Jerry Goldsmith, the film composer who created the accompanying music to everything from radio shows to memorable films such as Patton, Planet of the Apes, In Like Flint, Chinatown, and The Omen (for which he won the Academy Award), died July 21 after an extended battle with cancer.

Over the last few years, we've heard a lot about the "electronic house," an application that will seamlessly integrate personal computers and home entertainment systems throughout an entire household. If customers have been slow to adopt this concept, it may be because the existing options have tended to be complicated to use and install—not to mention expensive. SkipJam may have a solution for all three objections.

Consumers excited over the prospect of HDTV's increased clarity and audio quality may not realize that those are precisely the characteristics that terrify the motion picture industry. Fearful that high-definition broadcasts of its films might lead to an increase in video piracy, Hollywood has pressured the Federal Communications Commission, which has issued a proposal requiring future digital television (DTV) tuners to include digital rights management (DRM) technologies. As of July 1, 2005, all HDTV receivers must watch for a broadcast flag (a marker embedded in program material by copyright holders). This will make it impossible for consumers to time-shift or archive broadcast material (or share it on a home network, unless the router also has DRM technology).