Japan Government Panel Mulling 'IPod Tax'

TOKYO - A Japanese government committee is mulling a copyright law revision to charge royalties on digital music players, but the opinion is so divided on the so-called "iPod tax" that it isn't likely to be imposed, officials said Wednesday.
 
Japan already levies an extra fee for copyrights on gadgets sold in stores such as mini disk recorders that consumers can use for home copying of music. That charge, generally 3 percent of the product's wholesale price, is included in

Apple reports record sales, fueled by iPods

Apple Computer said it reported its best quarter and the best year in the company's history.
 
The Cupertino company reported a revenue jump of 68 percent for its fiscal fourth quarter ended September 24, to $3.68 billion, compared with revenues of $2.35 billion in the year-ago quarter. Net income surged 384 percent to $430 million, or 50 cents a share, compared to net income of $106 million, or 13 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter.

Earnings per share

Yahoo Adds Podcast Search, Stiffens Competition With Apple

Yahoo Inc. on Monday launched in beta a podcast search service, heightening the web portal's competition with Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes music service.
 
Yahoo Podcasts enables consumers to search a directory of 10s of thousands of the audio programs.

In launching the service, Yahoo, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., adds capabilities that strengthen its position against Apple. The Cupertino, Calif., company lets consumers search and subscribe to podcasts through its iTunes music service, which is a downloadable desktop application.
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Apple, Samsung facing probe by Korean FTC?

South Korea’s anti-trust regulator reportedly said on Friday that questions about Apple Computer and Samsung engaging in unfair trading practices could be investigated by his organization.
 
Fair Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman Kang Chul-kyu reportedly stated on a radio show that he might investigate the companies after reports that Samsung sold its NAND flash memory chips to Apple Computer Inc. at below-market prices, according to a report by Yonhap News.

Samsung is said to have sold a significant amount of its

ATI posts $104M loss

Graphics cad and chip maker ATI Technologies, Inc. has reported its fourth quarter and fiscal year 2005 results. The company reported revenues of US$470 million, and a net loss of $170 million — results in line with guidance the company offered at the end of August, when it warned investors it was cutting its Q4 sales forecasts. ATI makes graphics hardware used across the board in     Macintosh designs.

The gloomy financial results are offset by ATI’s guidance for its Q1 2006 results, where

Apple Expected to Unveil Video-Enabled IPod

SAN FRANCISCO - A new video-enabled iPod is expected to be unveiled by Apple Computer Inc. during a press conference next week — though the maverick company is masterful at foiling such predictions.
 
Apple e-mailed invitations that included the words "One more thing..." printed over a background photo that appears to depict theater curtains. The company, which has pocketed a fortune from the sales of its iPod digital music player, said nothing else in the e-mail, other than to say