

Government Increasingly Fearful of Internet Attacks This week, government and industry experts reiterated concerns that attackers will take advantage of a well-publicized (but patched) Windows flaw to launch massive attacks that could cripple the Internet. These experts are practically begging systems administrators to apply the patch Microsoft released recently for a problem in the remote procedure call (RPC) subsystem in most Windows installations, a vulnerability that could let crafty attackers gain access to the system, run code, delete files, and perform other mayhem. As evidence of the possible problem, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it has detected a rising swell of Internet-based scanning of computers looking for weaknesses to exploit.

Hormel Fights to Protect Spam's Good Name The maker of everyone's favorite lunchmeat is tired of junk mail sullying the Spam name and is now taking action. Hormel Foods, which makes the vaguely porklike food stuff, has filed two legal challenges with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to try to stop Spam Arrest from using the word spam, for which Hormel has owned the trademark for decades. Why Spam Arrest when so many other companies use the word spam? Maybe because SpamArrest recently tried to trademark its name. Hormel says it has carefully protected the Spam name since first introducing the product in 1937. Spam Arrest says most people think "junk mail" not "lunchmeat" when they hear the term. The case will be heard in court next year.

Next-Generation Game Consoles: 2005 or 2006? Now that Sony's PlayStation 2 clearly dominates the current generation of video game consoles with the Microsoft Xbox and Nintendo GameCube picking up the leftovers, the attention of gamers, game makers, and industry analysts is starting to turn to the next generation. When, exactly, can we expect to see new console hardware from the big-three hardware makers? Game maker Electronic Arts (EA) says it won't happen until 2005 or 2006, a good 5 to 6 years after Sony launched the PlayStation 2--an epoch in the fast-moving tech industry. But the video game market has always relied on slow-moving product cycles to let companies maximize their investments in particular consoles. Maybe that's an idea OS and PC makers could emulate.

==== 3. Announcements ==== (from Windows & .NET Magazine and its partners)

Windows & .NET Magazine Connections Launches Exchange Event Windows & .NET Magazine Connections will co-locate with Exchange Connections 2003. Stay competitive and invest your time to keep pace with technology. Learn the latest tips and tricks from gurus like Mark Minasi, Mark Russinovich, Tony Redmond, and Sue Mosher. Register now and get both conferences for the price of one--plus lock in your $300 early bird discount. Go online or call 203-268-3204 or 800-505-1201 for details. http://www.winconnections.com

Need Help Managing Your Storage Investment? Planning and managing your storage deployment can be costly and complex. Check out Windows & .NET Magazine's Storage Administration Web site for the latest advice, news, and tips to help you make the most of your storage investment. You'll find problem-solving articles, eye-opening white papers, a technical forum, and much more! http://www.storageadmin.com

==== 4. Quick Poll ====

Results of Last Week's Poll: Office Suites The voting has closed in Connected Home Online's nonscientific Quick Poll for the question, "Which office suite do you use for home computing?" Here are the results from the 323 votes: - 58% Microsoft Office - 3% Corel WordPerfect - 2% Lotus SmartSuite - 36% Open-source alternative (OpenOffice.org or StarOffice) - 1% Other

New Poll: Digital Music Services The next Quick Poll question is, "Are you using a digital music service to buy music online?" Go to the Connected Home Online home page and submit your vote for a) Yes, I use Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store, b) Yes, I use BuyMusic.com, c) Not right now, but I probably will sometime in the future, or d) No, and I don't plan to. http://www.connectedhomemag.com

==== 5. Resource ====

Tip: Take Advantage of TV Options by Paul Thurrott, [email protected]

In the old days, we had the Big Three TV networks--ABC, CBS, and NBC--and all was well with the world. Then we entered a rapid period of technological adoption with VCRs, cable TV and satellite, Pay-Per-View, DVDs, digital video recording (DVR) devices, High-Definition Television (HDTV), and more. Today, thanks to new levels of competition, our options are as varied as the number of channels a typical US TV can display. But make sure you're taking advantage of all the services your modern TV offers, whether you subscribe to cable or satellite. Most modern TV systems now offer optional HDTV services--which can increase the resolution of compatible channels by 600 percent--on at least 2 to 12 stations. Also, many systems now offer true Video on Demand (VOD), the next-generation version of Pay-Per-View that lets you start movies at any time, not just on the half hour; pause, rewind, and fast forward; and watch the movie repeatedly over a 24-hour period. Even without buying an expensive add-on--such as a TiVo system or a Media Center PC--for your TV, you can probably get more out of your TV than you realize. Check with your cable or satellite provider for more information about which services you can access.

Got a question or tip? Email [email protected]. Please include your full name and email address so that we can contact you.

==== 6. Event ==== (brought to you by Windows & .NET Magazine)

New--Mobile & Wireless Road Show! Learn more about the wireless and mobility solutions that are available today! Register now for this free event! http://www.winnetmag.com/roadshows/wireless ==== 7. New and Improved ==== by Jason Bovberg, [email protected]

Audio Streams into Your Home SIRIUS, a coast-to-coast satellite-radio subscription service, announced the SIRIUS Home Unit, which lets you listen to SIRIUS's audio streams in your home. SIRIUS offers 60 streams of commercial-free music and 40 streams of news, entertainment, and sports, including ESPN Radio and live NBA coverage. The home satellite tuners from Kenwood and Audiovox will fit into any home with minimal installation. The SIRIUS Home Unit will be available at major consumer electronics retailers for $299.95. Subscription to the SIRIUS service costs $12.95 per month. For more information, contact SIRIUS on the Web. http://www.sirius.com

==== Sponsored Links ====

Ultrabac FREE live trial-Backup & Disaster Recovery software w/ encryption http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;5945485;8214395;x?http://www.ultrabac.com/default.asp?src=WINTxtLAug03tgt=./

CrossTec Free Download - NEW NetOp 7.6 - faster, more secure, remote support http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;5930423;8214395;j?http://www.crossteccorp.com/w2kmag.htm

==========

==== 8. Contact Us ====

About the newsletter -- [email protected] About technical questions -- http://www.winnetmag.com/forums About product news -- [email protected] About your subscription -- [email protected] About sponsoring UPDATE -- [email protected]

=============== This email newsletter is brought to you by Windows & .NET Magazine, the leading publication for IT professionals deploying Windows and related technologies. Subscribe today. http://www.winnetmag.com/sub.cfm?code=wswi201x1z

Manage Your Account You are subscribed as #EmailAddr#.

To unsubscribe to this email newsletter, send an email message to mailto:#mailing:unsubemail#.

To make other changes to your email account such as change your email address, update your profile, and subscribe or unsubscribe to any of our email newsletters, simply log on to our Email Preference Center. http://www.winnetmag.com/email

Copyright 2003, Penton Media, Inc.

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