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The games industry says British universities are failing to equip graduates with the skills it needs. The warning comes from the industry campaign group “Games Up?”, which says games developers in Britain are facing a serious skills shortage.
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Apple could face an uphill battle convincing big businesses to abandon the BlackBerry in favour of its iPhone mobile handset, according to a study released on Wednesday. An analysis of responses from 105 chief information officers by Sanford Bernstein, th
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Steven Spielberg and the founders of the DreamWorks studio are in talks with India’s Reliance Big Entertainment about financing their new film venture, in a move that will see DreamWorks end its three-year association with Paramount Pictures, the Hollyw
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ITV has signed a potentially ground-breaking deal to develop new programmes with Twentieth Century Fox TV using joint funding and combined teams of US and British writers and producers.
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Mark Rabe has been appointed to head Yahoo’s UK sales team, replacing Blake Chandlee who left the firm for Facebook last October.
Category Archives: Uncategorized
links for 2008-06-19
Filed under Uncategorized
links for 2008-06-17
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More bloggers than ever face arrest for exposing human rights abuses or criticising governments, says a World Information Access report. In 2007 three times as many people were arrested for blogging about political issues than in 2006, it revealed.
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Instant messaging may turn out to be a large area of long-term growth for Google and Yahoo, especially in the mobile sector.
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links for 2008-06-10
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Apple has unveiled the second generation iPhone, with support for faster 3G wireless networks. Steve Jobs said the phone would be “more affordable” for consumers, starting at $199 (£100). The new iPhone also comes with GPS satellite navigation built in f
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A proposed merger between United Business Media and Informa has been greeted as a credible combination of two complementary business media groups, timed to take advantage of private equity buyers’ new found financial limitations.
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A new generation of social networking sites is gaining support in Silicon Valley, challenging the established models of leaders MySpace and Facebook. FriendFeed, a service founded by the creators of Google Maps and Gmail, is at the head of an anarchic cou
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Burgeoning growth on the internet helped overcome a slump in newspapers to lift overall spending on advertising in the UK by 4.2 per cent last year, figures released on Monday showed.
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Motorola has introduced full-length films to watch on its mobile handsets for the first time, offering downloads including The Italian Job, Star Trek and Team America: World Police to UK customers. A deal with Paramount Digital Entertainment has made 40 t
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Former Linden Lab chief technology officer Cory Ondrejka has been appointed to the new position at EMI of senior vice-president of digital strategy.
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U2’s manager Paul McGuinness has said the group will not let fans download their music for free.
McGuinness said the band would consider using “whatever technology is available”, but claimed that Radiohead’s decision to allow fans to pay what they want w -
A psychiatrist specialising in treating those who worry about spending too time playing videogames has said pornography is more accepted than World of Warcraft.
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Sky, Virgin Media and Joost have submitted concerns about Project Kangaroo to the Office of Fair Trading. The firms say the in-development video-on-demand service could dominate the market and stifle competition.
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links for 2008-06-03
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Microsoft’s live search will be the default search engine on all PCs made by Hewlett Packard for the US and Canadian markets from January 2009.
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Adobe has made a move into online document sharing with the launch of the Acrobat.com community site. It allows people to create, store and share documents online, and hold web conferences to discuss changes. It was unveiled at the same time as the new ve
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Tighter regulation of the secondary ticketing market is being demanded by a group representing 400 musicians and their managers, who claim that a partnership between Madonna and Viagogo ticket resale site suggests the industry cannot regulate itself.
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Warner Bros quietly rolled out a trial version of an ambitious on-demand video website over the weekend, offering archives of shows including Friends, Smallville and Buffy the Vampire Slayer as well as web-exclusive content and social networking features.
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links for 2008-05-30
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There should be tighter controls on the management of the BBC’s website – in part to prevent it stifling commercial rivals, the BBC Trust has said. After reviewing bbc.co.uk, the trust said it was “an excellent service” but that its content had to be diff
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Dell is joining the burgeoning ranks of companies offering cut-down laptops aimed at the developing world and general consumers. The laptop was shown by Michael Dell to the editor of website Gizmodo at the All Things Digital Conference.
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In a new definition of a publicity stunt, Channel 4 and Honda last night turned to a team of skydivers to tackle the problem of viewers tuning out of traditional television advertising and sho2w a live skydive during the entire commercial break.
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Web measurement firm comScore has paid $44.3m (£22.4m) for mobile specialist M:Metrics, merging two of the biggest digital traffic research companies.
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NME is expanding its online offering by relaunching its mobile website with a searchable gig guide, discounts to its Club NME nights and music and video downloads.
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Google used its annual developer conference on Wednesday to show off its nearly completed Android system to about 3,000 computer programmers, hoping to cultivate more services and advertising. Features included a way to unlock phones by drawing a specific
Filed under Uncategorized
links for 2008-05-29
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The boss of Yahoo has said Microsoft is no longer interested in buying the company but that it “makes sense” for the two to discuss working together.
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The Disney Channel will be available free-to-air for the first time under an experiment in Spain that could herald a new business model for the Walt Disney property.
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Virgin Radio will disappear as a nationwide brand under the terms of a sale being negotiated by its owner, SMG, for between £50m and £60m ($99m – $119m).
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Horrific images of real stab wounds are being used by the government in a new mobile and social networking against knife crime.
