-
Google was on the defensive on Capitol Hill on Thursday, fending off allegations from its chief rival, Microsoft, that its takeover of DoubleClick had grave antitrust and privacy implications for consumers. David Drummond, chief legal officer at Google, d
-
A year after shuttering its ESPN cellphone company, Walt Disney Co. said it is closing its Disney cellphone service. Walt Disney launched Mobile ESPN and Disney Mobile last year as mobile virtual network operators, or MVNOs. Under that business model, the
-
Microsoft and its hardware partners are trying to bridge the divide between home computers and television sets this holiday season with the release of several “media extenders.”
These television set top boxes will connect wirelessly to computers running -
Five men have been arrested in the US for selling steroids through MySpace.
-
Armani’s virtual store in Second Life has opened today, and the designer himself has gone to the grand opening as his avatar, and was interviewed by Style.com’s fashion director Candy Pratts Price for the event.
Monthly Archives: September 2007
links for 2007-09-28
Filed under Uncategorized
links for 2007-09-27
-
Video game Halo 3 earned more than £84m ($170m) in sales in its first 24 hours on release, according to Microsoft.
-
Warner Brothers, Time Warner’s film and TV division, has launched an “unprecedented” multibillion-dollar partnership to develop a media and entertainment hub in Abu Dhabi virtually from scratch. The project, which is being undertaken with Aldar, Abu
-
Google is planning to expand its staff by a third, with most of the new hirings in Europe, as the internet search company tries to avoid being seen as an aggressive American multinational. Google plans to hire several thousand engineers in Europe to creat
-
Dell Chief Executive Michael Dell said the computer maker will become “carbon neutral” by 2008, and he challenged the high-technology industry to waste less energy.
-
Article discussing applications demonstrated at this year’s TechCrunch.
-
Combined web TV traffic to the UK’s major broadcast sites is roughly equal to that of YouTube, according to a survey of 2,500 UK web users by Oliver and Ohlbaum. Although the BBC iPlayer, ITV.com and Channel 4’s 4oD were only launched this year, around 19
-
On Friday, LinkedIn will provide the ability to add a photo to your profile page. It’s clearly a move that aims to keep up with Facebook, which increasingly looks set to steal LinkedIn’s audience.
-
Microsoft’s Live Search is getting several upgrades rolled out over the next few weeks, and if rumors hold true, this could become an annual event around this time of year. Apparently Microsoft is also looking at the possibility of re-branding the appli
-
Twiddeo is a new mashup of the Twitter API with the API of the video engine, V:social, it goes live later this week.
-
PodShow, the social video site that allows users to create, share, and collect video clips, is debuting a new channel named thePlus, and their first show, Backstage Pass.
On October 2nd, the new show, Backstage Pass will debut by broadcasting live from t
Filed under Uncategorized
links for 2007-09-26
-
Gamers across Europe got their hands on Halo 3 at midnight on Tuesday, one of the most anticipated and heavily marketed titles in history.
-
Nintendo’s Wii Sports leads the nominations for the 2007 British Academy Video Games Awards.
-
Regulator Ofcom has added its voice to the growing debate about how the UK should roll out super-fast broadband. It has launched a consultation, running until December, to probe ways to keep UK net services up to speed with those of other nations.
-
Within hours after die-hard fans finally got their hands on a copy of Halo 3, blogs brimmed with reports that special limited-edition packaging is scratching the videogame disks. Microsoft which owns the studio that makes Halo 3, responded quickly on its
-
In science-fiction author Cory Doctorow’s short story “Scroogled,” a woman shrugs when she sees “Immigration–Powered by Google” on an airport sign, but that’s just the beginning of the search giant’s presence in a not-too-distant future. The story, publi
-
Microsoft has little choice but to pay up if it wants to cement its strategic relationship with Silicon Valley’s hottest internet company since Google. That was the general view in Silicon Valley on Tuesday after reports that the software company was in
-
Blog discussing Microsoft’s rumoured acquisition of a stake in Facebook. The blog calculates that each Facebook user is worth approximately £120 and each hour they spend on the site is worth £48.
-
The European Commission is set to clear the proposed merger between Sony Corp and Bertelsmann AG’s BMG recorded music units without conditions, a source familiar with the matter told Thomson Financial News. The commission, which has until Oct 10 to decide
-
There is a lot of buzz going around about a new Facebook IM client that is apparently going into beta this Friday. While it’s important to note that this does not appear to be an official Facebook IM application, it’s noteworthy because it’s on the
Filed under Uncategorized
links for 2007-09-25
-
Microsoft is reported to be in talks to buy a stake in Facebook that could value the social networking website at as much as $10bn (£5bn). The talks could lead to a showdown with Microsoft’s rival, Google, which is also keen to invest in Facebook, the Wa
-
Sharp divisions have emerged within the European Commission about a plan to intensify competition in the region’s telecommunications market by splitting up big companies such as Deutsche Telekom and Spain’s Telefónica.
