Slashdot: Wired is running an article discussing the future of the MP3 format with the amount of competition out there, especially from the surround sound scene. Thompson, the entity that licenses the MP3 format, released the MP3 Surround format to try to combat this.

Developer.com runs an article that takes you through some of the basics.

Press Release: ER Mapper has released ER Mapper Mosaic-Balance-Compress (MBC). The mosaic can be compressed using ER Mapper’s industry standard ECW, or the emerging ISO standard JPEG 2000, image formats.

Press Release: Technology offers up to 50 percent bit rate savings compared to MPEG-2. Further, the purchase of UB Video expands Scientific-Atlanta’s patented intellectual property portfolio. Scientific-Atlanta is into an agreement to be acquired by Cisco Systems.

The Open Geospatial Consortium Inc. (OGC) membership has approved the OpenGIS(R) GML in JPEG 2000 for Geographic Imagery (GMLJP2) Implementation Specification. It is available for downloading.

Forgent has completed another patent license agreement covering its JPEG data compression technology. This is the third such deal announced after USPTO confirmed that it will reexamine the patent’s validity.

The fastest known PPM implementation, Dmitry Shkarin’s PPMII (also known as ppmd), is updated after 4 years. Along with improved compression and speed, this version also adds support for 64-bit processors and multi-threading.

This year’s first issue of monthly Data Compression Newsletter.

Matt Mahoney announced that PAQ8C by Przemyslaw Skibinski and PAQAR/PAQARCC 4.5 by Alexander Ratushnyak 5 are now available.

MatrixView continues to take the low road when it comes to promoting their compression technology.