wired

Links from Monday's episode of Loaded:

Things just keep getting worse for the PlayStation Network.

Apple is now the world's most valuable brand.

Wired, GQ, and more mags coming to the iPad.

HP jumps into the 3G data market.

HP line of laptops refreshed.

LinkedIn goes public.

NEW YORK--Free music is here to stay and punishing Lime Wire founder Mark Gorton for that fact is unjust and won't change a thing, Gorton's lawyers said in court today.

A trial to determine the amount of damages Gorton must pay the top four record companies for infringing their copyrights got under way in a Manhattan federal courtroom. Gorton has a possible $1 billion judgment hanging over his head after the major music labels accused him in a 2006 copyright suit of encouraging music fans to use his company's LimeWire software to illegally swap music files.

Lime … Read more

Mark Gorton and Lime Wire pocketed millions by enabling people to obtain songs online without paying for them. Now, Gorton and his company could end up paying damages of over $1 billion.

In a New York federal court this week, the four largest record companies will try to prove that it was Gorton's own greed that drove him to continue operating Lime Wire, the company behind the highly popular file-sharing service LimeWire, though they warned him years ago to stop and fellow peer-to-peer operators advised him to cut a deal. Gorton continued to defy the top labels even after … Read more

Small and medium-size businesses in the U.S. lost more than $11 million over the past year in online scams in which stolen banking credentials were used in fraudulent wire transfers to companies in China, the FBI said.

There were 20 such incidents between March 2010 and April 2011, affecting companies and public institutions in the U.S. that tend to have accounts at local community banks and credit unions, some of which use third-party service providers for online banking services, according to the agency. The amounts transferred at any one time ranged from tens of thousands of dollars to … Read more

Scary things lurk in the closets and attics of laptop fans everywhere.

With an average lifespan of three to five years, old obsolete models can gather dust for a long time, and can be as hard to get rid of as the annoying bloatware that probably came preloaded on those very same laptops.

While spring cleaning, your two intrepid laptop reviewers dug up a pile of old laptops from circa 2001-2006--a motley collection straight out of Al Component's Vault. Fortunately, there are several good ways to recycle outdated electronics, from Best Buy's in-store drop-off program to periodic free … Read more

MCLEAN, Texas--Most people don't think twice about barbed wire, unless they happen to be cattle ranchers, farmers, or junkyard owners. You don't have to be any of those to step into the Devil's Rope Museum on Route 66 here in McLean, Texas, and immerse yourself in the history and lore of the pointy fencing material.

I'll admit that at first, I thought the idea of a museum dedicated to barbed wire was pretty weird and possibly a little dull. How many types of barbed wire can there really be? As it turns out, thousands. Some of them have some real personality to them, too. One looks like a series of miniature spurs. Another comes in a cheerful shade of red. Some look like wicked ribbons. Festive, but dangerous.

One surprise is the level of ingenuity surrounding the cult of barbed wire. Do-it-yourselfers have adapted the material into sculptures, crows have woven it into nests, and inventors have dedicated countless hours to one-upping each other on barbed wire design and technology. Barbed wire should make it onto every serious maker's materials list. … Read more

In what will surely be music to the ears of the major record labels, research firm NPD Group says that illegal file sharing of songs via peer-to-peer services has dramatically dropped off since Lime Wire shut down.

Lime Wire, the company that operated the popular peer-to-peer network LimeWire, was forced to shut down in October after a federal court found the company liable for copyright infringement. The Recording Industry Association of America had file a copyright suit against Lime Wire and CEO Mark Gorton in 2007, claiming the company encouraged the pirating of billions of songs.

NPD said today that … Read more

Western Digital has launched a new external drive that offers 6 terabytes of storage.

Unveiled today, the latest edition to the company's My Book Studio Edition II product line upgrades the storage space of 4TB and 2TB offered by earlier models. But by housing two hard disks internally, the new version maintains the same dimensions, shape, and weight as its lower-capacity cousins.

Selling for $549.99, the new My Book Studio Edition II 6TB drive is being geared more toward the Mac than Windows. Western Digital is targeting it specifically to creative pros and businesses that need to store … Read more

It's hard to believe that it was almost two years ago when I dove into a tangled mess of wires and gadgets to perform my first public wire box cleanout. At the time, it looked like order and organization had won the day, and my future would be full of neatly bundled cables and perfectly sorted AC adapters.

Sadly, two years later, the forces of entropy and clutter have again reduced my wire box (actually four stacking plastic crates) to a jungle of old parts and useless accessories. This time, the motivation to clean out my wire box shantytown is an impending move, which is nature's great catalyst for discarding old junk. (And, as I prepare to move all the way from New York's SoHo neighborhood to, well, slightly farther east in SoHo, stay tuned for a series of articles on how I plan to construct my new midsize Manhattan apartment multimedia man cave.)

As I went through the four boxes of tangled wires and accessories, things were sorted into three categories: keep, trash, and give away. Click through the gallery above for a step-by-step tour of what I found, from vintage gaming gear to more sets of components cables than I know what to do with. If you're interested in any of the items that get placed on my giveaway pile, tune in to a future episode of the Digital City podcast, where I'll try and find a good home for any discarded gear.… Read more