262 Topics
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 | Earlier this week Apple was adamant that it would close the iTunes Store if the Copyright Royalty Board raised the royalties paid to music publishers, rather than be forced into either accepting smaller margins on the music downloads it sells or be forced into hiking prices. The way these things … |
| | Researchers tell us that, in the UK market, there were some 1.5 billion 'legal' music downloads last year. That's covering all bases, different devices and download services, but discounting the illegal file sharing trade. The Goddess alone knows how big the figure would be if you factored in dodgy P2P … |
 | Howdy and welcome to Crystal Ball Sunday #12: Built-In Home Entertainment and Automation . Linux is the perfect medium for set top boxes (aka Set Top Units or Personal Video Recorders (PVR)) because of its customizability, optimization features, and no cost status. Whether you know them as Set Top Boxes, … |
| | It was always going to generate plenty of publicity simply because it was the new Michael Moore documentary movie. It was always going to generate even more publicity because Moore decided to release it for free, on the Internet. The first time, as far as I am aware, that a … |
| | Some people, I have concluded, just have way too much time on their hands. Steve Jobs is probably not one of them, but I suspect that 'Grammar Girl' most certainly is. I also expect that this posting will fall victim to the grammatically correct squad, so have dropped a number … |
 | Google quietly introduced an audio search tool called[URL="http://labs.google.com/gaudi"] GAudi[/URL] this week in [URL="http://labs.google.com/"]Google Labs[/URL]. For now, Google is using to the tool for experimentation purposes to index political content on YouTube videos, but chances are they are exploring this for more than good citizenship points and will expand it at … |
| | A few months ago News Corporation announced that it was taking on Apple in the music downloads marketplace. Chris DeWolfe, the CEO of MySpace, said it would be starting up a [URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/03/technology/03cnd-myspace.html?_r=1&oref=slogin"]one-stop music shop[/URL] by spinning out the existing MySpace Music service to become an independent joint venture. The interesting … |
| | The other day I downloaded the latest version of iTunes and discovered the much-heralded Genius feature is a not-so subtle way to sell content on iTunes. When I heard about the Genius feature, I mistakenly thought it was like Peter Gabriel's [URL="http://byronmiller.typepad.com/byronmiller/2007/04/filter_tool_for.html"]Filter[/URL] tool, a very cool utility for iTunes, which … |
| | There's been no shortage of speculation about apple CEO Steven Jobs has up his sleeve for the media event he's about to give today in San Francisco at 10 am local time. There's even been a leaked [url=http://www.macrumors.com/2008/09/05/leaked-photo-of-4th-generation-ipod-nano-in-packaging/]photo[/url] of a new "taller"iPod that's also thinner and less costly. Apple today … |
| | A lousy way to start off the week on Wall Street. Stocks were down 250 points by 1 PM Monday, mostly from downbeat earnings expectations from financial giant AIG. Adding fuel to the fire was a modest spike in oil prices (to $115 per barrel) mostly due the onslaught of … |
| | According to [URL="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connected/main.jhtml?xml=/connected/2008/07/31/dlyoutube131.xml"]The Telegraph[/URL] newspaper here in the UK, British Members of Parliament are kicking up a right old stink about YouTube. Specifically regarding what it does, or more to the point what it does not do, to prevent sexually explicit and violent video clips from being posted. The House … |
| | Is your vendor giving you trouble? Won’t respond to your calls? Won’t help with your problem? Who you gonna call? Well, when I spoke to [URL="http://www.brentleary.com/"]Brent Leary[/URL], a partner at [URL="http://www.crm-essentials.com/"]CRM Essentials[/URL], yesterday, Leary surprised me when he suggested if your vendor won’t help you, go on [URL="http://twitter.com/home"]Twitter[/URL], find a … |
| | [I]Though nothing will Drive them away We can beat them Just for one day ~David Bowie, Heroes.[/I] That collective sigh of relief you hear this morning is probably the millions of YouTube users who are relieved that [URL="http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2008/07/15/youtube_viacom_agree_to_mask_viewer_data/"]Google and Viacom have reached an agreement[/URL] to protect their privacy. All I … |
| | Following on from [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2739.html"]my posting[/URL] two days ago, the [URL="http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/07/viacoms-statement-youtube-user-data-controversy"]EFF is reporting[/URL] that Viacom has issued a statement regarding the US court ruling over disclosure of those YouTube video viewing logs. Here is the statement in full: [QUOTE]It is unfortunate that we have been compelled to go to court to … |
| | Sometimes I am left almost loss for words, and today is one of them. Judge Louis Stanton gave a ruling in the federal court for the Southern District of New York which has, quite frankly, dismissed the right to privacy of anyone who has ever watched a video clip on …  |
