Apple Computer released its newest version of the popular iTunes digital music management software, which now includes the ability to download alternative audio shows called podcasts.
Apple said version 4.9 of iTunes will allow users to subscribe to over 3,000 free podcasts and have each new episode automatically delivered over the internet to their computer and iPod.
Podcasts have surged in popularity since late in 2004, and will work on any digital MP3 player. The phenomenon allows users to create and upload their own audio programs on the web, which then can be downloaded to multimedia players at a later date.
Steve Jobs last month said the company would soon support podcasts.
Separately, Apple said it would combine its iPod and iPod photo lines, creating a single line of high-capacity music players that all feature color displays, with the ability to view photos on the screen.
- - -
Chip off the console: IBM has agreed to license the Cell processor -- set to drive Sony PlayStations and Toshiba TVs -- to medical and military equipment maker Mercury Computer, in the first deal for the chip beyond consumer electronics.
Mercury said it plans to use Cell as the core technology to power a range of "embedded" computers it designs for magnetic resonance image scanners in medicine and for missile radar and sonar systems.
IBM sees Cell driving devices in a range of industries, including medical, aerospace and automotive technologies.
Cell is expected to offer breakthrough graphics processing improvements across the growing array of electronics that require heavy image processing. Mercury is looking for Cell chips to accelerate the graphics-handling and image-rendering of devices designed for use by doctors, pilots and others who require picture-perfect electronic displays to do their jobs.
- - -
Raise curtains: Walt Disney and Dolby Laboratories said they will install 100 digital movie systems in theaters this fall, marking the third recent unveiling of plans for digital cinema that could revolutionize the film industry.
Disney and Dolby plan to install the systems in the top 25 U.S. cities at their own expense.
Some film directors like George Lucas and James Cameron think the new 3-D technology, which relies on digital filmmaking and projection, may spark new interest in movies, helping an industry worried over significantly lower ticket sales this year.
Digital projectors alone cost more than $100,000 per movie screen, and computer networks and equipment to operate them add to that expense. The question of who will pay for installations has delayed a roll-out. Studios have argued that theater owners should pay, and theater owners want the opposite.
- - -
Buying frenzy: Sun Microsystems said it agreed to buy SeeBeyond Technology, which makes software that stitches together disparate computer systems, for $387 million in cash.
Sun, which is trying to expand beyond the commoditized, workhorse machines it sells to run big corporate computer systems, said that the acquisition would give it a strong position in the $5 billion business integration market.
Under the agreement, Sun said it will pay $4.25 a share, representing a nearly 30 percent premium to SeeBeyond's closing stock price of $3.28 on Nasdaq.
The deal follows Sun's recently announced plans to acquire storage equipment maker Storage Technology for $4.1 billion. That deal boosts Sun presence in the fast-growing market for data storage.
- - -
Compiled by David Cohn. AP and Reuters contributed to this report.
