For this week’s Engadget Interview, veteran journalist J.D. Lasica bumped into Paul Griffin, CEO of Griffin Technology, at the Portable Media Expo and Podcasting Conference in Ontario, Calif., on Friday. The self-effacing Griffin discusses the panoply of products his company puts out for gadget lovers, Apple’s dominance in the portable music market, and what’s ahead for Griffin in the peripherals space.

Interview: Paul Griffin, CEO/founder of Griffin Technology

Although head-mounted displays have come a long way recently, even the sleekest models can still make you look pretty geeky. Well Japanese manufacturer Coccolo’s eyeglasses-mounted QVGA Vcam CVC-4 probably won’t win you any beauty contests either, but with a semi-unobtrusive profile (except for the thick dangling cable) and an expected price of $250, it could turn out to be a great deal. Unlike previous attempts that we’ve seen, the CVC-4 doesn’t make you look like that dude from Star Trek TNG, although we won’t get to see one up close anytime soon, as the scheduled April 2006 release is for Japan only. For a total geek-out, we’re gonna try to use one of these in conjunction with the DoubleVision Pro head-mounted surveillance cam, so we can enjoy instant replays of staring at a computer monitor 15 hours a day.

Coccolo’s $250 Vcam CVC-4 head-mounted display...

EchoStar Communications Corp., the second-largest U.S. satellite-television provider, said a 125- person town in Texas changed its name to DISH, the company's stock ticker, in exchange for free TV services.
Clark, Texas, legally changed its name to DISH yesterday at a city council meeting, Mayor Bill Merritt said at a press conference today. EchoStar in August made the offer of free programming for 10 years to a U.S. municipality willing to rename itself.

EchoStar Gets Town to Change Name to Its Ticker: DISH

Cingular Wireless stores today will start selling a small, brightly colored cell phone called the Firefly, becoming the first national carrier to offer a mobile phone tailor-made for children 12 years old and younger.

Cingular to Offer Phones For the 12-and-Under Set

When Blu-ray Disc debuts next Spring, long-time supporter HP may not be among the companies heralding the launch because the format ships without a technology the PC vendor wants included.
This week, the Blu-ray Ray Disc Association (BDA) said the next-generation optical disc format's copy-protection system would allow users to make personal copies to allow the content to be displayed on multiple machines connected on a home network.
That was arguably always part of the plan, since it's part of the AACS copy-protection system already adopted by the BDA - and, indeed, the DVD Forum for HD DVD.
According to a Reuters report HP told the BDA last month that this so-called 'mandatory managed copy' (MMC) must be in the BD-ROM specification if the format was to retain the PC vendor's backing. This despite the fact that HP itself told the world in September that MMC was part of Blu-ray. It made the comment in response to claims from Microsoft and Intel - both HD DVD backers - that Blu-ray lacked MMC.
HP is also supposed to have told the BDA it wants the format to support Microsoft's iHD interactivity technology, due to ship with Windows Vista. Supporting iHD will ensure full compatibility with all major operating systems, HP believes.

Blu-ray backer HP threatens to back HD DVD too

Apple Computer may blink after all on its dogged determination to keep its price per download for iTunes songs at an across-the-board $0.99.

The company that created the portable digital device sensation, the iPod, and the iTunes Music Store that drives it, may be about to give in to pressure from music publishers such as Warner Music Group and EMI Music.

In a story in Thursday’s Wall Street Journal, Alain Levy, chief executive of EMI, is quoted as saying that he discussed the issue with Apple CEO Steve Jobs and he believes that Apple plans to change its one-price policy. Apple wouldn't comment to RedHerring.com about the report.

According to the paper, Mr. Levy said the issue is not really whether Apple will introduce flexible pricing, but when it will do it.

Apple to Raise iTunes Prices?

The Sony BMG anti-piracy story just refuses to go away.
And maybe it shouldn't: Security researchers -- the same ones who earlier this week found serious security holes in a patch Sony issued to remove the scariest components of its anti-piracy program -- today bring us evidence of similarly frightening security holes associated with another digital rights management (DRM) program the recording label uses on some CDs, a product called SunnComm MediaMax.
Edward Felten, a computer science professor at Princeton University, said that while SunnComm and Sony BMG offer a tool that allows users to completely uninstall the program, the uninstaller also opens the computer up to extremely serious security problems, much like the uninstaller for First4Internet's infamous copy-protection program.
From Felten's post: "When you visit the SunnComm uninstaller web page, you are prompted to accept a small software component -- an ActiveX control called AxWebRemoveCtrl created by SunnComm. This control has a design flaw that allows any Web site to cause it to download and execute code from an arbitrary URL.

Researchers See Risk From Another Sony DRM

Bush may be slipping in the polls, but he’s still getting just about everything he wants out of the Congress.
Including reauthorization of the Patriot Act.
This week, a conference committee of the House and Senate agreed to make permanent almost every aspect of the Patriot Act. Even the most controversial measures—including allowing the FBI and local police to snoop on your library and bookstore activities—were given another seven-year lease.

Wow ... What a shame...

Bush Victorious on Patriot Act | The Progressive

Mexico has imposed anti-monopoly fines of about $68 million against a Coca-Cola Co. subsidiary and dozens of distributors and bottlers, largely due to a three-year battle waged by one woman who got tired of being told what to sell at her one-room store in an impoverished Mexico City neighborhood.

Mexico Shop Owner, Coca-Cola Unit Clash

On Nov. 18, 1985, a new comic strip made its newspaper debut: Calvin and Hobbes. It featured a small boy wearing a pith helmet who announced that day that he was going to check his tiger trap. The boy was Calvin and the tiger snared in the last panel -- happily snacking on the bait -- was Hobbes.
For 10 years the duo captured the imaginations of adults and children alike. Then, in 1995, cartoonist Bill Watterson announced his retirement at the age of 37.
Now the definitive Calvin and Hobbes collection has been released. The three-volume set is fittingly called The Complete Calvin and Hobbes. It features every one of the 3,160 strips Watterson produced between 1985 and Dec. 31, 1995.

NPR : Spiffy: 'The Complete Calvin and Hobbes'