Magazines move into Web video

Time is announcing today it's launching an in-house studio to help its 130 magazines develop videos for the Web. It will unveil a deal to work with Brightcove, a leading provider of Internet video production.

The developments aim to dramatically increase video offerings, starting with Time.com and followed by sites for other magazines, including Fortune, Money, Sports Illustrated and Entertainment Weekly.

Gemstar-TV Guide International's TV Guide Broadband will announce today it also has a deal with Brightcove to syndicate celebrity gossip, interviews with Joan and Melissa Rivers, and other video fare to news and entertainment sites and blogs.

EMI

Report: Music label may dump DRM

Major label EMI — home of Coldplay and Norah Jones — is in talks with online music stores about selling music without digital-rights management (DRM), according to two sources with direct knowledge of the talks.

Last week, Apple CEO Steve Jobs created a huge stir when he called on the music industry to dump DRM, saying it hinders sales.

Consumers have bitterly complained about DRM, which puts rules on how a song can be used.

EMI spokesman Adam Grossberg wouldn't comment on the DRM-free proposal.

Microsoft

LG, Softbank to use Windows Mobile

Microsoft said today South Korean mobile-phone maker LG Electronics and Japanese mobile-carrier Softbank had become customers for its Windows Mobile software.

Windows Mobile models manufactured by electronics producers will be distributed to Softbank customers.

Toshiba said it would also start producing Windows Mobile devices for the first time.

Yahoo!

More ads to target users outside U.S.

Yahoo! will sell branded advertising aimed at mobile-phone customers outside the U.S. as part of its efforts to build revenue sources beyond the Web.

The new mobile marketing platform, being unveiled today, will deliver image-based ads to mobile phones in Mexico, Canada and 16 other countries in Europe, Asia and parts of South America.

Yahoo! said its expanded platform for image-based ads already has lined up commitments from several major advertisers, including Intel, PepsiCo and Procter & Gamble.

Vodafone

$11 billion deal for India telecom

Vodafone Group agreed to buy 67 percent of Hutchison Essar, India's fourth-largest mobile-phone company, for $11.1 billion to gain its first network in the world's fastest-growing wireless market.

Vodafone, the world's largest mobile-phone company, will buy the stake from Hutchison Telecommunications International, Chief Executive Arun Sarin said Sunday.

The company said it will offer to buy the remaining 33 percent from Mumbai-based Essar Group.

U.K.-based Vodafone is expanding in emerging markets as revenue growth slows in Western Europe. Less than 20 percent of the 1.1 billion people in India have mobile phones.

BioPassword

Credit union adds identity service

Seattle-based BioPassword's security product, which measures a user's typing rhythm to help verify identity, will be used by First Tech Credit Union's online banking site.

As its name implies, First Tech Credit Union has a tech-savvy membership including about 17,000 Microsoft employees.

The added security feature is in response to new federal guidelines for securing online financial transactions.

Compiled from Seattle Times staff, Reuters, USA Today, The Associated Press and Bloomberg News