DirecTV the apparent winner in new deal with Viacom, 10-day blackout ends
A 10-day dispute between Viacom and satellite provider DirecTV ended Friday as the two sides consented to a new long-term agreement that put Viacom channels back on the air.
DirecTV customers lost access to 26 channels on July 10 after the company walked away from negotiations, claiming Viacom wanted a 30-percent increase in carriage rates. While the two sides did not disclose the financial terms of the deal, both Bloomberg and Reuters report that it is worth about $600 million, or a 20 percent increase over current rates.
Well done Microsoft for bringing Office closer to the cloud
One of the areas of this week's Office 2013 launch that received slightly less attention as the updated Office Web Apps. These are the light weight web counterparts of the ‘full fat’ desktop applications, and are Microsoft's answer to Google Docs. Existing users of Skydrive, Office 365, or SharePoint 2010 will be familiar with them.
The apps received various updates, some major and many minor. Most obvious is the Metro look and feel, in line with everything else you have seen of Office 2013. Excel gains the ability to insert forms, PowerPoint sees its rendering engine markedly improved, and OneNote doesn’t seem to get anything other than a lick of paint. All in all its an incremental improvement, and certainly nothing to make happy Google Docs users sit up and take notice.
Twitter fights for its users
Twitter will appeal the ruling of a New York Criminal Court, which ordered the social network to turn over the tweets of Malcolm Harris. He is an Occupy Wall Street protester charged along with several hundred others for allegedly marching onto the Brooklyn Bridge roadway on Oct. 1, 2011. The ruling came last month, after a series of legal back-and-forth actions.
Today, Twitter legal counsel Ben Lee declares that Twitter will fight back: "We're appealing the Harris decision. It doesn't strike the right balance between the rights of users and the interests of law enforcement". The case, and more significantly, the appeal is a loaded gun, pitting free speech against the state's right to prosecute and searing emotions about Occupy's crusade against the so-called 1 percent, whom some will accuse the ruling benefits. Twitter does the right thing, by protecting its users. But considering the statements Judge Matthew Sciarrino made in his ruling, do they have a chance to win the appeal?
BYOD apocalypse deniers suffer from post-PC depression
It’s a form of denial. In my recent post on the Office team dissing Windows 8, I noted how the lack of full touch support in Office 2013 undermines Microsoft’s efforts to break into the Post-PC space. And while I expected some push back from the Redmond choir, I was surprised at how many readers seem to be having a hard time accepting the reality of the Post-PC phenomenon.
Simply put, the PC as a technology driver is dead. Yet some people -- most notably, IT professionals who fear the coming BYOD apocalypse -- are determined to prop-up the corpse, slap some lipstick on those rotting lips and pretend that it’s still 2009.
Google+ wins me over
“Bigger is always better” is an expression we’ve become accustomed to over the years and while counter-intuitive it best describes everything that’s wrong with Facebook. The most popular social networking website is the best example of size losing over quality. Are we really satisfied with our Internet alter-ego living in the largest environment or the better one?
The American Customer Satisfaction Index has revealed rather interesting user satisfaction results on Facebook and Google+. Satisfaction is the word of the day and Facebook users don’t really get it, which is curious because there are more than 900 million of them. The satisfaction index rating decreased from 66 in 2011 to 61 in 2012. That's out of 100 points. Surely CEO Mark Zuckerberg should be concerned. Why? The sun shines brighter on Google+, which ranks 78 its first time on the index, equal to Wikipedia.
People don’t like Facebook, They like their Friends
VLC 2.0.3 improves Mountain Lion, Windows 8 support
VideoLAN.org has released VLC Media Player 2.0.3, the latest build of its popular open-source media player software for Mac, Windows and Linux. Although a minor refresh, version 2.0.3 contains two notable updates in adding support for Mountain Lion’s Gatekeeper, and fixing the QT interface style in Windows 8.
In addition to these updates, version 2.0.3, which is also available as a separate 64-bit build (not updated to 2.0.3 at time of writing), contains a number of minor bug fixes and translation updates.
Avira Protection Cloud 'technical preview' released -- get it NOW!
Avira has released a first public “technical preview” of Avira Protection Cloud, a simple cloud-based tool for detecting malware.
And we really do mean simple. There are no menus here, no toolbars, no options, settings anything else: all you have to do is launch the program, click “Cloud Scan” and wait for the results.
Which Firefox is right for you -- 14, 15, 16 or 17?
