Want
Pepsi's free tunes? Hack the cap.
Music fans have discovered a simple way to win a promotion
sponsored by soft drink company PepsiCo Inc. to get a download of a song
from Apple Computer Inc.’s online music store iTunes: cheating. The
procedure is pretty straightforward. Tip one of the specially marked Pepsi
bottles and look under the cap to see whether it is marked “Try Again”
or has a winning 10-digit redemption code. The process, which was detailed
on MacMerc.com, a web site for Mac developers and users, is not a
breakthrough concept, but its association with Apple in this situation has
caused a buzz on Mac-related and other web sites recently. MacMerc
webmaster Jon Gales said this technique is causing such a stir because
it’s an instant promotion — check out the cap and download a song. The
low-tech trick garnered No. 1 status on both Blogdex.com and Popdex.com,
which track links from weblogs.
Microsoft
upgrades Xbox Live for 750K users
Microsoft Corp. has a few tricks
awaiting fans of its
Xbox Live online gaming service this year. The company said on Friday that
it will gradually release the new set of features, code-named
“Tsunami,” over the course of the year. Live currently has more than
750,000 subscribers worldwide. One of the new features is called
“title-managed online storage,” a means for game players to store and
share data through the Microsoft network. Other rumors about the upcoming
changes are that Microsoft may not include a hard drive in the next
version of the Xbox console, instead using network-based storage to cut
down on physical size and cost, the ability to create group competitions
for specific games and new methods of communicating between players
through MSN Messenger.
Hollywood
happy ending: Court bans copies
And
the studios exhale.
The U.S. District Court in San Francisco ruled that privately held 321
Studios must cease production of software that lets users copy DVDs. The
St. Louis-based company said it would appeal Judge Susan Illston’s
ruling, but it remains a victory in the movie industry’s fight against
copyright piracy. Illston gave 321 a week to stop selling the DVD copying
software. 321 said, as part of its appeal, it would seek to stay the
ruling so it could keep selling its DVDXCOPY program. The movie studios
claimed there were potentially billions of dollars of lost revenue at
stake if software such as theirs continued to be sold. The studios and
their representative organization, the Motion Picture Association of
America, allege the industry sees losses of $3 billion a year due to the
copying and resale of analog videotapes.
Study
predicts e-commerce will hit $100B
Internet retailers just love Valentine’s Day. Sales
for the day of romance contributed to a growth that is expected to push
sales through the roof in 2004, according to an online market research
company. U.S. online shoppers spent more than $170 million on flowers,
gifts, jewelry and watches in the 10 days ending Feb. 13. This spending
boom was an increase of approximately 42 percent from the same period a
year earlier. ComScore Networks predicts 2004 will see consumer e-commerce
rise above the $100 billion mark. Last year online sales sat at $93
billion, which was an increase of 27 percent from 2002.
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