-
Facebook has come under investigation by Andrew Cuomo, the New York attorney-general, who said on Monday that the company did not do enough to protect children from sexual predators on its website.
-
As the Christmas period approaches, the fight between Blu-ray and HD-DVD is intensifying. HD DVD, has taken the lead on the hardware side in the US, with about 58% of sales, generally because players are cheaper. However, Blu-ray has taken a big lead in s
-
The UK’s broadband set-up may soon change again since Ofcom is preparing a fundamental rethink of the market. The regulator is asking the entire industry what is needed to prepare the country for the digital future as media move online. In this new worl
-
The British Stammering Association has strongly protested to the YouTube website over videos showing people struggling to speak which have been classified by the website as comedy.
-
Fans of World of Warcraft can now log-on to an internet TV show about their hobby. Web media company On Networks is making its On Warcraft TV show available via the internet and through video-on-demand services such as Apple’s iTunes.
-
According to a new report by market researchers eMarketer, 24 percent of the 34.3 million US child and teen Internet users will visit virtual worlds once a month in 2007 — and the rate is rising. Based on its research, eMarketer expects to see the number
-
Brescia, Italy-based Koinup has announced the launch of its eponymous social network, “entirely dedicated to your virtual life.” Whereas MySpace, Facebook and their ilk are a social network for one’s real life, it seems that Koinup is going for meta – a s
-
Hasbro has announced it is to spin its long-standing Littlest Pet Shop miniature toy franchise into an online world, Littlest Pet Shop VIPs (Virtual Interactive Pets).
-
Friendster has just announced a traditional Chinese version of its social network.
Filed under Uncategorized
links for 2007-09-24
-
Computer enthusiasts in the developed world will soon be able to get their hands on the so-called “$100 laptop”. The organisation behind the project has launched the “give one, get one” scheme that will allow US residents to purchase two laptops for $399
-
Three council workers have lost their jobs for spending too long on the internet auction site eBay.
-
A record has been set for the sale of virtual items in an online game as a World of Warcraft account is believed to have changed hands for almost £5000 (7000 euros).
-
US television networks believe they have found the business model needed to profit in the digital age – streaming their hit shows over the internet as opposed to selling them to consumers as digital downloads.
-
Google on Friday formally asked the European Commission to approve its planned acquisition of DoubleClick, a deal that critics say will give the internet search giant a commanding lead in the fast-growing market for online advertising.
-
Microsoft executives and a public-relations firm (Burson-Marsteller) retained by the software giant are waging a quiet campaign to convince Internet companies, advertisers and regulators to oppose Google’s planned $3.1 billion acquisition of online adve
-
Popurls is a website that will keep an eye on all those social news aggregators, just so you don’t have to.
-
The Evening Standard launches Britain’s first newspaper swipe card today but it will be available only to a handful of London commuters. The inventors of the cashless payment system say the pieces are in place for similar schemes across the country and th
-
The Raindance Film Festival will this week become the first to simultaneously show its movies via the web, claiming the initiative could help establish a new revenue model for independent filmmakers.
-
Article discussing the HD market in the UK.
-
Is Google using Arizona State University students to test out a new social network that could be part of Google Earth? Rumour has it that several students have been granted the opportunity to test a new product that will be launched by a major Internet co
-
MySpace is launching a free, ad-supported cell phone today through its parent company News Corp. in the US.
Filed under Uncategorized
links for 2007-09-19
-
UK consumers will at last be able to get their hands on Apple’s keenly awaited iPhone handset from November 9 – but it will cost £899 including connection fees and will not work on high-speed 3G networks, it was confirmed on Tuesday.
-
Dick Parsons, chairman and chief executive of Time Warner, said the company was taking a ‘hard look’ at spinning off its cable division. It is his strongest indication yet that the media conglomerate is preparing to split into content and distribution
-
Experts have said they are concerned that iPhone buyers in rural areas could be paying over the odds, since the higher-speed network that the phone uses to surf the web will cover only a third of Britain by the time the gadget goes on sale.
-
Almost half of children in some parts of Britain think that not having a mobile phone means a child is poor, according to a poll commissioned by Dare to Care, a new volunteering campaign aimed at tackling child poverty.
-
MySpace has said that after experimenting with technology over the last six months, it can tailor ads to the personal information that its 110 million active users leave on their profile pages.
