A new Web site that aims to transform music industry economics is set to go live on Thursday, giving musicians a major cut of the proceeds while largely freezing out record labels and other intermediaries.

Lala.com, which allows fans to trade music discs for just $1, plus shipping, pledges to give a fifth of its sales to all the musicians, including lesser known session studio players, involved in the making of CDs exchanged on its site.

Source: Reuters

Google Browser Sync for Firefox is an extension that continuously synchronizes your browser settings – including bookmarks, history, persistent cookies, and saved passwords – across your computers. It also allows you to restore open tabs and windows across different machines and browser sessions.

Windows Vista Beta 2 is now available to technology enthusiasts that want to install and test a copy of Windows Vista Beta 2.

Download Windows Vista Beta 2

Advertising software makers 180solutions and Hotbar on Wednesday announced they have merged into a new business called Zango.

Bellevue, Wash.-based 180solutions makes software that delivers pop-up ads as people perform Web searches, including its now-namesake Zango Search Assistant. Hotbar, based in New York, offers toolbars with ad displays for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, Outlook and Outlook Express.

In exchange for displaying ads, Zango and Hotbar gives access to content such as videos, games and tools. Anti-spyware programs, however, typically flags both the Hotbar and the Zango software as “risky.”

Source: News.com

Microsoft acknowledged that Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA), the tool used to check whether your copy of windows is genuine of pirated is calling home every day.

According to Microsoft this previously undisclosed daily communication with Microsoft’s servers is a safety measure designed to disable WGA in case of a malfunction or a bug.

Also a little known fact is that every 90 days or so WGA checks again to see if the copy of Windows is legitimate.

Related: Microsoft Is Taking WGA To The Next Level
Almost 20% Of Windows Fail To Validate WGA
MS Bringing ‘Genuine Advantage’ Authentication to Office

Microsoft confirmed Wednesday that it will yank yet another feature from Windows Vista, this time PC-to-PC Sync, a P2P-based technology for keeping files up-to-date on multiple machines.

“While PC-to-PC Sync is a great feature that improves productivity and collaboration we don’t have it at the quality level our customers demand,” a company spokesperson said in an e-mail. “As a result the decision was made to remove it from Windows Vista.”

Source: InformationWeek

Chemical giant 3M says it can save the world 33 million barrels of oil, if LCD TV manufacturers adopt a new film it has created.

The company’s Vikuiti Dual Brightness Enhancement Film D400, or DBEF D400, can cut power consumption in liquid-crystal display TVs by 20 to 30 percent without dropping brightness or picture quality.

On an individual TV turned on four hours a day, a TV with DBEF D400 will use about 36.5 kilowatt-hours less per year than a standard LCD TV, Iverson said Wednesday. Over five years, that turns into 182.5 kilowatt-hours.

Source: News.com

A New Hampshire man has been fined $2,000 for allegedly using Microsoft’s name to lend credibility to false claims that users’ PCs were infected with spyware.

Seth Traub, of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, paid the modest legal costs and attorneys’ fees to settle a lawsuit brought by the State of Washington over charges that he punted bogus warnings to persuade surfers to buy deceptively marketed software

Source: TheRegister

Users Who Purchase Panda Software’s Consumer Solutions During the FIFA Soccer World Cup 2006 Will Enter a Daily Drawing to Win a PSP Console Along With EA’s FIFA World Cup 2006 Video Game.

Panda Software has launched a prize drawing for users who buy or renew the Panda Titanium 2006 and Panda Platinum 2006 consumer security solutions during the World Cup finals. Every day of the World Cup tournament, Panda will give away a PSP (PlayStation Portable) console accompanied by EA Sports’ FIFA World Cup 2006 video game.

This June, the FIFA World Cup will give hackers the ideal occasion to launch massive scale phishing attacks and hoaxes against computer users.

The FIFA World Cup has already been used by hackers on two previous occasions to lure users. In May 2005 the Sober.V worm enticed users to open an e-mail attachment with malicious code by offering free tickets for matches as a decoy. Users need an anti-malware solution to tackle both known and unknown viruses.

This new promotion is open to users who buy Panda’s software for the first time and clients of the Panda Software consumer security solutions who renew their licenses during the World Cup.

This Panda Software promotion runs from June 9 to July 9. Users who want to take part can do so via phone or Internet. Once they buy the product or renew their license, participants must register their products in the company’s client database. Winners will be chosen in a computerized drawing. Panda Software will contact them by phone or e-mail, and publish the winners list on its website.

The FADER, the definitive voice of emerging music, announced that its “Summer Music Issue” is now available in its entirety for free download at iTunes. The FADER’s annual summer issue, featuring the best of what the season in music has to offer, will be the first full magazine posted on iTunes. The issue will also be featured in iTunes’ “New and Notable” podcast section.

As part of its ongoing effort to convince Windows Vista buyers to go for the more expensive versions, Microsoft is launching Vista Ultimate extras its Windows Ultimate Extras program–a series of perks for those that buy the priciest edition of the new OS.

The current test version of Windows Vista promises that those who buy the ultrahigh-end Ultimate edition will get special perks, but Microsoft is not specifying what those benefits will be.

Source: News.com

Limited-edition, individually-numbered Superman desktop and notebook systems from Alienware are now available. The Area-51® Superman Edition desktop features magnificent case artwork created exclusively by artists at DC Comics that traces Superman’s progression from child to superhero in vivid detail.

Meanwhile, the Area-51 Superman Returns Edition notebook comes in a striking blue design adorned with the famous Superman S-Shield logo on the back of the display. Both systems come with a certificate of authenticity and include a specially-designed Superman desktop theme that radically transforms users’ icon, wallpaper, and media player designs with distinctive elements from the Superman universe.