| | Dish Network is looking a bit chipped, if not actually cracked or even broken – and maybe Direct TV is poised to pick up all the pieces and put the second-place satellite TV provider back together again. That’s the picture I’m seeing with Dish, which saw it’s shares drop by … |
| | Yesterday [URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zFiu3aqfmg"]a (slightly) risqué ad[/URL] for JC Penney made the rounds on the internet. It depicted two teens getting ready for a date by timing how fast they could get dressed. At the end of the ad, the boy comes over to the girl’s house and they let the stern … |
| | When I opened my mail box today and picked up this month’s [URL="http://www.streamingmedia.com/article.asp?id=10395&page=1"]Streaming Media Magazine[/URL], [URL="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000325/"]David Caruso[/URL], aka Horatio Caine on [URL="http://www.cbs.com/primetime/csi_miami/"]CSI Miami[/URL], stared out at me from the cover in his trademark shades. Not exactly what you expect from a magazine aimed at video geeks, but apparently Caruso is … |
| | [URL="http://www.newscientist.com/blog/technology/2008/06/always-read-small-print.html"]According to the New Scientist[/URL] it appears that Apple has decided to cover all bases when it comes to how iTunes is used. Apparently, buried deep within the [URL="http://developer.apple.com/softwarelicensing/agreements/pdf/itunesqtsitelicense.pdf"]iTunes End User License Agreement[/URL] is this little gem of a clause: "Licensee also agrees that Licensee will not use the Apple …  |
| | Where are Mulder and Scully when you need them to investigate a mystery? The paranormal technology happening I am referring to is the strange case of the UK House of Lords publishing [URL="http://www.youtube.com/UKParliament"]a handful of short videos[/URL] on YouTube. The idea is OK, in that it has been designed to … |
| | OK, so Barack Obama is not the first politician to 'get' the Internet, heck Al Gore invented it after all. However, sarcasm aside, what Obama has done is grasp the true power of the next generation Web: he has transformed political campaigning at a national level thanks to social networking … |
| | Today's edition of TechWeb poses an interesting question. With digital movie rentals coming on strong, is Netflix in a good position to grab a big slice of market share? The mail-a-movie giant hasn't impressed Wall Street with its efforts so far, although it does have a box-top digital set that … |
| | [URL="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/insight-into-youtube-videos.html"]Google has today announced[/URL] the launch a tool to answer the kind of questions anyone posting video clips to YouTube are always asking, such as: who viewed my video, how did they find it, where did they come from? YouTube Insight is free, and enables anyone with a YouTube account … |
| | [URL="http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/180843/mozilla-boss-attacks-apple-over-autoinstalling-safari.html"]According to UK IT magazine PC Pro[/URL] the Mozilla CEO has accused Apple of coming close to using malware tactics to install the Safari browser on Windows PCs via the iTunes updater. It reports that the latest version of the Windows iTunes updater, designed to make upgrading to the latest … |
| | YouTube Product Manager Jim Patterson has [URL="http://www.youtube.com/blog"]announced[/URL] the availability of new YouTube Everywhere APIs. These enable more integration of YouTube content and community into other websites, desktop applications, mobile devices, even cameras, televisions and video games according to Patterson. "For partners and developers, YouTube has grown into much more than … |
| | According to the Guardian newspaper, the much publicised reports circulating online and in the global print media that Sir Paul McCartney has struck a deal to put the Beatles back catalogue up for download on iTunes this year is simply not true. The story is that Sir Paul has agreed … |
| | According to the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) while the blocking of the YouTube website over the weekend in Pakistan was intended the worldwide outage that saw the popular video streaming service become unavailable to huge swathes of the planet was accidental. Anyway, PTA spokesman Khurram Mehran assures us it is … |
| | Who could forget [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Lech_Johansen"]DVD Jon[/URL], the Linux guru who was co-author of DeCSS? This Linux application 'unlocked' DVDs with content otherwise protected by Content Scrambling System (CSS) encryption and landed DVD Jon in front of a judge. Which did not stop him from continuing his quest to free audiovisual content … |
| | With Xmas fast approaching, one almost expects the unexpected. It would not come as a shock, for example, if a clip of a dancing cat were to be the most viewed video on YouTube this month, or for that matter one of some rather pathetic Harry Potter puppets, or even … |
| | According to a legal [URL="http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/lenz_v_universal/final_lenz_am_cmplt.pdf"]document[/URL] published at the [URL="http://www.eff.org"]Electronic Frontier Foundation[/URL] site, the copyright Nazis at Universal Music Group might have bitten off more than they can chew when they ordered the removal of a Dancing baby clip from YouTube. Stephanie Lenz posted a video clip on YouTube of her …  |
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