Cupertino, Calif. - Lines extending several hundred people deep were expected Friday night as Apple and AT&T retail stores began selling the highly anticipated iPhone. [more..]

Washington - Some members of Congress on Thursday urged a marketplace solution to the issue of music webcasting royalty rates, acknowledging that they were wary of intervening in the matter, CNET News.com reported. [more..]

Los Angeles - The National Basketball Association (NBA) this week signed a deal for broadcast rights that for the first time includes online and mobile rights, agreeing to an eight-year, $7.4 billion contract with Walt Disney's ABC and ESPN, and Time Warner's TNT, the Los Angeles Times reported. [more..]

London - U.S. teenagers who visit online social network Facebook are more likely to be Caucasian, come from wealthy homes and be "popular" kids, while more MySpace users are from minority groups, get jobs right out of high school and are "socially ostracized," according to a study from a UC Berkeley PhD student, the BBC Online reported. [more..]

Los Angeles - Major record labels Warner Music Group and Sony BMG announced this week the formation of a joint venture to launch a wholesale Internet and mobile music distributor in Russia, a country the U.S. has labeled a piracy haven. [more..]

New York - A federation of 19 European soccer leagues has joined a class action copyright lawsuit against Google's YouTube, joining established plaintiffs that include English and French sports leagues, and music publishers Bourne and Cherry Lane. [more..]

San Francisco - Publisher CMP Game Group's Game Developer Research division this week released a new census that found there are nearly 600 companies developing and publishing video games in the U.S. and Canada, and more than 39,700 people employed in the development or publishing of games in the U.S. [more..]

London - U.K. media retailer HMV said this week it will begin selling DRM-free MP3 downloads in September, including major label EMI's catalog and tracks from independent labels. [more..]

Dallas - Spending on advertising within video games in the U.S. is projected to grow from $370 million in 2006 to more than $2 billion in 2012, at a faster rate than other media including TV, radio, print and the Internet, according to a report from market research firm Parks Associates. [more..]

Los Angeles - Chinese in-game advertising provider Network Game Interaction (NGI) has raised around $10 million in its first round of venture capital financing, led by GSR Ventures, PaidContent.org reported, citing China Venture. [more..]

Scott Karp blogs about how he is amazed at how the iPhone has caused so many tech commentators to be blind to the network problem. [more..]

Scott Goldberg writes about the newest Jackass release, a video game due out in the fall on PS2, PSP, and Nintendo DS, with pics and a trailer included. [more..]

San Francisco - Wired News on Friday published an interactive story listing prospective hacks that would improve the functionality of Apple's iPhone. The story allows users to submit, and vote on, the software functionality they would like see added to the iPhone by industrious hackers. [more..]

Los Angeles - Warner Bros. has delayed the release of its combination Blu-ray/HD DVD disc format, Total HD, from late 2007 until early 2008, according to comments made this week by the studio's vice president of sales and planning Dan Miron, CNET News.com reported. [more..]

Alviso, Calif. - TiVo said this week that Comcast, the nation's largest cable TV provider, has approved TiVo software for use on its Comcast digital video recorders. [more..]

Los Angeles - BD+ Technologies, the licensor of content protection technology for Sony's Blu-ray Disc standard, on Friday announced the completion of its licensing program. [more..]

Espoo, Finland - Nokia on Friday announced the launch of a mobile phone photo printing service in Europe, allowing customers to order high-quality prints directly from their phones and have them delivered to themselves or friends. [more..]

London - Major record label EMI Music said on Friday that it has partnered with Snocap to allow for the sale of DRM-free MP3 tracks from EMI artists through artist websites, social networking pages and fan blogs. [more..]

Los Angeles - Commercial satellite operator Intelsat has announced a partnership with the Live Earth global warming awareness concert series, and will broadcast the concerts in New York, London, Johannesburg, Rio de Janeiro, Shanghai, Tokyo, Sydney and Hamburg in both standard and high-definition. [more..]

San Francisco - Pownce, a social network and file-sharing application start-up created by Digg founder Kevin Rose, this week announced the launch of a private beta test of its service, Wired News reported. [more..]

Mountain View, Calif. - meebo, a website for users of instant messaging platforms, said this week that 20 music industry partners have launched rooms on its site where users can chat and view media live with IM buddies. [more..]

New York - Game publisher Take-Two Interactive's 2K label said this week that it plans to publish "Civilization Revolution," the first game in the franchise from developer Sid Meieir developed for next-generation consoles, in the spring of 2008. [more..]

Redwood City, Calif. - Video game publisher Eidos this week shipped its "Traxxpad: Portable Studio" title for the Sony PSP handheld to retailers. [more..]

Washington - The Associated Press said this week that 85 more radio and 15 new television stations have added its Online Video Network and MSN player to their websites. [more..]