Congress looks to address privacy concerns over online ads
A Senate committee heard testimony from the online advertising industry on Wednesday, as it attempts to address worries that some practices may violate users' privacy.
Among those who testified Wednesday before the Senate Commerce Committee were representatives from Microsoft, Google, and Facebook. However, the majority of the Committee's ire seemed targeted at NebuAd. This Redwood City, Calif.-based firm offers technology that uses data culled from packets provided by ISPs, which offer clues as to browsing habits. In turn, this data is used to deliver more relevant ads.
Flickr teams with Getty Images on licensing deal
The new partnership would allow users of Yahoo's photo sharing service to make their images available for licensing to clients of Getty's digital image service.
No timetable for the service's launch has yet been announced, however the images culled from Flickr would reside in a specially branded collection. Getty will invite select users to participate, and will select imagery based on the needs of its clients.
Rogers caves, confusion remains over iPhone sales in Canada
The Canadian cellular provider is now offering a data-only plan for the iPhone which can be attached to any of the company's voice plans, while Apple may or may not be yanking its phone from its own stores in the country.
Customers who activate by August 31 on a three-year contract would be able to select a CAD $30 6 GB data plan for the iPhone, which then can be attached to a standard voice plan.
Sprint's answer to its troubles: better customer service
With its customers increasingly churning to competitors, its executives leaving, and its reputation for poor service, Sprint needs to do something. Now, its new CEO suggests a focus on the customer.
In a wide-ranging interview with The New York Times, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse acknowledged his company is in dire straits.
Television is king, although younger viewers turn to the Web
The stereotypical picture of senior citizens spending their days in front of the television is not far off from the truth, although the nation's youth is increasingly turning to the Internet, Nielsen finds.
The average American 65 and older watches nearly 178 hours of television a month, far above the national average of 127 hours a month, up 4% from the previous year, according to findings published today by the Nielsen Company. However, an increasing number of people are using timeshifting technologies.
Alcatel-Lucent looks to collect from Microsoft
The telecommunications company presented arguments at the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, asking for a $1.52 judgment against Microsoft to be reinstated.
A San Diego court found the Redmond company liable in February 2007 of infringing on two patents related to MP3 technologies. That judgment came out of a case that was originally filed against Gateway and Dell in 2003, for using MP3 playing software in their computers.
Apple's .Mac to transition to MobileMe on Wednesday
Two days ahead of the release of the iPhone 2.0 software, Apple said it would debut the new online service for sychronized e-mail, calendars, and resource sharing.
.Mac subscribers began receiving e-mails over the past few days alerting them to the company's transition plans. Most of the service would become unavailable save for mail for a six-hour time frame Wednesday evening.
Report: Third-generation Toyota Prius to sport solar panels
When Toyota's popular hybrid gets a makeover in 2010, the car will now harness the power of the sun to operate its own air conditioning.
The first Priuses shipped in 1997 in Japan, and worldwide in 2000. Toyota last redesigned the car in 2003 to make it quicker and more efficient, and automotive analysts have widely expected another revision to come soon with additional enhancements.
Report claims Apple not happy with Rogers, carrier disagrees
A blogger says sources within Rogers are saying the Cupertino company is punishing the carrier over its meager iPhone plans, although the carrier says nothing's changed.
Canadian consumers are also up in arms: over 44,000 have signed a online petition on RuinediPhone.com demanding better plans from the company.
Pioneer to demo optical discs with 400 GB capacities
The Japanese electronics company says it has successfully developed a optical disc which includes 16 layers of data.
Each layer would be capable of containing 25 gigabytes, meaning the disc could hold 400 gigabytes of data in total. Such high capacities would prove beneficial to those content providers that offer multi-volume titles presently.
Google gets social with new iGoogle
Select users are now being treated to the next version of the company's portal, which integrates social networking characteristics into the site.
As things currently stand with iGoogle, users cannot do much more other than add widgets and customize the look of the page. This essentially makes Google's offering no more compelling than the dozens of other available portal sites out there -- and some may argue from the page's bland design any more appealing.
Reports claim that the 3G iPhone will include MMS
An Apple enthusiast blog claims it has seen an internal AT&T memo intended for its customer service representatives, stating that picture and video messaging are part of the new iPhone's feature set.
As iPhone Atlas mentions, AT&T's employees are not known for their accurate information. However, if verified, the emergence of this memo would mean the carrier is adding one of the missing features that the device has received some flak for failing to include.
Rogers, Fido detail iPhone 3G plans for Canada
Both Rogers and its smaller wholly-owned subsidiary Fido announced plans for the iPhone 3G -- along with the longest mandated contract length so far of any iPhone carrier: three years.
Rogers is Canada's largest wireless provider, serving some 7.1 million subscribers. Fido is the fourth largest, serving 1.3 million subscribers, and has been a subsidiary of Rogers since November 2004.
Vizio debuts new plasmas, introduces high-end line
The quickly growing company will soon have plasma displays as cheap as $599, and is showing an interest in breaking into the high-end market with its XVT models.
Plasma TVs have traditionally been more expensive, which has fueled the growth of LCD TVs as the primary driver of the HDTV market. However, with Vizio's two newest entrants -- the 32" VP322 for $599 and the 42" VP422 for $799 -- that could begin to change.
GPS real-time tracking products begin to catch fire
With GPS becoming more common in people's everyday lives, new products are making use of the information gleaned from GPS to provide real-time tracking applications for cars, people, pets, and corporate assets.
NEW YORK CITY (BetaNews) - At the Digital Experience press event on Wednesday, two companies in the GPS tracking applications sector took center stage: While Zoombak seems focused on the consumer, FindWhere offered similar services aimed at the business set.
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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