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How to Download MP3s From Streaming Music Sites

Your favorite music sites let you listen to songs all day for free, but only as a stream -- if you want to load one of those songs onto your iPod and take it with you, you'll have to go buy it. But your browser stores streamed MP3s temporarily on your hard drive. Learn where to look and save them for later with our guide.

Make Your Own Custom YouTube-Video Player

Posting videos on your website? Go beyond the basic embed code with the first installment of Webmonkey's YouTube tutorial. We'll show you the ins and outs of YouTube's Player API, including how to embed and resize the player, skin it to your liking, and control the video playback with your own code.

FBI: Uploader Confessed to Pre-releasing Guns N' Roses Tracks

A Los Angeles-area man arrested Wednesday on charges he uploaded nine pre-released recordings of Gun N' Roses tunes has allegedly confessed to the crime, which carries up to three years in prison. Kevin Cogill, aka Skwerl, released the songs to his music-review blog, antiquiet.com, according to court records, the FBI said in court records.

Google, EFF Applaud Veoh DMCA Ruling

The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Google are happy about a federal judge's decision to dismiss a lawsuit accusing upstart video-sharing site Veoh of copyright infringement. The court, in tossing the lawsuit, says Veoh complied with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and promptly removed infringing material upon request.

UK Hacker Loses Extradition Appeal Yet Again

While the US gov't clearly overplayed its claims that Gary McKinnon was the "world's biggest hacker" after having him arrested for breaking into US military computers, that doesn't mean that McKinnon hasn't overreacted back in response. The US offered him a plea bargain deal that seemed fairly reasonable, given what he did -- and he flipped out about it. Now he's lost his latest appeal against extradition, and it looks like he may finally get sent to the US in the next few weeks to stand trial, for breaking into US military computers, supposedly while high and looking for info on alien encounters.

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'Babylon A.D.': Add Another Mangled Movie to the List

Arty indie directors and Hollywood execs sometimes don't mix so well. These big-budget clunkers didn't pan out, onscreen or in the studio boardroom.

Lonely Throne of 'Elevation' Seats Only 1 at Burning Man

A five-story art piece will give a single lucky burner a commanding view of the playa.

5 Ways Amazon Can Improve the Kindle 2.0

Amazon is widely rumored to be updating its popular but flawed e-book reader, the Kindle. Here's a list of ways the company can make the Kindle 2.0 suck less.

Newly unearthed Apple patent raises hopes for fabled iTablet

Sure to fan the flames for those praying for a multi-touch Mac tablet, a recent patent filing by Apple describes how the UI for such a device would work.

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Lexmark Trying To Help Users Print Less When They Print The Web

Last year, HP announced a special button that could be put on blogs to let users more easily print blog posts, without all the extraneous stuff on the website. At the time, we didn't see the value at all, but plenty of folks responded in the comments that it seemed like a good idea. It wasn't long before the folks at HP contacted us about trying the button out ourselves, so we put it on the page. It gets some use, though not an overwhelming amount. It appears that some people do actually print stuff out -- and they appreciate the simpler version.

Now, it appears that HP printer rival Lexmark is taking that idea much further by making it easier for users to eliminate a bunch of the junk on websites before printing them out -- so you only print out the stuff you really want. Unlike the HP initiative, this doesn't require the companies hosting the content to do anything, it takes care of it on the client side. Given the insane costs of ink, it's no surprise that printer companies have been a bit slow to adopt solutions that get people to use less ink -- but it's good to see them finally starting to recognize that it's probably for the best. Giving your customers reasons to like you, rather than hate you, tends to be a good long-term business strategy.

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PDA Inventor Jonah Klausner Is At It Again.....

It's amazing how much power a single patent owner can wield in the telecom industry. Just consider Klausner Technologies. The company, which is headed by PDA and electronic organizer inventor Judah Klausner, is currently suing Verizon Wireless, Google, LG and others claiming that their visual voicemail feature infringes on Klausner's patents.

Microsoft: Performance integral to Windows 7, IE8

Fixing performance issues in Microsoft's Windows desktop OS (operating system) and Internet Explorer browser are key development goals for the next versions of those products, Microsoft has revealed in company blogs.

