Sirius Satellite Radio will introduce a small portable device for its subscription radio service that can store 50 hours of music, news and programs from Sirius channels, a move to narrow the gap with its larger rival XM Satellite Radio.
One of the key features of Sirius' (SIRI) new player, dubbed the S50, is the ability to create digital music files from satellite radio broadcasts that can then be transferred to PCs, other players or burned to CDs.
But how much the S50, which is roughly the size of a deck of playing cards and has a suggested retail price of $360, will help Sirius as it challenges XM (XMSR) is subject to debate. The S50 cannot independently receive a satellite signal the way that XM's portable MyFi device can; instead, it must be attached to a docking device that is not portable in order to receive signals. That device costs an additional $100.
XM subscribers outnumber Sirius subscribers by more than 2-to-1, but Sirius has been investing heavily in programming, including expensive contracts with shock jock Howard Stern and the National Football League.
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Emergency extension: Federal regulators extended a disconnection deadline that could have left tens of thousands of people without their internet phone service.
The FCC said it would delay a Monday deadline for providers of internet-based phone calls to get acknowledgments from their customers that they understand the problems they may encounter when dialing 911 in an emergency.
The agency said the deadline would be extended to Sept. 28 for the providers to get their acknowledgments. If by that time a provider still has not received confirmation from a customer, then the FCC said the companies should disconnect a customer's regular internet phone service, but could still allow emergency calls to be made.
The agency also gave the companies a little wiggle room. It said providers who decided not to use this so-called soft cutoff would have to give the commission a detailed explanation as to why.
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Safe servers: IBM is set to announce plans to sell software that helps small businesses recover from computer crashes, expanding a technology it first developed for large companies.
The software, called IBM Tivoli Continuous Data Protection for Files, automatically copies data as soon as it's entered or changed, allowing users to quickly retrieve lost information such as text or customer lists.
IBM (IBM) plans to start selling the program Sept. 16 at $35 per laptop or desktop and $995 for each server processor, the chips which run high-powered computers typically used by businesses.
IBM is expanding its business by targeting companies with fewer than 1,000 employees amid slowing growth in IBM's traditional business of serving large customers such as banks and insurers.
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Lazy lending: A new way to borrow audiobooks from the library involves no CDs, no car trips, no fines and no risk of being shushed. Rather, public libraries from New York City to Alameda, California, are letting patrons download Tom Clancy techno-thrillers, Arabic tutorials and other titles that they can listen to on their computers or portable music players -- all without leaving home.
Librarians say such offerings help libraries stay relevant in the digital age.
Barbara Nichols Randall, director of the Guilderland Public Library in suburban Albany, New York, said the library considered the needs of younger readers and those too busy to visit.
A patron with a valid library card visits a library website to borrow a title for, say, three weeks. When the audiobook is due, the patron must renew it or find it automatically "returned" in a virtual sense: The file still sits on the patron's computer, but encryption makes it unplayable beyond the borrowing period.
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Compiled by Keith Axline. AP and Reuters contributed to this report.
