Like its American counterpart, the Japanese recording industry wants a share of Apple’s iPod pie. The New York Times reported Monday on efforts by recording trade groups to have a fee assessed to iPods and other digital media devices as recompense for theoretical piracy, and even just as extra money for the privilege of having…

Distractions With Paper It began back in high school. Amid hormones that rarely helped, a steady torrent of shareware games passed around on floppy disks both kept things interesting as well as violated computer lab policy regarding outside software with abandon. Somewhere along the line, a copy of Glider Pro found its way onto one…

Resentment and frustration with copy-protected schemes is growing, and more artists are actively working against their own labels’ copy-protection efforts, according to a Billboard report. Acts like the Dave Matthews — whom we reported in August had posted instructions at the band’s site for circumventing their own copy protection — have been joined by Foo…

Show notes for TMO To Go: Mac Geek Gab For October 3rd, 2005 Direct Links: Enhanced/AAC Podcast or MP3 Version The mailbag is the seed of conversation this week as John and Dave dig in and spend the whole show answering your questions! Topics range from cleaning up your drive, resetting your Mac’s firmware, iChat…

The iPod nano is pushing prices down for competing digital media devices in Taiwan, just as mania for the nano appears to be building on the island. Taiwanese newspaper DigiTimes reported Friday that iRiver, BenQ, and Mirco-Star International have all reduced prices on flash memory devices in order to more closely compete with the iPod…

BusinessWeek’s Arik Hesseldahl writes in his latest “Byte of the Apple” column: “Record execs are clamoring for price flexibility in music downloads, but Steve Jobs is adamant that 99 cents per song is perfect. The war of words that erupted last week … served to drive home how much the music industry has changed, and…

Altec Lansing on Wednesday introduced the inMotion iM5, a mobile audio dock for the iPod that’s the size of a pencil box, according to the company. The US$149.95 device runs off AC power or batteries and works with any iPod with a dock connector. Its speakers feature four full-range micro drivers as well as MaxxBass…

Korean MP3 player manufacturers are crying foul over Samsung’s agreement with Apple to supply the iPod maker with NAND flash memory at 30-40 percent below market pricing. The companies accuse Samsung of putting other Korean manufacturers at a disadvantage, according to a report from Korean publication Biz/Tech, a charge Samsung officials denied. �There was nothing…

Apple Computer said Tuesday that problems with iPod nano screens breaking, as documented at FlawedMusicPlayer.com are not a design issue, but rather an issue of vendor quality that affected a small number of units. Furthermore, the company is now replacing those units that do have problems through AppleCare. "This is a real but minor issue…

Apple and the Detroit Public Schools (DPS) system on Tuesday announced the creation of a high school that will immerse students in digital technology, including the use of iBooks and iPods. DPS said it will enroll approximately 250 ninth graders this year and expand to a 9-12 high school during the next three years. The…