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The new boss of BT, Ian Livingston, will pocket a lot more cash than his predecessor, Ben Verwaayen, if he expands the business after the company announced changes to its boardroom pay policy.
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Virgin Media has stepped up its efforts to convince everyday viewers to embrace video on demand with a TV dinner-themed marketing campaign.The cable operator has commissioned several pieces of “food art” depicting hit BBC shows to promote the availability
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links for 2008-05-16
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CBS has agreed to buy CNET for about $1.75bn (£900m).
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BT signalled its determination to charge rivals more money for renting its landlines for the supply of phone and broadband services, as it reported annual results in line with expectations.
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With summer jobs in short supply, more young people are pursuing money-making opportunities in virtual worlds.
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There is little proof that playing computer games causes violent or aggressive behaviour, says an academic. Patrick Kierkegaard, a researcher at the Univeristy of Nottingham, believes video games to be “harmless” and not responsible for real-life aggressi
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Players of The Sims 2 will soon be able to add Ikea furniture to their virtual homes.
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Kangaroo, the internet TV joint venture between BBC Worldwide, ITV and Channel 4, is set to launch this autumn.
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Sky has overhauled its online video on demand service by adding streaming capabilities and rebranding it the “Sky Player”.
Filed under Uncategorized
links for 2008-05-15
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MySpace has won a $234m (£120m) legal judgement over junk messages sent to members of the social networking site. Victory in the case was awarded to MySpace after Sanford Wallace and Walter Rines, the men behind the junk mail, failed to show up in court.
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For the first time in three years the amount of pirated business software on UK computers has fallen. The Business Software Alliance’s (BSA) annual survey shows a 1% drop in UK piracy rates to 26%.
The fall comes against a decline in software piracy in -
A new type of identity fraud, which sees hackers tapping into VoIP accounts, has been highlighted by a VoIP equipment maker. Usernames and passwords from accounts are selling online for more than stolen credit cards, Newport Networks has found.
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Hackers have targeted GTA IV to spread viruses, a leading software security expert has revealed. John Safa, chief technical officer of software security company DriveSentry, said: “People are exploiting the popularity of Grand Theft Auto IV in a way which
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Article on the inexpensive Flip video camera that has captured 13% of the US camcorder market and is due to launch in the UK in June.
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Article discussing the impact of DRM and subscription based services on the music download market.
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The 3G version of the iPhone will be unveiled “in the coming weeks”, the boss of O2 hinted yesterday.
Filed under Uncategorized
links for 2008-05-14
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Hewlett-Packard has struck a deal to buy the information technology provider Electronic Data Systems (EDS) for $12.6bn (£6.5bn). The move will help HP compete with IBM and is HP’s biggest acquisition since 2002 when it bought Compaq for $19bn.
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Sky’s plan for a pay-TV service on Freeview has been placed on hold again after Ofcom announced the idea was to face further scrutiny.
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Nokia has admitted it needs to rethink its corporate communications strategy following the Finnish company’s bruising experience in Germany this year when a factory closure stirred a political storm and damaged its brand in Europe’s largest economy.
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Carphone Warehouse’s telecommunications business could become an acquisition target if it fails to buy Tiscali, industry analysts said.
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Carl Icahn has purchased roughly 50 million Yahoo shares since Microsoft withdrew its offer to buy the company, and is leaning toward launching a proxy contest to unseat at least part of Yahoo’s board, according to reports.
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Microsoft has launched WorldWide Telescope, a free tool that stitches together images from some of the best ground- and space-based telescopes. Collections include pictures from the Hubble and Spitzer telescopes, as well as the Chandra X-Ray Observatory.
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Nearly half of all internet users would support a voluntary code of conduct for bloggers and online commentators, according to research. A survey by legal firm DLA Piper said 46% of web users think bloggers should sign up to a code that reflected the laws
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Freesat has warned of a shortage of high definition set-top boxes available for sale “due to very high demand”.
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The commercial video-on-demand service being developed by BBC Worldwide, ITV and Channel 4 will be launched under the name SeeSaw, according to a report. The service, known so far as Project Kangaroo, may be delayed until next year.
Filed under Uncategorized
links for 2008-05-13
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Hewlett-Packard (HP) has confirmed that it is in talks to buy the information technology provider Electronic Data Systems (EDS).
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Google has joined the drive to make the web more social by introducing tools to enable people to interact with their friends. Friend Connect follows plans announced last week by the world’s two biggest social networking sites, MySpace and Facebook. Data A
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Dell is trying to reinvigorate its business in specialty gaming personal computers by abandoning several of its most popular models to focus on what it sees as its premium line.
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HBO and Apple are reportedly close to announcing a deal to make series available for download on iTunes.
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BT will today announce the full consumer launch of BT Podshow, an online TV portal which allows people to create their own television and radio serials and earn a living by linking their shows with advertisers.
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RIM has struck back at Apple’s iPhone by launching a new BlackBerry with high-resolution screen, fake leather casing and improved access to music and videos. RIM described its new model, the BlackBerry Bold, as “incredible speed and functionality, all wra
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Turning off analogue signals will allow Virgin Media to provide 100Mbps downstream speeds over its cable network “if we chose”, according to the firm’s chief executive. Neil Berkett said the combined effects of introducing the DOCSIS 3.0 transmission stan
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