It's true: Apple debuting new iPhone this summer
Apple is ready to munch out a place in a new niche: telephones. The company's founder and chief Steve Jobs yesterday confirmed the worst-kept secret in the technology world, saying the company has developed a new cell phone with Cingular that will allow users to take pictures, surf the web, send email, download music and watch video. While such services already are available on cell phones, their capabilities are limited. Jobs hopes to change all that. For example, while Motorola's Rokr phone, which itself utilizes Apple's iTunes software, can carry only 100 songs, Apple's new iPhone will hold up to 2,000. The phone, which is black and buttonless, operating on touch commands, is slated to hit the market in June at a price of $499. Jobs, never short on bombast, said the new Apple phone will make current favorites like BlackBerry a "waste of time." Internet networking giant Cisco had owned the trademark for iPhone but apparently agreed to transfer the rights to Apple. Jobs also announced that Apple TV, which permits viewers to watch internet content on TV and to store up to 50 hours, will hit the market in February for $299. And Jobs said Apple has dropped "Computer" from its name to reflect its broader technology focus.

CBS letting viewers sling TV clips from set to web
TV networks used to cry copyright infringement when viewers posted clips of TV shows online. But seeing the exposure it gives their product, theyre starting to embrace the practice, as long as they maintain some control over it. Speaking yesterday at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, CBS Corp. chief executive Leslie Moonves said his network will team with Sling Media during the second quarter of this year to let viewers take clips of the networks shows and post them on the internet. Using a SlingBox, Sling Medias device for sending TV content to an internet-enabled computer, viewers will actually be encouraged to lift short clips and even create the sort of video montages that already seem to float around online. Moonves has a close connection with those kinds of montages, as his wife, Big Brother host Julie Chen, has been the subject of one that features her repeatedly uttering the words, but first. Moonves said hes happy about the clip, saying it means viewers are involved, watching and having fun with his networks content, and that it ultimately helps draw new viewers.

Judge okays return of sanitized YouTube in Brazil
A couple decades ago, people would do anything to get their MTV. Now people are going all out to get their YouTube sans MTV, at least in Brazil. Fans of the video-sharing site in that country reportedly sent around 20,000 emails to MTV Brasil to complain about a nationwide ban on YouTube. Last week a judge banned access to the video sharing site until a sex video featuring MTV Brasil employee Daniela Cicarelli was removed. But yesterday a Brazilian court said users could access the site again, as long as YouTube makes efforts to get rid of the video and internet service providers block access to it. The video shows Cicarelli, the ex of Brazilian soccer hero Ronaldo, apparently having sex with her new boyfriend, Renato Malzoni, in shallow water along a beach in Spain. Malzoni filed suit in December, asking the site be shut down as long as the video was available to users. While YouTube is cooperating, many say it will be tough to completely block the video because users could simply post it again under a different name.

Latest accusation against Black: Bad internet posts
Disgraced former newspaper mogul Conrad Black is in more hot water. The feds are now accusing him of insider trading and illegally (and anonymously) posting news about his former company, Hollinger International, on an internet message board in hopes of pumping its stock. Hollinger once controlled The Daily Telegraph of London, The Jerusalem Post and a group of Canadian papers. After the scandal broke, it unloaded until its now down to just the Chicago Sun-Times and has been renamed the Sun Times Media Group. The company fell apart after the feds charged Black with using company coffers as a piggyback to fund his extravagant ways. He also was accused of tax fraud. Black is fighting the charges. The new accusations were presented to Federal District Court in Chicago this week. The trial is expected to start March 1. Black lawyer Edward Greenspan said the latest charges have "misstatements."