Archive for January, 2007
“Although online video is often free to consumers—just think of YouTube or CBS’s Innertube service—it still makes big advertising dollars. When you combine ad revenues from the free sites with money from pay services like Unbox, iTunes, and CinemaNow, the online video market is already pulling in $538 million in the US alone. That’s not bad, but it’s poised to grow more than tenfold in only six years…” (Read full article here)
January 31st, 2007
“After 36 years of whirring and clunking, the floppy disk is about to join the video player, cassette deck and film camera on the technology scrapheap. The Hertfordshire-based PC World, Britain’s largest computer retail chain, plans to stop selling the 3½in (8.9cm) piece of plastic when stocks run out. The retailer said that floppy disks, which hold 1.44 megabytes of data, cannot be realistically used for the type of computing carried out today. Computer users now rely on the internet and memory devices to transfer their data, leaving the floppy disk as a largely defunct piece of technology, it added…” (Read full article here)
January 30th, 2007
“Last year the Dutch tried to tax all MP3 players, but that proposal didn’t make it into law. But not to worry, they have other brilliant ideas. Earlier this week, Dutch politicians suggested that it might be a good idea to tax Internet traffic, and use this money to compensate the music industry. This, under the condition that DRM is abandoned, and people can’t be charged for downloads. Say what?..” (Read full article here)
January 30th, 2007
“Sony, the Japanese electronics maker, said today that its profit had slipped in the third quarter as it took large losses on its new PlayStation 3 game console. But the company raised its annual profit forecast following strong sales of its core consumer products, like televisions and digital cameras, and movies like the latest James Bond film, “Casino Royale.” Sony reported a net profit 159.9 billion yen, or $1.3 billion, in the quarter ended Dec. 31. That was 5.3 percent below the same quarter the year before, but well above analysts estimates that profit would drop by as much as half…” (Read full article here)
January 30th, 2007
“Aiming to wow millions of computer users, Microsoft Corp. launched its Vista operating system for consumers Monday with a series of flashy events in New York and midnight sales at stores around the world. Two months after arriving for business customers, the first major Windows upgrade in more than five years promises consumers a slicker 3-D look, improved security and search tools, and a many multimedia and entertainment features…” (Read full article here)
January 29th, 2007
“China, still working on its long-delayed homegrown third-generation wireless standard, has leapfrogged itself by launching the world’s first fourth-generation standard, state media said on Monday…” (Read full article here)
January 29th, 2007
“There won’t be a PC sold anywhere in the world that doesn’t have Vista within six months,” said Endpoint Technology Associates analyst Roger Kay, a fact that might leave ad watchers wondering why Microsoft is about to launch the product with one of the biggest marketing blitzes of all time. This will be the company’s “most aggressive launch ever,” resulting in an injection, across 20 countries, of an estimated $500 million into agency and media-owner coffers — which seems excessive for a product that will walk out of the stores on more or less every PC sold from here on in. (Read full article here)
January 29th, 2007
“Intel and IBM have announced one of the biggest advances in transistors in four decades, overcoming a frustrating obstacle by ensuring microchips can get even smaller and more powerful. The breakthrough, achieved via separate research efforts and announced on Friday, involves using an exotic new material to make transistors - the tiny switches that are the building blocks of microchips. The technology involves a layer of material that regulates the flow of electricity through transistors. The latest breakthrough means Intel, IBM and others can proceed with technology roadmaps that call for the next generation of chips to be made with circuitry as small as 45 nanometers, about 1/2000th the width of a human hair..” (Read full article here)
January 28th, 2007
“Chad Hurley, co-founder of YouTube, said Saturday that his site will start sharing revenue with its millions of users. Hurley said one major proposed innovation is a way to let users be paid for content. About 70 million videos are viewed daily on YouTube, which was sold to Google for $1.65 billion last year…” (Read full article here)
January 27th, 2007
“Do you ever find yourself humming a song whose title, to your frustration, you don’t know or can’t remember? New search Web site Midomi is designed to actually identify that song for you in as little as 10 seconds. Launching in beta mode on Friday, Midomi allows people to search for a song by singing, humming or whistling a bit of the tune. The site then offers search results that include commercially recorded tracks or versions of the song recorded by others who have used the site. The technology also lets people listen to the exact section of each of the results that matched their voice sample…” (Read full article here)
January 26th, 2007
“A consortium of movie studios and technology companies backing the encryption system for high-definition DVDs on Thursday confirmed that hackers have stolen “title keys” and used them to decrypt high-definition DVDs through flaws in DVD player software. Both the title keys and a number of decrypted films have been posted on peer-to-peer Web sites for downloading and copying, a spokesman for the Advanced Access Content System (AACS) Licensing Authority said…” (Read full article here)
January 25th, 2007
As much as 50 per cent of the world’s pirated movies come from Canada, prompting the film industry to threaten to delay the release of new titles in this country. According to an investigation by Twentieth Century Fox, most of the illegal recording, or “camcording,” is taking place in Montreal movie houses, taking advantage of bilingual releases and lax copyright laws.
Continue Reading January 25th, 2007
“AMD is out banging the drum about its four-core Barcelona chippery, claiming it will blow Intel’s rival Cloverton out of the water by being about 40 per cent faster. According to Pat Patla, director of AMD’s server worksation division, Barcelona is a new processor design, 90 per cent of which is brand new. He reckons it will make AMD the first firm to deliver a native quad-core X86 chip and its introduction will be as “substantial” as that of the original Opteron in 2003…” (Read full article here)
January 25th, 2007
“Microsoft Corp. late Thursday reported a 28% drop in quarterly profit as the world’s largest software company was hurt by the delayed release of Vista, the newest version of its flagship Windows program. Microsoft said it earned $2.63 billion, or 26 cents a share, for its fiscal second quarter ended Dec. 31, compared to $3.65 billion, or 34 cents, a year earlier. Sales rose 6% to $12.54 billion from $11.84 billion, helped by higher sales of server software and stronger-than-expected demand for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 video game player. The results, which reflected the deferral of $1.64 billion in sales and 11 cents a share in earnings related to a Vista marketing program, still beat Microsoft’s own forecast and the expectations of Wall Street analysts…” (Read full article here)
January 25th, 2007
“Time is a limited resource.. As much as we hate to admit it, we each only have 24 hours on any given day to ‘do things’. In December 2006, we had 44,640 minutes to do whatever our hearts desired — be it sleep, eat, watch TV, jump rope, or spend time online. So, the big question is, where DO we spend all our time online? Which websites are more successful in capturing our attention compared to others?…” (Read full article here)
January 25th, 2007
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