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This past Thursday I attended an informal "summit" hosted by Craig Kallman, Atlantic Records' CEO and Chairman, to learn more about the label's plans to start releasing high-resolution music. Kallman is passionate about improving the sound of music, and I was impressed by his candor about the industry's appalling track record and declining sound quality standards.

I think the widespread overuse of dynamic range compression is far more musically destructive than the low sampling rates used in formats like MP3. I fear that if the new formats are just higher-resolution versions of the dynamically compressed MP3 … Read more

Scuderi Group is one of a handful of companies seeking to break with the traditional design of the internal combustion engine in the name of fuel efficiency.

The company today announced results from a simulation using its namesake engine with a Nissan Sentra sedan that showed a 36 percent reduction in fuel consumption, the equivalent of a 54 percent improvement in miles per gallon. That same level of performance jump can be achieved with other cars, according to president Sal Scuderi.

The efficiency test, done in conjunction with applied research lab Southwest Research Institute, is a step in convincing major … Read more

By the end of this year, people will be able to buy an LED light bulb controllable from an Android device, part of Google's move into home automation.

At the Google I/O conference today, Google demonstrated how Android devices, including tablets and smartphones, can act as a hub for controlling multiple devices in the home, including lighting, appliances, thermostats, and music.

Google concocted a lighting demo system with Lighting Sciences Group, which developed an LED bulb that can talk to Android. It uses a new mesh network wireless protocol rather than Wi-Fi, ZigBee, or the other proprietary home … Read more

NEW YORK--Lawyers representing the four largest music labels tried to convey a message in court here today: Lime Wire founder Mark Gorton was so determined to help people pirate songs that he disregarded copyright law, artists' rights, and even the Supreme Court.

And eventually, Gorton conceded.

The best that he could offer for an excuse was that he misread the law. "I was wrong," Gorton told the court. "I didn't think our behavior was inducing [copyright infringement]. I understand that a court has found otherwise."

In numerous exchanges with Glenn Pomerantz, the labels' lead attorney, … Read more

NEW YORK--Free music is here to stay and punishing Lime Wire founder Mark Gorton for that fact is unjust and won't change a thing, Gorton's lawyers said in court today.

A trial to determine the amount of damages Gorton must pay the top four record companies for infringing their copyrights got under way in a Manhattan federal courtroom. Gorton has a possible $1 billion judgment hanging over his head after the major music labels accused him in a 2006 copyright suit of encouraging music fans to use his company's LimeWire software to illegally swap music files.

Lime … Read more

Games for mobile devices now account for almost half of all the game downloads, according to an NPD Group report released today.

Even most of the gamers who use a dedicated console to play online are spending the largest chunk of their change on games for mobile devices. The rest of their game funds are going toward titles downloaded for PCs, full consoles, portable consoles, and other systems.

"Mobile gaming represents one of the fastest growing segments of the digital games market, and potential for future growth remains strong as more consumers are using smartphones for games of all types, including the increasingly popular mobile game apps," NPD analyst Anita Frazier said in a statement.

The surge in spending on games for mobile devices is taking a toll on the amount of money spent on physical games, though not dramatically, reported NPD. Among those gamers who bought a mobile game over the past three months, 60 percent said they're spending the same amount of money on console and portable games, but 40 percent said they're spending less on physical games.

Among gamers asked to decide between buying a physical game and a digital game (assuming the price and other factors were the same), 75 percent said… Read more

Apple has reached an agreement with Warner Music Group to offer the record label's tracks on iTunes' upcoming cloud-music service, music industry sources said.

In the race to the cloud, Apple is apparently stepping on the gas. All Things Digital reported Thursday that Apple has signed two of the top four record companies and wrote that Apple content chief Eddy Cue was due to be in New York on Friday to try and finalize agreements with the two still unsigned labels.

It's unclear whether Warner was one of the two record companies that had previously licensed Apple or … Read more

Lighting manufacturer Lighting Science Group announced yesterday it will begin selling low-cost LED lightbulbs on Amazon.com beginning today.

The company's A19 omnidirectional 8.5-watt bulb (40-watt equivalent) will sell for $21.98, and is only the first in a line of low-budget LED bulbs planned for sale at the online superstore, according to Lighting Science Group.

The company says its bulbs will last up to 23 years, and are 76 percent more efficient than a standard incandescent bulb.

"Lighting accounts for more than 18 percent of the average U.S. household's energy bill--that's because incandescent … Read more

Here's some more data that shows Web TV still has a long way to go before unseating DVD and Blu-ray discs in the home.

In a survey of consumers in March by The NPD Group, the research firm found people "are still using DVDs and Blu-ray discs to watch movies more than all digital-video options combined." In the past three months, 77 percent of consumers reported watching a movie on a DVD or BD, which is unchanged from last year.

The survey of the more than 9,600 people found that 78 percent of home-video budgets were … Read more