Cupertino, Calif. - Apple CEO Steve Jobs fired a direct shot at the record industry on Tuesday, in the form of an open letter posted to the company's website that suggests that labels should abandon digital rights management (DRM) technology and release songs for sale in an unprotected format that can play on any device. [more..]

Bentonville, Ark. - Retail giant Wal-Mart on Tuesday announced the launch of a beta version of its new video download service, which initially will offer more than 3,000 movies and TV shows for purchase and download from its website. [more..]

Tokyo - Google's YouTube video-sharing service has agreed to post warnings on the Japanese version of its website that ask users not to upload copyrighted materials, Japanese media firms said Tuesday, Reuters reported. [more..]

Princeton, N.J. - The Princeton University Library announced on Tuesday that it will contribute about one million public domain books to Google's project to digitize literary works and make them searchable on the Web. [more..]

Tokyo - Nintendo's Wii video game console sold nearly three times as many units in Japan last month as did rival Sony's PlayStation 3 console, Reuters reported, citing data from Japanese game magazine publisher Enterbrain. [more..]

Alexandria, Va. - A federal court jury on Tuesday acquitted two former executives of AOL who were accused of lying to auditors and falsifying paperwork in an effort to help former AOL partner PurchasePro meet revenue targets in 2001. [more..]

Oslo, Norway - Fast Search & Transfer, a developer of search technologies, has announced the launch of a private-label contextual advertising service that will allow businesses to serve relevant ads on their own websites without using Google's services. [more..]

Amsterdam - RealNetworks, a provider of media delivery technology, announced on Tuesday that it acquired Sao Paulo, Brazil-based casual games site Atrativa at the end of 2006 for an undisclosed price. [more..]

San Francisco - HandHeld Entertainment, a maker of portable media players, said on Tuesday that it has acquired Putfile.com, a U.K.-based free digital media service featuring user-generated content, for about $7.1 million. [more..]

Boca Raton, Fla. - Hollywood Media Corp., a provider of news, information and ticketing for entertainment and media industries, has acquired the ticketing business of Showtix, a New York-based ticket agency for Broadway and off-Broadway performances. [more..]

London - Sony Ericsson on Tuesday introduced two new handsets in its Walkman music phone line, which to date has sold over 20 million units. The W880 Walkman phone, at 9.4mm, is the slimmest handset yet to be released by the company, and comes with a 1GB Memory Stick Micro and 2-megapixel camera. The W610 Walkman phone also features a 2-megapixel camera, along with a 512MB Memory Stick Micro, TrackID music recognition application, and the ability to record tracks off of FM radio. Sony Ericsson said the W880 is slated for release in the first quarter, while the W610 will ship in the second quarter of 2007. [more..]

Los Angeles - Helio, a wireless network venture between Earthlink and South Korea's SK Telecom, on Tuesday for the first time revealed subscriber figures, stating that it expects to pass 100,000 subscribers early in the second quarter of 2007. The company added that its average revenue per user (APRU) is over $100 per month, above industry averages. Los Angeles-based Helio also announced the launch of a new mobile music service, which will deliver $1.99 tracks from all four major labels over-the-air to mobile phones. The company will also soon launch a direct-to-PC download option, costing 99 cents per track. [more..]

Emeryville, Calif. - Catalyst Mobile announced that it partnered with Warner Music Japan to launch the Warner Music Group Rhino Mobile service, a Japanese mobile music portal for NTT DoCoMo subscribers. The Flash-based subscription service includes search, recommendation, preview and download features, and will be priced starting at 315 yen ($2.62) per month. [more..]

Minneapolis - Supervalu announced on Tuesday that it will roll out automated DVD rental kiosks with a number of retail partners, following a successful pilot in several of its 2,500 grocery store locations. The DVD rental kiosks, provided by partner Redbox Automated Retail, each hold about 500 DVDs, which are available to rent for $1 per night plus tax. The company said that retailers including Acme, Albertsons, bigg's, Farm Fresh, Hornbacher's, Jewel-Osco, Scott's Food & Pharmacy, Shaw's, Shop 'n Save and Shoppers Food & Pharmacy, in addition to hundreds of independent retailers, will add the rental kiosks. Redbox's kiosks have also been installed at a number of McDonald's locations. [more..]

Los Angeles - Internet TV distributor Brightcove has announced that Disney's Buena Vista Television will use its services to publish online promotional content for its TV shows. Initially, Buena Vista will use Massachusetts-based Brightcove's service to highlight shows like "Live with Regis and Kelly" and "Ebert & Roeper" with promotional clips on its website. [more..]

New York - Food website Epicurious.com on Tuesday debuted a new Web-only video series, "Inside the CIA," that will follow several student-chefs at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA). The fifteen-week-long video series will profile four CIA students, and also feature blogs and weekly video blogs created by the students. New York-based Epicurious.com, a unit of publisher Conde Nast, claims five million monthly unique visitors. [more..]

San Francisco - Online weather site Weather Underground on Tuesday announced the launch of a new streaming radio feature, which offers users access to live streaming of the National Weather Service's NOAA Weather Radio. The radio updates are a public service and include more than 940 transmitters covering all 50 states and U.S. territories. [more..]

San Francisco - Blinkx, a searchable index of Web video, announced on Tuesday an agreement to add thousands of hours of video content from Internet TV broadcaster Veoh Networks to its index. Veoh's content consists of user-generated videos, in addition to licensed clips from partners including TNT, Us Magazine and United Talent Agency. [more..]

Seattle - Casual games developer and distributor Big Fish Games on Tuesday announced plans to launch an advertising revenue-sharing program for its more than 400 online game developer partners. The company said it is implementing a new tracking technology that can track ad revenue generated by individual games, and will pay a royalty rate comparable to rates earned from downloadable game purchases. "Developers have historically only received a percentage-based revenue share for sales of game downloads, while game portals have traditionally kept 100 percent of the advertising revenues generated by their online versions of the games," said Big Fish CEO Paul Thelen. "We're excited to change this model for the better and offer developers a significant opportunity to share in this revenue stream." [more..]

Redwood City, Calif. - Electronic Arts on Tuesday shipped its "MVP 07 NCAA Baseball" title for PlayStation 2 to retailers. Developed by EA Canada, the first official college baseball game ever to be released features former Long Beach State pitcher Jered Weaver on the cover. The title also includes commentary from ESPN's Kyle Peterson, a former All-American pitcher at Stanford. Separately, EA said it has released its "NASCAR 07" mobile game for Sprint subscribers. [more..]

Los Angeles - Video game publisher Conspiracy Entertainment announced on Tuesday that it intends to develop titles for Nintendo's new Wii next-generation game console. Los Angeles-based Conspiracy also develops games for Nintendo's GameCube, DS and Game Boy Advance platforms, as well as for other platforms. The company hopes to release its first Wii titles in the first half of 2007. [more..]

Helsinki - Small Planet, a developer of mobile commerce and social networking services, said on Tuesday that it has been selected by RealNetworks' Mr. Goodliving unit to build and maintain the RealArcade mobile games store in Finland. [more..]