The recent release of Firefox 14 FINAL means the whole developmental cycle has moved on again, and as expected versions 15 (Beta), 16 (Aurora) and 17 (Nightly/UX) of Mozilla’s web browser have made their first appearances. Version 14 was a relatively minor release after the excitement of version 13, but versions 15 and 16 both promise some exciting new features as we reveal below.
Get a head’s up on what’s coming and discover which build is best for your personal needs with our updated guide to what the future holds in store for Firefox.
Shareholders reward Google, after paid clicks lift Q2 2012 results
Google shares rose about 3 percent in after-hours trading today, following a positive second-quarter earnings report that included subsidiary Motorola Mobility. Revenue reached $12.21 billion, up 35 percent year over year. Motorola contributed $1.25 billion revenue on its first listing in a Google earnings report. Without the subsidiary, revenue would have grown 21 percent.
The search and information giant completed the $12.5 billion acquisition in mid May, so Motorola only contributed for about 39 days to second-quarter results.
Microsoft Q4 2012 by the numbers: $6.2B charge saps record quarter
Microsoft closed its fiscal year in relatively good shape, despite globally slow PC sales that weighed down Windows division sales and product transition period that affected some others. The Redmond, Wash.-based company has a heap load of new products in queue for the next three quarters, causing some customers to delay purchases.
However, a one-time $6.19 billion impairment goodwill charge, related to the Online Services Business, and $540 million deferral led Microsoft to post a 6 cents-per-share loss -- or $492 million, after taxes. The deferral covers upgrade guarantees related to Windows 8's launch.
Senator Schumer sides with Apple and publishers in ebook price fixing case
A prominent Senate Democrat sided with Apple this week, and called on the Justice Department to drop its ebook lawsuit against the Cupertino, Calif. company. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) wrote in an opinion piece that appeared in the Wednesday edition of the Wall Street Journal that a victory by the DOJ could be detrimental to the entire publishing industry.
"The suit will restore Amazon to the dominant position atop the e-books market it occupied for years before competition arrived in the form of Apple", Schumer argued. "If that happens, consumers will be forced to accept whatever prices Amazon sets".
Why isn't Windows Phone more successful?
As Nokia reports its earnings, I can’t help but feel bad for the company's efforts here in the United States. To me, 600,000 units in North America (and supposedly that includes other devices besides Lumia 900) is not exactly what I would call a win.
But that’s just me. I’m a Windows Phone user. It’s a fantastic platform. The interface is gorgeous, and the OS is fast. I haven’t had issues with Windows Phone that I have had with Android. So in my opinion, the platform deserves a spot at the table with Android and iOS. So why hasn’t it been very successful?
Researchers take down botnet responsible for a fifth of world's spam
If you notice a huge drop in the amount of pharmaceutical spam you're receiving, you're not imagining things. Security researchers say they were able to take down "Grum", the spam server behind about 18 percent of global spam.
The process began when researchers blocked the botnet's command servers in the Netherlands and Panama on Tuesday. Grum's administrators acted quickly to restore the server, and shortly thereafter had set up new command servers in Russia and Ukraine. Researchers were still hot on their trail, and Militpas, Calif.-based security firm FireEye along with UK-based anti-spam group SpamHaus worked with Russian security experts to take down Grum again on Wednesday morning.
Marissa Mayer is not facing a Steve Jobs-type opportunity at Yahoo
I see an interesting trend among people emailing me to comment about Marissa Mayer: They see her hiring at Yahoo as some kind of trick by Google. Ms. Mayer is Google to the core, readers say, and she’s going to Yahoo simply as a commando to pick and choose future Google acquisitions.
No, she isn’t.
Crowd funding: How to limit the risk of getting ripped off
The Kickstarter website has moved crowd funding into mainstream media. There is virtually no news site, newspaper or TV network left out there that has not reported on recent funding success stories. You may have heard about Double Fine Adventure's million Dollar ride that got the ball rolling for some serious game funding on the site, or Pebble, the e-paper watch for iPhone and Android that managed to rake in more than $10 million.
People who pledge a certain amount of money often get something in return. In the case of Double Fine it is a copy of the adventure game that the developers want to produce with the money, and for Pebble, it is one of those iconic watches. Pledges can be retracted for as long as the funding has not ended. Afterwards, the money is only transferred if the funding has reached the desired goal. If that is not the case, backers are not charged a single dime. It gets fuzzy when a project has crossed the funding goal and reached the end of the funding stage. Once the money has been transferred, there is not really any transparency as to what happens with the money from that moment on forward.
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