MP3 to FM transmitters broadcast an MP3 player's signal over a radio frequency, allowing people without expensive car stereos to listen to their devices on long road trips. These transmitters have been unbanned in the United Kingdom, after a year long battle for the right to use them. The only condition of the unbanning: the transmitter must carry the CE mark. Griffin Technology's iTrip was given the CE mark this Spring.

Back in July, we reported a bill was passed that would fine webmasters for hosting porn and mislabeling it as "GI Joe" or "Barbie". Senator John McCain wants to take that law one step further, and make all multimedia violating sex offender laws deleted, and then either reported or fined. The Stop the Online Exploitation of Our Children Act would require reports sent to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children of any and all illegitimate images. If a webmaster deletes and reports posted illegal content, they would be free from any and all persecution, assuming they kept records of the incident for at least six months. However, if a webmaster intentionally holds back reports and does not delete illegitimate content, they would be fine-able for $300,000 per image. The new law would require all sites that allow users to post content to submit reports. This includes social networking sites such as MySpace, message boards such as the TechPowerUp! Forums, and sites that allow for user profiles, such as Amazon.

USA Senators Hillary Clinton and Joe Lieberman have long been advocates of the ESRB's video game rating system. Hillary Clinton worked very hard to get Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas re-rated to Adult Only due to the "hot coffee" mod, and Joe Lieberman forced the gaming industry to adopt a rating system in the mid 1990's. The senators are starting a campaign of public service announcements to get parents to understand the rating system, and are working hard to make stores not sell games to minors without parental consent. Best Buy and Gamespot have already agreed to not sell an M rated game to anyone under 17 years of age without parental consent.

The FCC certainly had fun when they gave the new controller an ID code. The latest Wiimote has the FCC code POO-WC45.

According to the Inquirer, NVIDIA, ATI and AMD could be in trouble for apparently conspiring to keep prices high. Allegedly executives of the companies have met to discuss the price of graphics processor units and therefore have received a summons by the Department of Justice, being asked to present data going back into the 1990s.

The new gadget from Apple, the iPhone, should be available sometime in January. However, Apple may run into some serious patent/copyright issues. Several Canadian and American businesses have already trademarked iPhone, and Canadian service Comwave has offered it's iPhone service for a long time. How Apple will react to this, and what Comwave's reaction is, only time will tell.

NVIDIA Corporation has received a subpoena from the San Francisco Office of the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in connection with the DOJ's investigation into potential antitrust violations related to graphics processing units and cards. No specific allegations have been made against NVIDIA. NVIDIA plans to cooperate with the DOJ in its investigation.

AMD has received a subpoena from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division in connection with the DOJ's investigation into potential antitrust violations related to graphics processors and cards. AMD entered the graphics processor business following the company's acquisition of ATI Technologies, Inc. last month (October 25, 2006). The DOJ has not made any specific allegations against AMD or ATI. AMD intends to cooperate with the investigation.