-
Social news site Digg is headed for a major overhaul on Wednesday. As promised multiple times by founder Kevin Rose, the site is launching social networking features that will make the site a lot more personal: complete “MySpace”-style social networki
-
Steve Jobs has said that there is a 3G iPhone in the works. There’s still no word on exactly when it will be available to buyers, though it’s expected to be ready some time late next year.
-
Google has launched its contextual Gadget Ads service.
Filed under Uncategorized
links for 2007-09-18
-
Warner Music will sell James Blunt’s new album through MySpace in an attempt to capitalise on the social networking site’s popularity among music fans.
-
Resuming an old rivalry, International Business Machines Corp. is launching a software giveaway that takes aim at Microsoft Corp. on the office desktop.
-
Facebook Inc., the social-networking company, is launching a $10 million fund to give grants to individuals and startups building applications on its platform.
-
Google yesterday said it is expanding the volume of advertising that it delivers to mobile devices, hoping to make more money from the increasing audience of consumers surfing the Web when they are away from home or the office.
-
Brian Logan meets Brian Limond, whose bedroom podcasts have become an internet phenomenon.
-
At a Merrill Lynch conference in Los Angeles on Tuesday, MySpace will unveil the full scope of its plans to target ads to every MySpace user.
-
Mozilla is launching a new initiative, currently code-named MailCo, to create a better email system for the Internet.
-
Google has launched its long anticipated presentation tool, thus completing the initial version of its office suite.
Filed under Uncategorized
links for 2007-09-17
-
Internet crime is becoming a major commercial activity, according to a report by the security firm, Symantec.
-
For several years, MediaDefender has made a name for itself waging war against intellectual-property pirates on behalf of the movie and music industries. Now, hackers have gone after MediaDefender itself, posting what they say are employee emails on the I
-
Digital UK, the body charged with promoting awareness of digital switchover, is this week launching an £8m ad campaign a month before analogue TV switch-off begins in the Cumbrian town of Whitehaven.
-
Google has announced a partnership with CapGemini, an IT consultancy and outsourcing specialist, to push its Google Docs application package to corporate customers.
-
Mobile operator O2 is preparing to unveil Apple’s much anticipated iPhone in the UK tomorrow, but serious questions are being raised in the City about how much ground it has had to give away to Apple in order to clinch the deal.
-
Utterz is a new mobile blogging community launched by RPM Communications, the same company that brought you Foonz.
-
SpiralFrog, the free, ad-supported music store, has finally opened its doors with over 770.000 songs and 3.500 music videos from indie labels and UMG.
Filed under Uncategorized
links for 2007-09-14
-
An atoll in the South Pacific has come up with a novel way of making money via its domain name .TK.
-
Search giant Google is offering a $30m prize pot to private firms that land a robot rover on the Moon.
-
Online worlds such as Second Life will soon become training grounds for artificial intelligences. Researchers at US firm Novamente have created software that learns by controlling avatars in virtual worlds.
-
Google will today attempt to take the high ground in the debate over internet privacy, by calling for new international laws to be set up to protect personal information online. An international body such as the United Nations or the OECD should draw up n
-
A series of reviews and inquiries into the future of digital television and broadcasting over the internet will lead to a new communications act before Britain ditches its analogue signal in 2012
-
Prince has joined the list of media content owners suing internet distributors to try to recoup lost copyright revenues.
-
An internet website set up to rival Wikipedia is on course to match the online encyclopedia’s success just six months after it was launched, Citizendium.org was founded by Wikipedia co- founder Larry Sanger and went live in March.
-
Nokia said Thursday that it would join rivals, including Samsung and Sony Ericsson, to produce a flash memory card with high capacity to ease and speed downloads for cellphone users.
Apple has scheduled a news conference at its retail store in central
-
Jaiku, the micro-blogging Twitter competitor, has tweaked its social networking features.
Filed under Uncategorized
links for 2007-09-13
-
Sony fired another shot in its battle against Toshiba HD-DVD standard, saying it will release four Blu-ray disc recorders in November in Japan.
-
Yahoo said Wednesday that it agreed to collaborate on advertising in the U.K. and Ireland with Bebo. Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but Internet giant Yahoo will sell the majority of Bebo’s display and video advertising in the U.K., the co
-
Article discussing whether the launch of the iPod touch will damage the iPhone’s prospects in Europe.
-
Websites fighting for attention online could soon open a second front on your desktop. At least, that’s what Adobe is hoping will happen with Air, the Adobe Integrated Runtime, a mini application on your desktop that enables to do some useful things while
-
Article discussing internet censorship.
-
Article discussing marketing practices of social networks after Facebook announced on its blog that in a few weeks, it will make parts of its 40 million users’ details, such as their names and pictures, available to the major search engines – Google, Yaho
-
Article speculating on Google’s mobile strategy.
Filed under Uncategorized
Cold Coffee 