Tip to Studios: Fire the Lawyers and Embrace the Web

Gay porn producer Titan Media's copyright infringement lawsuit against Veoh illustrates old-media's constant urge to fight the web. Our advice? Take what you can and get over it.

Gateway DX4710-UB002A

Gateway's DX4710 multimedia system is a good choice for anyone looking to move into multimedia.

Monster Beats by Dr. Dre headphones

The unique and stylish Monster Beats by Dr. Dre headphones offer solid audio, useful accessories, and a look that's anything but copycat. For fashion-forward folks with cash to spare, they're a great option.

Sony's S-, E-, and B-Series Walkmans: Pretty!

"Remember those new Walkmans we saw recently? Well the folks at Sony have decided to get all fancy and official with them. The electronics-maker is introducing S-, E-, and B-Series PMPs, all featuring MP3 and WMA playback, drag-and-drop file management, and a variety of storage capacities. The 4GB NWZ-S736F and 8GB NWZ-S738F sport Sony's "Open Platform" which allows AAC, Linear PCM, and other codec support, 40 hours of battery life, in-flight noise cancellation, and SensMe -- which creates song shuffles based on user listening habits...The players will be available come September, ranging in price from around $45 to $180."

I love that brushed metal design - it looks better than matte metal, but doesn't have the fingerprint magnetism of glossy metal or plastic. The user interface looks surprisingly good for a Sony product, and if the 40 hour battery life is to be believed, that's quite impressive.

Toshiba XD-E500

Just when I thought that I would probably never review a DVD player gain, Toshiba introduced their new XD-E500 1080p up conversion DVD player. Toshiba, who was one of the co-inventor’s DVD technology, and also the creator of the now defunct high-definition HD DVD optical disc, is coming back to the DVD marketplace with a new upconverting DVD player. Why? While still licking its wounds from the loss of its high-definition optical disc format, Toshiba has unveiled a new video processing technology called ‘XDE,’ which stands for ‘Extended Detail.’ According to Toshiba, XDE offers enhanced picture performance from standard definition DVDs. Toshiba has also realized the folks are not quite ready to give up their DVD players just yet in favor of Blu-ray players either, and are still quite fond of their DVDs. So, the idea of XDE was born in hopes of breathing renewed life into the DVD format. The new model XD-E500, which is housed in a sleek and very slender black cabinet, is priced at $149.95 retail. I expect it to be $99 by the Holidays.

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It's official: Comcast starts 250GB bandwidth caps October 1

Comcast has finally announced that it will introduce 250GB per month bandwidth caps for all residential customers this fall. It insists that this is the same policy it always had, but with clearer limits.

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Phantom Finally Releases A Product... And It Sucks

Remember the Phantom? Depending on your perspective, this mysterious gaming console, first announced in 2003, was either a too ambitious product that could never get off the ground (living up to its "phantom" name in that it was almost never actually seen) or a big scam to part investors with money. Over the years, the company made many announcements, almost none of which it lived up to. The company was even sued by its own investment bank for fraud, and the company's founder was charged as part of a stock scam. At one point, people were shocked when the company hired a real gaming industry veteran as CEO, but once he left pretty much everyone thought the company was dead.

But... not so fast. A few years back it announced that it was ditching the gaming console concept, but was still going to come out with a neat keyboard that could be used for gaming. Of course, it promised that keyboard would be out years ago, and in true Phantom fashion, many delays followed. To be honest, I had thought the company had finally gone completely out of business, but Wired is reporting that it really honestly has a keyboard in production -- and it completely sucks. As Wired notes, it certainly wasn't worth the long wait. The only redeeming factor that Wired can find in the keyboard is the chance to own a piece of vaporware history. Just don't expect to actually use it, because you'll be wishing you didn't.

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Opinion: Microsoft starts virtualization hype blitz

Besides Hyper-V and Virtual Machine Manager 2008, Microsoft will also be talking about a desktop and application virtualization suite nicknamed App-V.

Dell misses Wall St Target, sees Spending Cutbacks

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Dell Inc posted a disappointing drop in quarterly earnings and said spending cutbacks on information technology have spread from the United States to Western Europe and Asia, sending its shares down more than 10 percen...

Panasonic unveils new Plasma Displays at IFA 2008

The IFA 2008 show is opening officially tomorrow in Berlin. Panasonic is exhibiting five new prototype plasma display panels (PDPs) with new technologies. The Panasonic Plasma prototypes include a 42-inch panel with double efficiency technology that hal...

