AP - A federal jury on Friday ordered a Boston University graduate student who admitted illegally downloading and sharing music online to pay $675,000 to four record labels.

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Techcrunch got a hold of a letter sent by the FCC to Apple seeking more information on the rejection of Google’s Google Voice app, and removal of third party Google Voice apps already in the iTunes App Store.

Specifically, the Federal Communications Commission wants to know why Apple rejected the apps, and which apps exactly were rejected, whether Apple alone made the decision or whether AT&T played any part, what role — if any — AT&T plays in the App Store approval process, what makes Google Voice any different than VoIP apps Apple has already approved, what other apps have been rejected and why, whether or not there’s a list of verboten apps and how that list is made available to developers and consumers, and other timing and statistical information concerning the approval process and rejections.

Basically, it reads as a wish list of every question every frustrated developer, consumer, and — yes — even blogger has ever wanted Apple to simply, plainly, and consistently answer. There is, however, a proviso for Apple to request confidentiality, which given Apple’s penchant for secrecy, likely means we may never see those answers.

Similar letters were sent to Google and AT&T.

Opinions always vary about when and how much government should intrude into business. Some will think never, some will hope always, and we like to think there’s a balance in between. App Store rejections currently annoy developers and the more tech-savvy consumers who read blogs and technology columns. Unfortunately, until it breaks the confidence of the average consumer and suffers immediate, painful consequence, Apple likely thinks most users aren’t even aware of the issue and it can take its time and follow it’s own agenda.

If nothing else, the FCC has just thrown a monkey wrench into that strategy.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

FCC Investigating Google Voice Rejection from Apple’s iTunes App Store, AT&T’s Involvement

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I got a few minutes of hands-on time with Microsoft's forthcoming Zune HD at a Microsoft event on Thursday, and I came away thinking that Microsoft might finally have a contender.

Of course, it inherits all the benefits of the current Zune--a more visually interesting (if not always more ...

Originally posted at Digital Noise: Music and Tech

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Record Companies, RIAA Prevail in Copyright Trial The BLT: Blog of Legal Times Later, during his closing argument, Nesson said Tenenbaum “didn't have the option of getting an MP3 song in a sleek and easy way” as late as August 2004, ... and more »

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AP - A federal jury on Friday ordered a Boston University graduate student who admitted illegally downloading and sharing music online to pay $675,000 to four record labels.

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Filed under: Peripherals, Switchers, Mac 101

More Mac 101, tips and tricks for new Mac users.

While this tip may be old news to tech-savvy folk, I think it might help a lot of recent Mac switchers who want to leverage their existing investment in their Windows-compatible peripherals.

I have a friend who has been on Windows forever. He finally had his fill, and after some incessant nagging on my part, he made the switch. What I expected to happen, did happen -- he's thrilled being on a Mac. He's yet to see a crash, and as most of us know, it generally 'just works.'

He did have one problem though. He had a Dell USB printer sitting on his desk. When he plugged it into his MacBook it wasn't recognized, and there was a scrolling list of lots of printers, but nothing from Dell.

A quick web search revealed the printer was actually a rebranded Samsung ML-1710. The Samsung driver page for this printer didn't show any Mac drivers. Searching a bit deeper on Google, we found that an unsupported Mac driver was hiding on the Australian Samsung website.

We downloaded and installed the driver, and what do you know? The printer came up, and printed just fine.

The reality is that there are a lot more printer brands than there are original equipment manufacturers, and it's pretty easy to find out who actually makes a particular printer. If it's a USB printer, chances are good you can find a driver and be quickly printing away. For a wide-ranging solution, the Gutenprint (formerly Gimp-Print) open source project provides drivers for hundreds of older or unsupported printers.

The moral: Don't give up on your PC printer if you feel like it still has life in it; a little bit of online research may turn up a way forward for your Mac. If you have similar happy endings, or unpleasant ones, let us know in the comments. Your fellow readers can learn from your experiences.

TUAWMac 101: Get a PC printer running on a Mac. There's a driver for that! originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 31 Jul 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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 Or, it's just our 30th episode, ready to release!

This week on the Zune Insider podcast, 1:44 Matt and I hit the Microsoft product fair! We pay a visit to the Zune booth, then hit up the Windows 7 tent and then check out top-secret stuff in Windows Phone. Matt ambushes his teammate Adam, then we head over to the Xbox booth to talk about two new games coming out this fall.

It was really, really hot - like crazy hot for Seattle - so we then headed back inside to "The Studio" and talk about trading Zunes, Matt's music picks for the week, and the meaning of his Zune Tag, skipdeez.

 Get this episode as a download in the Zune Marketplace software - here or listen now from the Zune Insider Podcast page at Zune.net.

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AP - Student who admitted downloading, sharing music ordered to pay $675,000 to record labels.

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Filed under: iPhone, Jailbreak/pwnage, App Review

After writing about the GV Mobile situation on TUAW the other day, a helpful TUAW reader sent me a Google Voice invite (thanks Ian M! You rock!). I set up my account, hopped over to a jailbroken 3.0 iPod touch and downloaded a copy of the software via Cydia. I then copied it off the touch via sftp, signed it with my developer credentials and installed it through iTunes on a non-jailbroken iPhone to see what I'd been missing.

GV Mobile offers a pretty nice feature set. You can use it to set your Google Voice preferences, such as your preferred phone, so that when calls come through the right phone rings. That's an awesome feature on-the-go. Yes, the same option is available at the Voice website, but I really like the simple interface GV Mobile offers to switch that number with just a couple of taps.

You can dial directly from the app out to other phones. You still use your AT&T minutes but you avoid having to navigate through the Google Voice command interface. When the call is over, you return to the application.

The SMS and voicemail features are also very nice, each offering a dedicated screen and easy to use interfaces. A lot of design thought went into the program and it shows, especially in these two options.

Unfortunately, since the application was ported for a jailbreak install, it would no longer remember my user credentials between sessions. Be aware this approach works fine for review but isn't meant for a day-to-day bypass of the App Store, unless your Google username and password are trivial to type over and over again.

Despite the excellent number setting, SMS, and Voicemail features, I felt that most of the application features really needed to be integrated at the OS level, which they presumably will be in Google Chrome or Android. Apple provides its own OS-level telephony system and using this app for outgoing calls really felt more like work than time savings. Yes, the outgoing International rates are superb on Google Voice and the connection quality far exceeds that of Fring's SIP-based services or Skype's iPhone app. That said, I think the application could have benefited from a greater focus on the SMS/voicemail features with the telephone portion being pushed back in prominence.

The program does exhibit a few minor quirks. For example, when I tap on the call history tab, I'd prefer that it gave me a button to load that history from Google Voice rather than do so automatically and trap me, especially when I meant to hit another tab.

All said, I really did enjoy using GV Mobile. I think it has good functionality and must have been a really good App Store offering, while it was there. If you do have a jailbroken iPhone system to test it on, it's certainly worth a spin. And if you find you use it, the application is donationware.

TUAWHands on (a little late) with GV Mobile for jailbroken phones originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 31 Jul 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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