Science and Technology

Give Apple credit for taking the risk and proving the viability of a relatively user-friendly digital music store. Now will the world’s biggest butts squish Apple? Microsoft Corp., Yahoo Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and AOL Time Warner Inc.’s America Online unit are among the companies expected to launch services to compete …

We mentioned last week that Wal-Mart has requested that its top 100 suppliers start using wireless inventory tracking equipment by 2005. Coincidentally, Microsoft addressed the same issue today: Microsoft Corp. said on Tuesday that it would develop software and services that will help retailers, manufacturers and distributors use radio tags …

Wal-Mart has lowered DVD rental service prices: The Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer said it would offer a $15.54 monthly subscription rate for the service for customers who only want to have two DVDs rented at one time. When the company started the service in October, it had a subscription fee of …

I freely admit to having a hard time following this one: This high-technology soap opera is complex, but here is a simplified version of events so far: SCO, which bought the licensing rights to the Unix operating system and its source code in 1995, sued I.B.M. in March, contending that …

First AOL and Microsoft, now TiVo and Gemstar-TV Guide International are dismissing litigation and making nice: The two companies announced Monday that they have dismissed a lawsuit Gemstar filed against TiVo in early 2000, which alleged that TiVo’s digital video recorder service infringed on Gemstar’s patent for electronic programming guide …

New interactive digital cable software from Redmond: Microsoft Corp. presented new software Monday to help cable television companies develop digital TV programming and services. The software, called Microsoft TV Foundation Edition, is a new technological platform designed to run on the digital cable boxes that sit atop many television sets. …

Just as the FCC ruling to loosen media ownership rules has caught the public’s attention, the studios are being sued for price fixing by Intertainer: The one thing about the Intertainer service on which everyone can agree is that it was ahead of its time. Founded in 1996 to deliver …

Math genius claims to invent new piracy-protection technology: When Internet users started ripping off songs from the online Museum of Musical Instruments, they angered the wrong guy: millionaire mathematician Hank Risan. Risan’s unorthodox museum is a Web site devoted to guitars and their role in music history, reflecting his personal …

Discussion #3,1004 about the state of the music biz, this one by Amy Harmon of the NY Times: The industry is pursuing lawsuits against music pirates but is also offering new ways to legally listen to and buy music online through deals like a recent alliance with Apple Computer. That …

VERLYN KLINKENBORG of the NY Times hopes iTunes can remain independent from the machinations of the major labels: This new innovation is almost certainly going to set off a surge of new buying. Some of us will be filling in the CD-size gaps in our collections, but a lot of …