Teensy Weensy Amp Brings Hi-Fi to the Desktop and Beyond

Desktop speakers are not usually known for being particularly high quality. That's because you're not powering them properly. NuForce's Icon Desktop Amp will juice up your desktop audio, be it a 2.1 sound system or a set of high-end headphones.

Bank Changes Man's Password After They Realize It Insults Them

Usually, when you're dealing with a bank, they encrypt your passwords so that no one else can read them. However, apparently that isn't always the case -- and this allowed an employee at Lloyds TSB to change the password of one member from "Lloyds is pants" to "no it's not". The customer actually found the story to be amusing -- but it does seem slightly troubling that the bank, for whatever reason, was reviewing and changing a customer's password. They also forbade him from switching the password to "Barclays is better" and "censorship." Lloyds has apologized, and said the employee in question no longer works for the firm. It also explains why the guy was able to see the password in the first place by noting that on certain business accounts with multiple users, account reps can read the password. This seems pretty weak, though. If it's a business account with multiple users, why not let each user set up their own username and encrypted password? Also, it's still not explained why the guy was looking at users' passwords in the first place.

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Sony Walkman NWZ-S730 series (NWZ-S738, NWZ-S736) announced

Google introduces Android apps store

Google unveiled plans for the Android Market, where developers can distribute content for Android phones.

Apple whips rivals in consumer purchase plans

American consumers are more likely to buy a Mac over the next 90 days than a PC from Apple rivals Dell or HP, according to data from ChangeWave Research.

IT workers hit hardest by offshore outsourcing, survey finds

Offshore outsourcing displaces IT workers at about twice the rate as workers in other occupations, according to a new survey. Programmers and developers who have little customer interaction, are at the highest risk.

Best Western forced to play defense on data breach disclosure

A dispute between Best Western and a Scottish newspaper over the scope of a data breach highlights the need for companies to get out in front on disclosures of data breaches.

'West Wing' creator may be writing movie about Facebook

A Facebook profile that's said to be built for screenwriter Aaron Sorkin says the West Wing creator plans to write a movie about the invention of the Facebook social network.

ROM Updates for Tilt and XV6800

"The new ROM for the XV6800, Verizon's version of the HTC Titan, doesn't feature any surprises, but will hook your device up with the usual array of enhancements, including threaded SMS, improved battery life, and more. Sadly, Verizon has kept the GPS functionality locked down so anyone hoping to make use of VZNavigator, or any other 3rd party nav apps will find themselves SOL. Honestly, why Verizon? Why?"

Both the Tilt and the XV6800 recently received ROM update goodness. No GPS for the XV6800 though - VZW simply hasn't figured out a good way to make money off of opening it up, most likely.

Gallery: Bell Labs' Greatest Hits

: Photo: Bell Labs/Alcatel-Lucent

Bell Labs' decision to abandon basic physics research marks the end of a brilliant chapter for the iconic institution. Many of the Labs' most famous discoveries, such as the transistor and the laser, originated in fundamental physics and have gone on to transform computing and technology.

They also brought Bell Labs' international glory, including six Nobel Prizes in Physics, starting in 1937 when researcher Clinton Davisson shared the Nobel for demonstrating the wave nature of matter.

The lab will now focus on areas such as networking, high-speed electronics, wireless, nanotechnology and software -- fields that are likely to offer a more immediate payback for parent company Alcatel-Lucent.

As we say goodbye to one of the last bastions of basic research within the corporate world, we celebrate Bell Labs' greatest achievements in physics.

Left: Bell Labs' U.S. headquarters in Murray Hill, New Jersey has been the site of many innovations and scientific breakthroughs, and that location continues to remain strong, says Alcatel-Lucent. But the company's Holmdel, New Jersey, campus, the site of basic physics research, has been sold. Holmdel's technological contributions include pioneering work on Telstar, the first communications satellite, and Steven Chu's Nobel Prize-winning research into methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light.

In 1927 Clinton Davisson (shown) and Lester Germer, two researchers at Bell Labs, demonstrated the wave nature of matter by firing slow-moving electrons at a crystalline nickel target. The experiment completed the proof of the hypothesis that all matter and energy has both wave-like and particle-like properties. The findings from Davisson's experiment became part of the foundation for much of solid-state electronics. Ten years later, Davisson shared the Nobel Prize for his research in electronic interference.

