Nintendo of America added a new WiiWare title and an additional Virtual Console legacy system game Monday to its Wii Shop Channel for download to the Wii. The new WiiWare game is Niki -- Rock ‘n’ Ball from Bplus. The Virtual Console title was the single-player Wonder Boy in Monster Land from the Sega Master System, each at 500 Wii Points, $5… Six Grateful Dead songs are being added to the Rock Band Music Store catalog of downloadable content for the Xbox 360 Tuesday, Harmonix and MTV Games said. The tracks are “Cold Rain & Snow” from the band’s original 1967 album The Grateful Dead, “Hell in a Bucket” from the 1987 In the Dark album, “Uncle John’s Band” from 1970’s Workingman’s Dead, “Fire on the Mountain” from 1978’s Shakedown Street, “Don’t Ease Me In” from 1980’s Go to Heaven and “Doin’ That Rag” from the 1969 album Aoxomoxoa. The songs cost $1.99 each and are available as a six-pack song pack at $9.99. The tunes will also be made available to PS3 Rock Band players Thursday. The Grateful Dead Pack 02 is the second pack of the band’s music to join the Rock Band Music Store. “Casey Jones,” “China Cat Sunflower,” “Franklins Tower,” “I Need a Miracle,” “Sugar Magnolia” and “Truckin'” were released in March. The Grateful Dead’s “Alabama Getaway” was also featured on the Rock Band 2 game disc.
Trio 2 General Partnership is taking over BCE Inc.’s ownership of TerreStar Canada, TerreStar Networks told the SEC. TerreStar will keep its one-third voting equity ownership, it said. Industry Canada must approve the transaction. Once it launches TerreStar 1 later this year, TerreStar Networks will turn the satellite over to TerreStar Canada since its orbital slot is from Canada, a TerreStar Networks spokeswoman said. TerreStar plans to use spectrum licensed by both the FCC and Industry Canada to offer its mobile satellite land-based services, she said.
Sprint Nextel asked the Obama administration to start an emergency communications program built around 100 satellite- based cell-on-light-trucks, known as SatCOLTS. They would be available within hours of an emergency such as Hurricane Katrina, providing immediate communications on the ground, the carrier told the presidential transition team. Sprint estimated at $2 billion the cost of creating the program and running it five years. It could be in place years before a new wireless broadband network using the 700 MHz D-block could get off the ground, Sprint said.
The FCC gave ICO Global Communications authority to use land-based equipment to offer mobile satellite services. ICO is testing its MSS-ancillary terrestrial component services in Las Vegas, and Raleigh-Durham, N.C. To gain MSS/ATC approval, ICO agreed to tell the FCC’s International Bureau a month before offering commercial ATC services that it has a firm commitment to build a spare satellite. This “removes any uncertainty as to whether ICO might commence ATC operations based primarily upon a hoped-for waiver,” said Helen Domenici, chief of the bureau.
The Government Accountability Office has issued a report to congressional requestors entitled "Approaches to Mitigate Freight Congestion."
Circuit City’s fate perhaps will be known Friday when potential bidders for the chain’s assets are disclosed in bankruptcy court, said industry executives who are monitoring developments. But even the most optimistic among them are calling the company’s ability to survive questionable.
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, in coordination with the Federal Railroad Administration, has issued a final rule, effective March 16, 2009, amending the Hazardous Materials Regulations to prescribe enhanced safety measures for rail transportation of poison inhalation hazard (PIH) materials, including interim design standards for railroad tank cars. (See ITT's Online Archives or 01/08/09 news, 09010825, for BP summary of the Transportation Security Administration's recent extension of certain rail security requirements.) (FR Pub 01/13/09, available at http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/pdf/E8-31056.pdf)
Online marketers said they're ready and willing to regulate themselves, just as consumer advocacy groups Tuesday asked the Federal Trade Commission not to follow with mobile marketers what they called its ineffectual approach to online marketers. A complaint by the Center for Digital Democracy and U.S. PIRG said the FTC must act now to rein in mobile marketing before practices that should be labeled unfair and deceptive are so well entrenched they're impossible to stop. “The commission cannot continue to sit idly by and wait -- as it has done with the concerns over privacy raised by online advertising in the past,” the complaint said.
Online marketers announced themselves ready and willing to regulate themselves Tuesday, just as consumer advocacy groups asked the Federal Trade Commission not to follow the same ineffectual path with mobile marketers that they said it took with online marketers. A complaint by the Center for Digital Democracy and U.S. PIRG said the FTC must act now to rein in mobile marketing before practices that should be labeled unfair and deceptive are so well entrenched they're impossible to stop. “The commission cannot continue to sit idly by and wait -- as it has done with the concerns over privacy raised by online advertising in the past,” the complaint said.
Federal agencies and law enforcement won’t object to Inmarsat taking over Stratos Global Communications if the FCC makes Inmarsat obey an information-access agreement it made with the U.S. government, the Justice and Homeland Security departments said. Under the agreement, Inmarsat will make available to law enforcement domestic communications, any electronic communications received by, intended to be received by or stored in the account associated with a U.S.- licensed mobile earth station or transmitted through a U.S. land earth station, or routed through a U.S. point of presence to or from an Inmarsat subscriber, and subscriber and billing information. Inmarsat agreed “that the United States would suffer irreparable injury if for any reason Inmarsat failed to perform any of its obligations under this Agreement, and that monetary relief would not be an adequate remedy,” according to the document filed by the government. Inmarsat also waives any immunity it might have if the U.S. government claims it violated the agreement. This is the second time that the FCC has reviewed many of the issues involved in the Inmarsat-Stratos transaction. In 2007, the commission approved the first step in a deal involving Inmarsat, Stratos Global, Robert Franklin and Communications Investment Partners of Canada, after Inmarsat said it would finance CIP’s acquisition of Stratos (CD Dec 11/07 p1). The transaction gave Inmarsat Finance the option to buy Stratos outright when a distribution prohibition ends in April. When Inmarsat was privatized it was barred from selling directly to end users until then. Inmarsat plans to exercise the option and is asking the FCC for approval.