July 3 - 12:45pm EDT   The European Composer and Songwriter Alliance has come out against proposed changes to how online music royalties are collected, writes the Associated Press. The conflict stems from an ongoing investigation by the European Commission, aimed at addressing antitrust concerns relating to the lack of Europe-wide royalty schemes. The Commission notes that currently, national copyright agencies have effective monopolies in their respective regions; there is also a need to negotiate as many as 27 separate royalty schemes for an album, something which may be hampering the spread of European music. [full story]

June 6 - 6:25pm EDT   Apple will likely allow carriers to subsidize the sales of the iPhone, but will lose a portion of the monthly revenue, a new report claims. Supporting previous reports of an expected carrier subsidy in the UK, The Financial Times says that the iPhone is set to be sold at significantly lower prices in both the US and Western Europe -- perhaps as much as $200 lower than the price of the current iPhone (available for $399 in the US). The move, the report claims, is a "tacit acknowledgement by the US technology company that its previous sales strategy was not sustainable," although may have been a necessary for Apple to hit its self-created 10 million iPhone sales target ... [full story]

May 6 - 10:10am EDT   The 3G broadband version of the iPhone should be on sale in at least some European countries before August, according to the New York Times. The newspaper cites an unidentified source "close to the situation," who says that the timing is connected to plans by Vodafone and Telecom Italia to release the phone across the continent. Specifically, Apple is said to want the 3G version on sale in new countries before the peak of the European vacation season, a time when many people might like to make use of functions such as the phone's mobile web browser. [full story]

April 29 - 4:45pm EDT   Apple could be re-evaluating its iPhone exclusivity agreements in future global releases as it expands into Europe, Asia, Central, and South America. Spanish language news site CincoDias writes that the same business methodology that Apple used to successfully launch the iPhone in the US doesn't necessarily mean the approach works globally. The publication cites poor European sales – when contrasted to North American numbers – especially due to individuals compromising the device's exclusivity through alternative means. [full story]

April 25 - 5:10pm EDT   In brief: We have a review of FileMaker's Bento, dates for the KORE 2 workshop tour have been announced, Zerofractal Studios has debuted Tree3D, European Country Keynote themes are available, and 1 million copies of Parallels have been sold ... We have posted a review of FileMaker's Bento. In Bento, you choose customizable forms and a number of containers, each with a specific use. Bento veers away from the more technical database jargon and refers to its databases as Collections in a library and compares them with iTunes playlists. Text entry boxes still use the term fields, like its big brother FileMaker, but Bento includes templates so that you can skip the frustrating ... [full story]

April 25 - 11:05am EDT   Apple's general manager of operations in Europe, Pascal Cagni, has vowed that the company will improve sales of the iPhone on the continent. "We can incontestably do better in Europe," Cagni tells French newspaper Les Echos. While not completely disastrous, sales of the iPhone have been lower than expected in Europe, with France having only recently passed the 100,000 unit mark. Both Germany and the UK have slashed prices in order to boost sales, although this is likely to clear stock in advance of a 3G iPhone. [full story]

April 21 - 3:05pm EDT   Apple is working to greatly expand the reach of its iTunes trademark, a filing at the European Trademark Office reveals. While Apple already owns multiple trademarks related to its combination music and video software, the new application would see the number of applicable categories jump from four to 19, making it extremely difficult for other companies to poach the name. Apple has in the past encountered conflicts with names such as "iPhone" or "iTV," due to other companies laying early claim. Problems with the latter resulted in the Apple TV. [full story]

April 16 - 11:35am EDT   Changes in the European iPhone market may have a dual significance, argue analysts with Piper Jaffray. Following a 75 percent price cut in Germany earlier this month, the UK has also slashed the price of the 8GB iPhone by 37 percent, to reach £169 ($335). Piper argues once again that this is a sign European carriers are attempting to clear out stock in advance of a 3G iPhone, anticipated for June; it may also however be emblematic of sales below expectations, a factor typically attributed to the iPhone's unusually high price in Europe, and a widespread acceptance of 3G that Apple cannot currently deliver on. [full story]

April 10 - 1:45pm EDT   The European Parliament has voted to abolish a plan to permanently ban illegal filesharers, writes IDG News. Under the rules of the plan, those caught sharing copyrighted music, video and other material would have been prevented from even connecting to the Internet for unspecified amounts of time, possibly permanently. "The vote shows that MEPs (Members of the European Parliament) want to strike a balance between the interests of rights holders and those of consumers, and that big measures like cutting off Internet access shouldn't be used," according to EP spokeswoman Malene Folke Chaucheprat. [full story]

April 7 - 5:15pm EDT   The European Trademark Office recently published 55 newly registered iPod icons, and were originally filed with Munich office of Bardehle, Pagenbert, Dost, Altenburg, and Geissler. The icons more or less cover the gamut of those offered by the iPod, relating to videos, podcasts, notes, iPod radio, games, voice memos, and the Nike+ sport system. The icons appear on current generation iPod nanos and Classics, as users navigate menus to examine their libraries, among other things. [full story]

April 1 - 12:30pm EDT   The release of Apple's iPhone has helped to buoy the smartphone market in general, analysts pointed out at yesterday's Smartphone Summit in Las Vegas. Mark Donovan of M:Metrics observed that the number of American with smartphones doubled last year, reaching 14.6 million. This is notable not just because of previously lackluster sales, according to Donovan, but because it represents a faster growth rate than that for cellphones overall. As a gauge of the iPhone's influence, it is remarked that although 188 million Symbian phones have been sold since the OS' birth in 1999, Apple managed to sell 3.7 million iPhones in the space of six months during 2007. [full story]

March 11 - 4:30pm EDT   The European Commission has approved the contribution of €99 million in French funding to a potential Google competitor, writes Agence France-Presse. The Quaero search engine project represents a collaboration between 23 different companies, including France's Thomson; it has not, however, so far found enough funding to get started, as its costs in the next five years are projected to be €199 million. The Commission itself has expressed doubts about Quaero, saying it "is not spontaneously underpinned by the market owing to divergent interests within the consortium and to uncertainties regarding the project's chances of success." [full story]

March 11 - 11:35am EDT   Apple has filed for a new trademark with the European Trademark Office, simply entitled Thinnovation. Apple has been using the term in slogans ever since it revealed the MacBook Air on January 15th, inserting it primarily into web and print advertising. These uses are the focus of the International Classifications in the trademark filing; the trademark would also apply to installation and maintenance, as well as educational and training purposes. [full story]

March 10 - 12:15pm EDT   The end for Wi-Fi hotspots may already be in sight, claims the chief marketing officer of telecom multinational Ericsson. Speaking today at the European Computer Audit, Control and Security Conference in Stockholm, Sweden, Johan Bergendahl commented that at least in Europe, cellular broadband is growing so rapidly that it is surpassing any rate ever achieved by either mobile or fixed voice networks. "In Austria," says Bergendahl, "they are saying that mobile broadband will pass fixed broadband this year." [full story]

March 5 - 4:20pm EST   The prices of European Xbox 360s will be cut substantially as of March 14th, a new report claims. The account cites a number of "well-placed games industry sources," along with a variety of UK retailers, who together suggest that the quoted date will see prices fall by €50 across the continent. The cut is also said to be applicable to all versions of the 360, including the Arcade, the standard model, and the high-end Elite. The latter two consoles should for example cost approximately £150 and £240 in the UK. [full story]