Washington - XM Satellite Radio nasd announced on Friday that it has been informed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that the agency is closing its inquiry into XM's marketing and customer service practices without taking any action. [more..]

New York - Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes has announced that the company plans to experiment with pricing and layouts in its stores, including adding book sales and kiosks for downloading entertainment onto portable media devices, Reuters reported. [more..]

London - Apple's 8GB iPhone went on sale in the U.K. and Germany on Friday, sporting price tags of about $563 (GBP) at O2 and Carphone Warehouse in the U.K. and $583 (euros) at T-Mobile stores in Germany. [more..]

Los Angeles - Looking to offer a relatively cheap alternative in China, the world's largest pirate DVD market, Hollywood movie studios Warner Bros. and Viacom's Paramount and DreamWorks have partnered to sell new DVDs for $2.95 there as soon as two months after a film's U.S. premiere, Variety reported. [more..]

Reston, Va. - Unable to agree on the final terms of a deal, wireless giant Sprint Nextel said on Friday that it has scrapped its plan to jointly build its nationwide high-speed WiMax network with telecommunications firm Clearwire. [more..]

New York - Video game publisher Take-Two Interactive nasd announced on Friday the settlement of all consumer class action lawsuits in the U.S. related to the "Hot Coffee" online download that could unlock sexually explicit content in its "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" game. [more..]

San Francisco - OpenTV, a provider of interactive TV software and services, announced on Friday that it has settled its lawsuit against former competitor Liberate Technologies, with Liberate admitting that it infringed two OpenTV patents. [more..]

San Francisco - Demonoid, a popular site that offered links to media downloads on the BitTorrent peer-to-peer file-sharing network, has been taken offline, with its operators citing legal threats from the Canadian Record Industry Association (CRIA), Wired reported. [more..]

San Francisco - Dolby Laboratories, a developer of audio and surround sound technology for cinema, broadcast, home audio systems and consumer electronics, announced on Friday that it will acquire Sweden-based Coding Technologies, a developer of audio compression technologies, for about $250 million. [more..]

Toronto - John Malone's Liberty Media said on Friday that it will acquire Toronto-based FUN Technologies, a provider of online casual and fantasy sports games and sports information, in a deal valued at about $94 million. [more..]

New York - Takkle, an online social network focused on high school sports, has raised around $7 million in new financing, PEHub.com reported, citing a regulatory filing. [more..]

Tom Rogers, President and CEO, TiVo, gave the audience a glimpse into Tivo 2.0 in his morning keynote, blogs Jay Baage.
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It hasn’t received much attention in the media over the last week so you probably haven’t noticed, but the iPhone goes on sale in the UK today, blogs Robin Goad. [more..]

TV is not dead, but finding a story or an idea that is so appealing that holds up on ALL platforms is the holy grail now, blogs Jay Baage.
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New York - IAC/InterActiveCorp. on Friday announced the launch of 23/6, a news satire website joint venture with the Huffington Post that will cover politics and people in the news, The Wall Street Journal reported. [more..]

Los Angeles - News Corp.'s MySpace on Friday announced that it will debut the first 8-minute episode of its 36-episode original Internet series, "Quarterlife," on Sunday. [more..]

Mountain View, Calif. - Google's YouTube has introduced a new localized site in Germany, where the video-sharing site already counts some 6.5 million users, Variety reported. [more..]

Sunnyvale, Calif. - Yahoo said on Friday that the New York Daily News, the fifth largest newspaper in the U.S., has become the largest newspaper to join its Newspaper Consortium. [more..]

San Francisco - Music-focused social network imeem said on Friday that it has partnered with Canada's Nettwerk Music Group, a privately owned record label and artist management company. [more..]