The transistor was developed in 1947 as a replacement for bulky vacuum tubes and mechanical relays. The invention revolutionized the world of electronics and became the basic building block upon which all modern computer technology rests. In 1956, Bell Labs scientists William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for the transistor.

Shockley also founded Shockley Semiconductor in Mountain View, California -- one of the first high-tech companies in what would later become known as Silicon Valley.

Bell Labs scientist Philip Anderson shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1977 for developing an improved understanding of the electronic structure of glass and magnetic materials. His work opened the doors for the development of electronic switching and memory devices in computers. In 2006, based on a study carried out by José Soler, a statistical physicist at the University of Madrid, Anderson was called the most creative physicist in the world. Anderson retired from Bell Labs in 1984 is now a professor at Princeton University.

According to the Big Bang theory, the early universe was very hot; as it expanded, the gas within it cooled. The theory predicts that the universe should be filled with radiation -- the remnants of that primordial heat. But it took Bell Labs researchers to prove it. In 1965, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, working at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey, discovered this "cosmic microwave background radiation." The radiation was acting as a source of excess noise in a radio receiver they were building. Penzias and Wilson shared the 1978 Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery.

This photo shows the Horn antenna on which Penzias and Wilson discovered the cosmic microwave background radiation.

The idea of using lasers to trap and cool molecules began as a lunch conversation at the Holmdel, New Jersey, campus of Bell Labs. Steven Chu, one of the researchers who later won the Nobel in Physics, had joined Bell Labs in 1978. "I was one of roughly two dozen brash, young scientists that were hired within a two-year period. We felt like the 'Chosen Ones,' with no obligation to do anything except the research we loved best. The joy and excitement of doing science permeated the halls," Chu says in his biography on the Nobel Prize site. Chu is now the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory at University of California in Berkeley.

Left: A sample of cooled trapped sodium atoms.

In 1998, Bell Labs researchers Horst Stormer, Robert Laughlin (now at Stanford University) and Daniel Tsui (now at Princeton University) bagged the Nobel in Physics for their discovery and explanation of the fractional quantum Hall effect. The trio found that electrons acting together in strong magnetic fields can form new types of particles, called quasiparticles, that have charges that are mere fractions of the charge carried by a single electron.

This image shows electrons that have been scattered and scanned, showing interference patterns created by quasiparticles.

Hans Reiser Faces the Music Friday

Linux guru Hans Reiser is expected to be sentenced Friday for killing his wife, Nina Reiser, two years ago. The developer of the ReiserFS file system claimed his wife abandoned the divorcing couple's two young children after he accused her of bilking his Oakland, California, software company. But months after his conviction, he led authorities to her unmarked grave site in the Oakland hills in exchange for a 15-to-life term instead of a 25-to-life term.

McCain, Obama Agree to Overlook Transportation

Neither candidate considers transportation a big issue, which is a mistake because it effects so many issues at the top of their agendas.

Yahoo's Enhancements to JavaScript Push the Envelope, Some Say Too Far

Long at the forefront of cutting-edge user interfaces, Yahoo has offered a peek at the next version of its popular YUI JavaScript library for building interactive webpages. One big drawback: Many web apps will need to be rewritten to take advantage of Yahoo's changes.

Apple confirms iPhone security bug, promises patch

Apple plans to patch a flaw in the iPhone's password-protected locking feature next month in a software update.

Bank customer data sold on eBay

A PC containing personal data of a million bank customers is sold on a net auction site for £35, according to the Daily Mail.

Samsung X360 at IFA 2008 revealed

Samsung unveiled the ultra-light notebook Samsung X360 at the IFA 2008 in Berlin. The Samsung X360 features a 13.3 inch LED backlit display and can be had with a 120GB SSD or 120GB HDD. The X360 only weighs 1.27kg and features a slick Protect-o-Edge ...

New Apple iPods, MacBooks, and iMacs still to Come this Fall

We already reported about new iPod nano rumors and other rumors of new products that Apple is supposedly still introducing this year in time for the Holiday shopping season. AppleInsider compiled a roadmap of rumored Apple announcements expected in the ...