Daily Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
Wal-Mart Stores plans to lower prices for some MP3 downloads 22%, a move that will heat up competition in the online-music sector. “Top 25″ tracks will sell for 74 cents, and other songs will be priced at 94 cents, according to the company. The Wall Street Journal/Dow Jones Newswires (10/28)

Online video portal Hulu is in talks with BBC/ITV/Channel 4 VOD joint venture Project Kangaroo to launch a UK version of the site, reports C21 Media. The discussions have stalled due to the venture’s ongoing legal issues, according to Fox Digital Media President Dan Fawcett. (Cynopsis 10/29)

Microsoft unveiled Azure, a new Windows program envisioned as a “cloud computing” operating system for the internet. Azure will provide a platform for developers to build applications that will be accessible online in real time using existing Windows programming languages. (Cynopsis 10/29)

Google’s settlement this week in a copyright-infringement case against book publishers may have a bearing on Viacom, which last year filed a $1 billion case for similar reasons against the giant search engine and its online video site YouTube. Michael Fricklas, Viacom’s general counsel, said that Google might have finally figured out that “copying and distributing copyrighted works requires permission from the copyright owner.” The New York Times (10/29) , CNET (10/28)

Six months after first announcing its open strategy, Yahoo has released a slew of development tools (as we told you it would) under the Y!OS 1.0 platform. It’s kind of like a Web OS, but Y!OS officially stands for Yahoo Open Strategy. As part of its strategy to remain one of the most popular starting points on the Web, Yahoo is making it much easier for data, content, and applications to flow in and out of Yahoo. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/10/28/yahoo-opens-up-big-time 10/28)

Msnbc.com unveiled its new embeddable Decision ‘08 election widget that allows consumers to watch the presidential results unfold in real-time on November 4, 2008. The widget allows users to view the electoral vote count and the congressional balance of power via the national U.S. map or choose a state and see how individual counties are voting. It also provides the top political headlines of the day. (Cynopsis 10/29)

SciFi.com launched a new social network built around its hit reality show Ghost Hunters, featuring weekly tutorials, ghost story swapping and Q&A’s with the show’s part-time adventurers. Go to SciFi.com on Halloween night to access a multi-camera online video feed, thermal imaging camera views and photos taken from The Ghost Hunters Live event at the historic Fort Delaware. (Cynopsis 10/29)