Santa Monica, Calif. - Electric Farm Entertainment on Thursday debuted its original animated Web series, "Afterworld," on News Corp.'s MySpace social network, the Los Angeles Times reported. The show will span 130 2-3 minute episodes, and was produced for around $3 million -- making it the most expensive series to run on the site. Some of the show's episodes have previously premiered on YouTube, where they drew more than 1 million views. The MySpace series will be free to view and supported by advertising. "What we're trying to do is create a unique form of entertainment as well as an original business model," Stan Rogow, one of the principals in Electric Farm Entertainment, told the Times.

New York - Microsoft said on Thursday that it will voluntarily provide free alterations to a wireless racing wheel accessory for its Xbox 360 video game console, after hearing 50 reports that the devices can overheat and release smoke when the AC/DC power supply is used, Reuters reported. A Microsoft spokeswoman told Reuters there are about 230,000 Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel units in consumers' homes. She added that there have been no reports of fires, injuries or damage resulting from the defects, although the company warmed consumers to cease using the accessory with its AC/DC power supply until the device is retrofitted.

Leipzig, Germany - U.K. telecommunications firm BT announced on Thursday that it has partnered with Sony Computer Entertainment Europe to develop GoMessenger, a service that will allow owners of Sony's PSP handheld game to make Internet telephone calls, and send and receive instant messages when connected to a Wi-Fi hotspot. BT developed the PSP software, which when paired with a headset and GoGam video camera will allow gamers to use voice chat and make video calls, respectively. BT and Sony plan to initially offer GoMessenger in the U.K., France, Germany, Spain and Italy in early 2008, before expanding further into Europe. Sony did not mention plans to offer the service in the U.S.

Leipzig, Germany - Sony Computer Entertainment Europe announced on Thursday that it will offer a GPS satellite navigation feature for the PSP handheld game device. Set for release next year, GoExplore incorporates UMD discs containing maps from 16 European nations, and audio directions in 11 languages, provided by TeleAtlas. The GoExplore package will also include car adapter and car mount accessories for the PSP.

San Francisco - Ecast, a maker of digital jukeboxes found in bars and restaurants, announced on Thursday that it has partnered with independent digital music distributor The Orchard, to license tracks from The Orchard's catalog for play on its over 10,000 Internet-connected jukeboxes. San Francisco-based Ecast said that in addition to making The Orchard's tracks available on-demand, it will draw from The Orchard's catalog to program its Indie Expansion playlist.

Emeryville, Calif. - Orb Networks, a provider of media place-shifting software, announced on Thursday that it has passed one million registered users for its MyCasting application. The software lets users stream all of their home and Web-based digital media remotely from any Internet-connected device.

New York - The Digital Media Association (DiMA) -- which represents large webcasters like AOL, Yahoo, RealNetworks, Live365 and Pandora -- announced on Thursday that it has reached agreements with SoundExchange on several thorny issues related to the disputed royalty rates for streaming music online.

Frankfurt, Germany - Sony on Thursday announced plans to introduce a TV tuner and digital video recorder accessory, called PlayTV, for its PlayStation 3 video game console, the Associated Press reported.

New York - Online social network Facebook is "quietly working" on a new advertising system that would let marketers target users based on the personal information they provide about themselves on the site, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

Branchburg, N.J. - Magnitude Information Systems, a publicly traded holding company, announced that it has completed its acquisition of Kiwibox.com, a New York-based social network for teens with 1.8 million members.

New York - News Corp.'s MySpace social network and Viacom's MTV on Thursday jointly announced that they will produce a series of one-on-one dialogues between the leading Democratic and Republican presidential candidates and young Americans.

Tempe, Ariz. - Limelight Networks, a provider of content delivery network services for digital media, on Thursday announced that it has signed a multi-year deal to provide global media streaming and content delivery services to Microsoft.

San Diego - DivX, a developer of video compression and distribution technologies, announced on Thursday that it has acquired the assets of Veatros, a provider of real-time digital video processing that was spun out of the University of Kansas' Information and Telecommunication Technology Center.

Seattle - Pluggd, a provider of video and audio search technology, announced on Thursday that it has raised $6 million in its first round of venture capital financing, led by Intel Capital.

Sunnyvale, Calif. - Lending Club, a peer-to-peer money-lending service that initially launched as a Facebook application, announced that it has raised $10.26 million in new financing, led by Norwest Venture Partners and Canaan Partners.

Pace Micro Technology, an independent developer of digital TV technologies for the global payTV industry, today announced the appointment of Richard Slee as President of its Europe, Middle East, Africa (EMEA) and Asia Pacific (APAC) regions.  Richard will develop Pace’s business across the important EMEA and APAC regions as more markets move to high definition formats and adopt personal video recording (PVR) technology.

http://www.pacemicro.com

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