What's Now: First rollout of Office 2010 code due today
First rollout of Office 2010 code due today
Morning of July 13, 2009 • If you're feeling a bit damp this morning, look around you, because there could be a leak going on. Yes, as fully anticipated, there's clear evidence of a leak in the latest build of Office 2010, which is expected to be officially shipped to certain select Microsoft partners as soon as today. The leak indicates that shipment has already begun, and that Microsoft's "friend" is not cooperating.
How many strikes will France's HADOPI 'three strikes' law get?
If only the French government had had this much determination against the Nazis. The French Senate last week once again passed a version of the HADOPI online copyright infringement bill, this time adding a step after the three accusations in which a judge may choose among three penalties: a ban from the Net, a two-year prison sentence, or a $415,000 fine.
Those accused of "allowing" illegal downloading -- if a third party used their connection to do so -- would face a $2,075 fine or a month's cutoff from the Net.
How the iPhone has changed music
The creative end of the music industry is drawing ever closer to a nexus: a point where composing, recording, distributing and publicizing music meets. You could be holding it in your pocket right now, and it's not the same point of convergence sold by the ounce that drove the industry in the past. It's the ubiquitous, lionized, and oh-so-lucrative iPhone.
Recording
What geeks can learn from a plague
This episode of Recovery is not brought to you by unfortunate war-and-revolution metaphors for what are, in the end, simply disagreements over operating systems, professional sports, reality television competitions, or other non-combat-related features of life in the developed world. May these be as close as these metaphors' creators ever get to enduring actual warfare.
Even if neither you nor I are ever apt to be invited to a TED gathering -- which brings together leaders from Technology, Entertainment, and Design -- the TED organization's Web site has a marvelous collection of video of presentations made at its conference over the years. It's a great way to spend ten minutes or so when YouTube's leaving you feel a little slimed and Hulu is... look, you cannot keep re-watching the Warehouse 13 premiere. They'll air another episode next week. Until then you will simply have to calm down, and I'm suggesting that you're better off with TED, and not least because it's... applicable.
Silverlight 3 officially launches with smooth streaming, offline apps
Download Microsoft Silverlight 3 from Fileforum now.
After going live just a little bit early, Silverlight 3 is now an official release. The third iteration of Microsoft's rich internet application platform largely viewed as the chief competitor to Adobe Flash (but really an AIR rival) was officially launched this morning at a Microsoft event in San Francisco alongside Expression 3, the latest version of the company's design and development studio.
Orange music store goes DRM-free
Mobile network operator and ISP Orange UK announced that it has begun to offer DRM-free downloads in the Orange Music Store. Content is available from major labels Universal Music and EMI initially, as well as "a number of independent labels," filling out the catalog with more than 700,000 tracks.
Like Verizon's V Cast with Rhapsody in the United States, Orange Music Store downloads are delivered simultaneously to the mobile handset and PC, and can be transferred and burned at will. Verizon's parent company Vodafone went from protected WMA to unprotected MP3, last March.
Report: BlackBerry Tour being rushed out
Research in Motion's BlackBerry Tour world phone will be released this weekend on both Verizon and Sprint for $199, and while the device has been received warmly by reviewers and BlackBerry fans, a point of consistent criticism has been the device's lack of Wi-Fi.
A report from Sprint has arrived, saying that Wi-Fi is a necessary feature in major devices, but the Tour was actually rushed out. Bringing the new BlackBerry to Sprint in a timely fashion outweighed the carrier's desire to wait for Wi-Fi, according to the report. Consequently, a version of the BlackBerry Tour will be released next year equipped with 802.11.
What's Now: Angry day around the Net includes Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Mono
Microsoft has known about 0-day vulnerability for months
Since spring 2008 • Really, Microsoft? All the work you've put into getting right with the security community, and this is the result? Computerworld's mighty Gregg Keizer leads the charge on the news that Redmond has known about the recently publicized DirectX vulnerability for years. Years.
Before it can tackle Windows, Chrome must leave Safari in the dust
Download Google Chrome 3.0.192.1 for Windows from Fileforum now.
Just a few months ago, Apple Safari 4 could stake a claim to being the fastest Web browser available for Windows. But although its speed has improved even since then, especially in the second update since its official launch released late Wednesday, Safari is now as much as 30% slower than the latest beta of Google Chrome 3, released the following morning. This according to Betanews tests completed late Thursday.
T-Mobile's strategy to combat Apple's iPhone with Android
To put a bigger dent in Apple's growing command of the US mobile phone market, T-Mobile USA will start to use weapons ranging from hardware diversity to "usability," improved customer service, and new software applications, according to Cole Brodman, CTO for the mobile carrier.
"IPhones are great, but Apple's vision isn't as wide," Brodman contended, during an interview with Betanews at a New York City press event on Thursday.
Silverlight 3 goes live on Microsoft's servers
Download Microsoft Silverlight 3 for Windows Final from Fileforum now.
A day earlier than expected, though not without precedent,
EC's Reding: Government should act as broker for media downloads
In a speech delivered this morning in Brussels before the Lisbon Council, the European Commissioner for Telecoms and Digital Media, Viviane Reding, raised a point she's made before: that one reason piracy is so rampant on the Internet is because rights holders and media publishers have yet to produce a viable, desirable alternative for media consumers. This time, the phrase Comm. Reding used to describe piracy was "sexy."
But in a novel addition to her ongoing effort to produce a policy she calls Digital Europe, Reding suggested that her government could assist rights holders and publishers, enabling them to spend more time and resources developing that "sexier" alternative. Specifically, she proposed a system whereby the EU government could serve as the online clearinghouse for intellectual property rights covering the entire continent.
Sony TVs get Netflix, still no PS3
Both Sony Bravia connected HDTVs and the Sony Bravia Internet Video Link module now have access to Netflix on Demand, the popular service which has already found its way onto the Xbox 360, TiVo HD DVRs, LG Blu-Ray players and HDTVs.
Netflix will reside in the Bravia Internet Video platform alongside Amazon Video on Demand, YouTube, Sony Pictures, Sports Illustrated, Crackle, Slacker, Epicurious.com, Concierge.com, Style.com, and Dailymotion. Unfortunately, Sony's PlayStation 3 is not yet compatible with this service, and today's announcement did not mention the video game console.
Best Buy-brand TVs to get TiVo
Today, DVR pioneer TiVo and consumer electronics retailer Best Buy announced they will be working together to boost TiVo adoption and improve Best Buy's digital presence in the consumer's home.
A joint statement from the companies this morning said, "TiVo and Best Buy plan to investigate development of a unique user interface for TiVo DVRs purchased at Best Buy which would provide Best Buy a platform to more effectively market its digital content services, to regularly offer consumers trusted advice and guidance on the digital home experience, and to provide an ongoing dialogue with customers about Best Buy's various retail offerings."
LTE still lacks a voice
Despite what mobile carriers have been saying about LTE's readiness, there is still a fundamental problem with the deployment of an all-data packet switched network: its incompatibility with the old circuit-switched networks. Though LTE will support a tremendous jump in data transmission speeds on our mobile devices, it still cannot support voice and SMS functionality because those are built on the old circuit switched architecture.
Currently, there are a few ways this problem can be tackled. There is IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), the 3GPP-endorsed way that delivers voice and SMS through IP architecture, sort of like a big VoIP system. There is network hybridization, where the 4G network would only handle data and the legacy 2G/3G networks would handle voice and SMS. Finally, there is VoLGA, or Voice over LTE via Generic Access, a spec based upon 3GPP's GAN standard, which allows circuit switched traffic to be piped into LTE packets.
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