Gone will be the days of relaxing on the couch while watching TV, only to frantically jump up and turn the volume down when a particularly loud commercial comes on. That’s what Dolby hopes to avoid with a system introduced at CES last week, called Dolby Volume. The system introduces technology to equalize the volume accross TV channels, programs, and commercials.

Dolby says that the goal of Dolby Volume’s aim is to deliver consistent volume levels by modeling how “humans perceive audio” to eliminate variable loudness in the audio stream. Dolby claims that the system does this automatically without any type of user intervention (aside from the initial setup). During the demonstration, Dolby’s engineers said that the adjustments will be non-linear and that they will be able to process all types of audio streams without worrying about sampling rates. The system will be able to handle up to a 30dB in reduction or amplification. No word on what happens when watching an action movie or TV show with explosions or or other sudden noises that are meant to be loud and startling.

Source: arstechnica

Microsoft Corp. is happy with the early sales of its Zune music player in the United States and it could launch the service in Europe before the end of 2007, its marketing director said on Saturday.

Jason Reindorp told Reuters that Microsoft was realistic about the challenge it faced in trying to crack into the digital music player market, dominated by Apple Computer Inc.’s iPod.

“You couldn’t get a more entrenched competitor,” he said at the annual music industry Midem Net conference in France. “But we feel really good about the first steps that we’ve taken.”

Reindorp said Microsoft was not yet ready to officially announce when it would launch the service in Europe but it could possibly be out before the end of the year.

Source: eWeek

Some numbers behind Microsoft Corp.’s evolution from Windows 95 to this month’s consumer release of Windows Vista:

Common retail price for Windows 95: $89.95

For Vista: Depends on user configuration. Upgrading a PC from Windows XP would cost as little as $99 for Vista Home Basic edition, up to $259 for Vista Ultimate. Suggested retail prices for those versions range from $199 to $399.

Number of lines of code in Windows 95: 11.2 million.

In Vista: 50 million is a commonly cited figure, but Microsoft refuses to confirm that officially.

Approximate number of Windows 95 programmers: 200

For Vista: More than 2,000, according to one Microsoft developer’s blog, but Microsoft also won’t confirm that.

Source: AP

The typical U.S. Internet user has yet to adopt Web-based newsreaders for checking blogs, a Web metrics firm said Friday.

While acknowledging that her findings are not conclusive, HitWise researcher LeeAnn Prescott said a comparison of traffic to online newsreaders and the Web’s most popular blogs indicates that only early adopters — primarily businesspeople and the technology savvy ” are using the newsreaders.

“The use of RSS to view blogs hasn’t caught on in the mainstream,” Prescott said.

Source: InformationWeek

Imagine applying for a systems administrator position at Yahoo with the knowledge that you have more years of education and experience than 80 percent of the other applicants.

Monster, a careers site based in Maynard, Mass., announced Jan. 17 it would be adding a feature that shares this information, along with a series of other site enhancements that aim to add transparency to the job-seeking process.

Noting that it is the first job site to add comparative search features, job applicants on Monster are now better able to see how they compare to other candidates applying for the same job and more easily track their application status.

The new comparative features aim to keep seekers better in-the-loop, from what percentage of other applicants share similar qualifications of education level and years of experience. Once a job application has been submitted or a resume posted online, the job hunter can follow employer activity.

Source: eWeek

Overall U.S. video game sales rose 18 percent to $13.5 billion in 2006, boosted by new consoles from Sony Corp. and Nintendo Co. Ltd. and titles like “Madden NFL 07″ and “World of Warcraft,” market research firm NPD said on Thursday.

Sales of video games and accessories for consoles and portable devices grew to $12.5 billion from $10.5 billion in 2005. Revenue from PC games rose 1 percent to top $970 million in 2006.

Sony and Nintendo released their PlayStation 3 and Wii consoles in November and were sold out at launch.

“Madden NFL 2007″ from Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) was the top-selling video game for consoles and hand-held devices, based on unit sales, while “World of Warcraft” was the top PC game.

Source: extremetech

A judge has ruled that the music industry is free to go ahead with a lawsuit against XM Satellite Radio, the company accused of allowing customers to store songs without paying for them.

The finding, made Friday by U.S. District Court Judge Diane Batts in New York, opens the door for music labels such as Atlantic Recording and Capitol Records to press their case against the satellite radio broadcaster.

The record industry alleged in a civil suit filed in May that XM allows subscribers to listen to, store and replay songs as MP3 files. Devices marketed as “XM MP3″ players help people trap the music from XM’s broadcasts and then turn them into MP3s. The music labels argue that this infringes on their copyrights.

XM’s stance is that listeners are legally allowed to record music off the radio for personal use under the Home Recording Act of 1992. The judge, however, disagreed. While listeners have for years been allowed to record songs off of standard over-the-air stations, satellite radio is different because the transmission is digital.

Source: News.com