London - An Apple (NASD: AAPL) iPhone advertisement has been banned by the U.K. Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), over its claim to offer access to "all parts of the Internet," Silicon.com reported. The ASA pointed out that the iPhone doesn't currently support Flash or Java applications running on many websites. Apple had argued that its "all parts of the Internet" claim referred to its ability to display real Web pages, rather than only WAP sites or operator-controlled content.

Los Angeles - EQAL, the digital production studio founded by the creators of Web series "Lonelygirl15," on Wednesday announced plans to debut "LG15: The Resistance," a follow-up to the series that will feature characters from the original including Sarah and Jonas. Set to premiere on LG15.com on Sept. 20 and run for 12 weeks, the online episodes will also by syndicated across MySpace TV, imeem, Veoh, YouTube and Hulu.

Redwood City, Calif. - Zazzle, a provider on-demand, customized merchandise for recording artists and other applications, on Wednesday announce the launch of Artsprojekt, an online community for arts, pop culture and action sports enthusiasts. The site, which is also backed by artist and former pro skateboarder Andy Howell, will feature original art, illustrations, and designs, as well as artist profiles, interviews and product galleries. Initial participants include Lil Jon, Shepard Fairey, Santa Cruz Skateboards, Blood Is The New Black, skateboard artist Jim Phillips and skateboarding legend Steve Caballero. Zazzle said it has also launched a customized skateboard-on-demand service in collaboration with Artsprojekt.

New York - Lime Wire, the distributor of peer-to-peer file-sharing software that also now operates a DRM-free music download store, announced that it has added the catalog of digital music distributor The Orchard (NASD: ORCD) to its LimeWire Store, which now offers over 2 million MP3 tracks for purchase and download. The LimeWire Store also offers licensed tracks from Redeye Distribution, Nettwerk Music Group, IRIS and others.

London - A new U.K.-based venture called Bandstocks allows consumers to invest in a promising artist's recording, and receive a cut of profits from the resulting album's sale and licensing, the Guardian reported. Once enough Bandstocks visitors purchase $19 stakes in a band, the funds are released for recording. The model is very similar to one launched by Netherlands-based Sellaband in 2006. Bandstocks is backed by music manufacturing and distribution firm The Vinyl Factory, and the founders of record label B-Unique, home to artists including Primal Scream and Kaiser Chiefs.

Alviso, Calif. - Digital video recorder maker TiVo announced on Wednesday that it has partnered with Entertainment Weekly to offer automatic recording of the magazine's 'What to Watch' TV recommendations. The deal will also enable TiVo subscribers to download EW.com original video programming directly to their TiVo boxes.

Seattle - GalleryPlayer, a provider of high-resolution artwork and other images for display on HD televisions, shut down its service at the end of last month, the Seattle P-I reports. The company, which was founded in 2003 and had raised about $10 million in venture capital, provided its service directly to HDTV makers Panasonic, Samsung and Mitsubishi, the latter of which announced on Wednesday that GalleryPlayer function incorporated on some of its HDTV models will no longer function as advertised.

Los Angeles - Electronic Arts' (NASD: ERTS) Casual Entertainment label on Wednesday announced that it has signed singer Natasha Bedingfield as the spokesperson for its forthcoming "Boogie SuperStar" karaoke and dance game for the Nintendo Wii. EA also announced details on the 40-track soundtrack for the game, which will feature artists such as Aly & AJ, Chromeo, Flo Rida, Avril Lavigne and the Jonas Brothers.

Vancouver, Canada - Hip Digital Media, a provider of branded digital music stores and content management services, announced on Wednesday the launch of a digital music store it created for Nectar, a U.K.-based customer rewards program. The Nectar Digital Music Store will offer an all-MP3 catalog of more than one million tracks from EMI, Sony BMG, Warner Music, The Orchard and other labels.

San Diego - The Active Network, a provider of online communities focused on sports and promoting healthy lifestyles, has raised an $80 million, sixth round of venture capital led by Disney's (NYSE: DIS) ESPN, PEHub.com reported, citing a regulatory filing.

Los Angeles - Wolfgang's Vault, a site that offers downloads of vintage concerts and other memorabilia once owned by legendary concert promoter Bill Graham, has reached a tentative settlement with rock bands Santana and the Doors, and a number of record labels that sued the site for copyright infringement, Billboard reports.

San Jose, Calif. - Immersion Corp. (NASD: IMMR), a developer of touch feedback technology used in video game controllers, announced on Wednesday that it has settled outstanding litigation with Microsoft (NASD: MSFT), and will pay the company $20.75 million.

Los Angeles - A consortium of movie studios and Web movie retailers is preparing a new initiative, Open Market, which would create an interoperable digital rights management (DRM) scheme for selling movies online, TechCrunch reported.

Los Angeles - Due to an accused file-swapper's actions to uninstall file-sharing software and reformat his hard drive, a federal judge has found he willfully destroyed evidence and is now subject to relevant sanctions, Ars Technica reported. Defendant Jeffrey Howell previously won a major victory in the case (Atlantic v. Howell), when Judge Neil V. Wake rejected the label's argument that his simply "making available" of songs in a shared folder on the Kazaa application constituted copyright infringement.

Boca Raton, Fla. - Hollywood Media Corp. (NASD: HOLL) announced on Wednesday that it has sold off its Hollywood.com and Hollywood.com Television businesses to R&S Investments, an entity owned by Hollywood Media's chairman Mitchell Rubinstein and president Laurie Silvers, for $10 million.

Last week, the forthcoming Democratic National Convention and Vice-President selection drove the 2nd highest share of visits to each of the websites of the presidential candidates in the past year. The only week with a higher share of visits included the Super Tuesday primaries. The market share of visits to BarackObama.com jumped 53% and 46% to JohnMcCain.com from the previous week.

New York - A recent survey of video "super-sharers," defined as those who have posted at least five videos online in the past 12 months, found a wide range of ages present, a majority of videos posted related to real-life experiences rather than for creative outlet, and that 75% are finding ways to skip ads.

New York - Lifetime Networks, the women's TV network joint venture between Hearst Corporation (NYSE: HTV) and Disney (NYSE: DIS), on Wednesday announced its first-ever digital acquisition with the purchase of ParentsClick Network, a provider of social network creation tools.

Hilversum, the Netherlands - Cloudspeakers, an aggregator of music reviews, streaming tracks and music videos, said that it has received an investment from Veronica Holding.