Yahoo Betas New Audio Search Product
Yahoo on Thursday rolled out a beta version of its newest search engine, dubbed Yahoo! Audio Search, which will be able to sift through more than 50 million audio files, including music downloads, newscasts, podcasts, speeches and interviews.
The company says that it will be an "open" system, meaning it will crawl any type of audio file, regardless of its format or source. Thus, the major music services like iTunes and Napster would be crawled, as well as the smaller independent labels.
Napster Japan Coming in 2006
The race is now on between Apple and Napster to take on the largely untapped Japanese digital music market.
Napster on Wednesday announced a partnership with Tower Records Japan to bring a version of its music store to the country within one year. So far, Napster has opened music stores in the U.S., U.K., and Canada, with plans to launch in Germany in the coming months.
FCC Approves Sprint-Nextel Merger
Sprint and Nextel received FCC approval Wednesday afternoon to complete a $35 billion merger the two companies agreed to on December 15. The newly formed carrier, to be called Sprint Nextel, will have a combined 44.4 million subscribers, the third largest carrier behind Cingular and Verizon. The merger is expected to close shortly, the companies say.
"We'd like to thank the Commissioners and staff at the FCC for the many long hours and thoughtful review they've given this proposed merger," said Gary Forsee, chairman and CEO of Sprint. "The combined company will enable us to bring stronger wireless competition to all customers, expand our portfolio of consumer devices and data services that focus on content, media and entertainment, and deliver enhanced business and government applications that truly bring to life the convergence model of tomorrow."
FCC Could Rule on DSL Line Sharing
The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday reported that a vote to change the rules on DSL lines could come as early as Thursday. Supporters of the rule change acknowledge it would make it harder for independent Internet providers to offer high-speed Internet, however they feel it would also spur the telcos to build out broadband networks.
It is unclear whether or not there is enough support for the change from the FCC, which is evenly split between Republicans and Democrats in an attempt to keep the commission bipartisan. A motion to vote on the matter was not on the public agenda for Thursday's meeting, although it is expected to be added according to Journal sources.
XM Inks Agreement with NY Times
XM Satellite Radio announced on Wednesday it had entered into an agreement with the New York Times to offer content from the newspaper's properties across several of the service's channels.
The newly formed New York Times Radio Company owns New York City classical music station WQXR and produces short segments of content for radio based on New York Times stories.
Yahoo to Jump Into Blog Advertising
Yahoo on Wednesday unveiled a beta of the Yahoo Publisher Network, a self-serve advertising network much like Google's AdWords program that also includes features that allow publishers to promote their own sites.
The network will be available to American publishers initially through a beta invite program, and the company hopes to extend the ads to more publishers by the end of the year.
Shuttle's Heat Shield Repaired In-Flight
For the first time in the shuttle's 24-year history, an astronaut performed repairs to the spaceship's underside while in flight. Astronaut Steve Robinson successfully made repairs to the Space Shuttle Discovery's heat shield early Wednesday morning, further ensuring a safe return for the astronauts.
"It looks like this big patient is cured," Robinson radioed back after he was successfully able to pull several loose fiber strips out from behind one of the heat tiles.
Now Speaking at LinuxWorld: Microsoft
Attendees at this year's LinuxWorld Conference and Expo in Boston will likely be surprised to see at least one of the names on the list of speakers: Microsoft. The software giant plans to send Bill Hilf, its director of platform technology strategy to the conference to speak about the Linux/Open Source Lab at Microsoft.
According to an announcement, Hilf will discuss "Microsoft's viewpoint on the advantages and disadvantages of Open Source Software from a technical perspective." In recent months, Redmond has become increasingly critical of open source, saying it costs more to operate over time than Windows-based networks. Google said on Tuesday it plans to attend the conference as well.
ATM Fraud Jumps, Banks Could Stop It
Over three million consumers a year are now being affected by ATM card fraud resulting in losses of $2.75 billion, according to a report released Tuesday by research firm Gartner. The average loss per person was $900.
Criminals are able to access the bank account and password information through phishing and keystroke attacks on users. Since bank personal identification numbers (PINs) are often the same for both the online banking application and ATM card, a hacker can easily obtain access to a user's ATM account by looking for this information.
Massive School iBook Program Scrapped
A program that once promised to be one of the largest educational laptop deployments ever now appears to have been scrapped following a court ruling and announcement by the school board. Cobb County, Georgia was to receive more than 63,000 iBooks for both students and teachers across the district.
The decision by Superior Court Judge S. Lark Ingram said that money received through a special tax fund called the Special Purpose Location Option Sales Tax, or SPLOST, were only approved by voters to replace obsolete computers, not fund a program to give laptops to students and teachers.
Web Browsing Coming to PSPs in US
A software update originally made available to Japanese PSP owners that added Web browsing and video capabilities to the unit will be made available August 12, according to sources. While Sony is not commenting on any differences between the updates, it is expected that they would be quite similar.
According to ExtremeTech, users who do not wish to download the update will still be able to get the Web browser, as it will come bundled with some yet-unannounced game titles this fall. Capabilities for Web browsing are already available to players who had the game "Wipeout Pure," and instructions to exploit the software to view any Web site can be found on the Internet.
Sirius Grows, Reports Wider Loss
Sirius Satellite Radio may be turning the corner on subscriber growth, but the company is still struggling to make money and reported a wider quarterly loss Tuesday. Sirius also adjusted its subscriber guidance upwards, reflecting strong consumer demand for satellite radio services and momentum thanks to deals with its retail and automotive partners.
The company finished the quarter with 1,814,626 subscribers, an increase of 365,931 subscribers. Sirius now expects to have 3 million subscribers by years end, up from the 2.7 million previously forecasted. Net loss widened to $177.5 million, up from $136.8 million a year ago, however was down from last quarter's $193 million loss. Sirius also showed improvement in the cost to acquire subscribers: $160 versus $234 a year ago and $190 last quarter.
Apple Releases Multi-Button Mouse
Apple has finally come to save the day following years of requests from users to offer a multi-button mouse for the Macintosh. The Mighty Mouse, which looks very much like its one button counterpart, offers four buttons along with a ball that allows the user to scroll in just about any direction.
The Mighty Mouse can be programmed to act as either a single or multi-button mouse since the unit is encased in a seamless enclosure. Touch sensors will tell the unit whether the user is left or right-clicking, and the side buttons are programmable to launch features or applications.
Fox Backs Blu-ray DVD Technology
Fox on Monday announced that it would use next-generation DVD technology Blu-ray for future releases of television shows, films, and other titles.
The announcement marks yet another big win for the nascent format, and puts rival HD-DVD in a tough spot as more and more Hollywood studios back the Sony-created technology.
RadioShack Dumps Verizon For Cingular
In a surprising move, RadioShack announced that it was ending its five-year relationship with Verizon Wireless late Sunday, opting instead to sell Cingular Wireless at its more than 5,000 retail locations starting January 1, 2006.
The electronics retailer also announced that it had extended its partnership with Sprint to continue selling wireless for the company, as well as introducing Nextel pending regulatory approval.
Ed's Bio
Ed Oswald is a freelance journalist from the Reading, PA area. Although he has written across a variety of subjects, Ed’s passion and focus has been on technology and gadgets. His work regularly appears on tech news sites BetaNews, PCWorld, and Technologizer, and has been syndicated to eWeek, Time’s Techland blog, VentureBeat and the New York Times.
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