by Darren Murph,
We were wondering (seriously, it has been on our conscience at night) which carrier would be the first to go completely DRM-free in respect to its music catalog, and now Vodafone has stepped in to claim said throne. This week, the operator has inked deals with Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and EMI Music to bring tunes to handsets and PCs sans any nasty DRM, and for those who already downloaded DRM-laced files in the past, they'll be able to upgrade to DRM-free without a charge so long as they do it soon. And to think -- something like this would've been stopped cold at the drawing board by record label execs just a few years back. Desperate times call for desperate measures, right?

engadget.com

by Tim Stevens,
Ever wonder why retail boxes for videogame consoles have windows in them? It's so that retailers can scan the serial numbers when you buy them and then do so again should you decide to make a return, in theory preventing you from pulling a switcheroo. They're also supposed to take a peek inside and make sure that you're not trying to return a plastic shell and two turquoise weights, or a hunk of wood with a bar code sticker slapped on the back. Joystiq has acquired photos of what happens when they don't, submitted by a worker at a Sony distribution center, also showing an empty PS2 case full of towels and another with a flip-top cover still installed that (with a boot disc) enabled its former owner to circumvent that console's lackluster copy protection. All were returned by customers to retailers who then passed them right on to Sony, asking for credit. Surely the above craftsmanship is worth something, right?

engadget.com

by Darren Murph,
Sure, we Americans are enamored by flashy designs, but that doesn't mean we don't appreciate performance. For whatever reason, consumers in the UK, Japan and the Principality of Sealand (among other locales) can order up Sony's oh-so-cute VAIO P with a 1.6GHz Atom Z530 processor, while we Americans can't get anything other than the stock 1.3GHz chip. So, what gives Sony? Supply chain problems? Too much haterade? None of the above?

[Thanks, James]

engadget.com

by Nilay Patel,
We don't have a lot to go on, but a machine called the VAIO GS just popped up in the FCC database, along with the usual nasty gub'ment photos. Doing some extremely rough back-of-the-napkin calculations, it looks like it's Sony's answer to the Dell Mini 12 -- 11 inches wide with a 12ish-inch 4:3 screen. We're also seeing an optional built-in optical drive, WiFi, Bluetooth, three USB ports, a PC Card slot (that's what it's marked -- let's hope it's really ExpressCard), a Memory Stick slot, Ethernet and modem ports, and VGA out. We're guessing the optical drive explains the netbook-ish hinge battery placement, but nothing explains how ugly this thing is -- let's hope the downgrade in style from the VAIO P comes with a corresponding downgrade in price. A few more shots after the break.

engadget.com