RIM finally distributes BlackBerry System 4.5, enables Pandora
The real reason people started buying Windows 3.0 wasn't really because of the wealth of new software made for Windows for the first time. Seriously, that wasn't the reason. By the time people learned about stuff like Lotus 1-2-3G and WordPerfect for Windows -- which were both going to change the world, if you'll recall -- they were already sold on Windows 3.0 for another reason: the smooth on-screen fonts. Because let's face it, Windows/386 looked like it belonged on an 8-bit computer, compared to Macintosh.
Late last night, the BlackBerry System 4.5 upgrade finally came through for users of those older-style units that actually look like BlackBerrys. In it, you'll find relief...in the form of the replacement of the thing that made the 8800s and older units look pale compared to the (slow) Storm, or the iPhone: the disgusting looking default system font.
The Pirate Bay loss: What it could mean
The four men behind the Pirate Bay torrent sharing site were sentenced to one year in prison and fined 30 million Kronor in damages this morning, after having faced charges from the Stockholm District Court of "promoting other people's infringement of copyright laws."
The court's statement to the media said, "By providing a Web site with...well-developed search functions, easy uploading and storage possibilities, and with a tracker linked to the Web site, the accused have incited the crimes that the filesharers have committed."
Sony Ericsson holds on for better days, or until the Idou release
Later this year, perhaps, Sony Ericsson might have some good news -- maybe from the release of its Idou phone, with its rumored 12-megapixel camera. But that better day is a long way off as the partnership posts its third straight quarter of losses on Friday, this time to the tune of $387 million.
Analysts expected losses in about that range after the group gave out preliminary guidance last month, so the effect of bad news on the company's stock was minimal. The announcement that the company would also lay off 2,000 workers probably didn't hurt either.
T-Mobile kicks off Sidekick pre-sale, announces ship date
T-Mobile, America's sole purveyor of the Sidekick, begins taking pre-orders today for the new LX version of the well-liked, swivel-screen handset. Customers reserving a unit by the end of the month including through this T-Mobile address will receive theirs May 12 -- one day before the device goes on sale to the general public.
Service-provider improvements to the latest version of the Sidekick include 3G support on T-Mobile's HSDPA network and better data-migration options for those switching from another T-Mobile handset. Inside, there's new GPS functionality; integrated Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter support via Skick-customized applications, including the ability to directly upload photos from the camera (now shooting at 3.2 megapixels) to MySpace and video to other social-networking sites; ShoutCast streaming-radio and YouTube video support; upcoming support for Microsot Exchange; and a 3.2" F-WVGA screen with 854x480 resolution.
Guilty verdicts in Pirate Bay case
We'll have more on this story later today, but be advised that the Swedish court has returned with four guilty verdicts in the Pirate Bay trial. Founders Frederik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Carl Lundstrom and Peter Sunde have been sentenced to a year each in jail and millions of dollars in damages.
The BBC has an early report, and Sunde, who was made aware of the verdict several hours before its official announcement, tweeted the results and noted that "Nothing will happen to TPB, this is just theatre for the media." Needless to say, an appeal is in the works, as is a press conference by TPB.
Court blocks webcast of RIAA file sharing case against Harvard student
Sony BMG, Warner, Atlantic, Arista, and Universal Music Group have been battling an intrepid group of Harvard Law scholars after 25-year old grad student Joel Tenenbaum was hauled into court for alleged copyright infringement through illegal file sharing.
In January, Tenenbaum and his counsel moved to invite the Courtroom View Network in to webcast the trial, feeling that it would be an issue of "keen public interest." While the motion was approved in the District court, the record labels involved in the case took the issue to the Court of Appeals, which today denied the District Court's ruling.
Time Warner retreats from plan to test capping subscriber bandwidth
After delaying its plan to test capping subscriber bandwidth usage, Time Warner has opted to retreat from the approach altogether.
In a statement today, Chief Executive Office Glenn Britt said, "It is clear from the public response over the last two weeks that there is a great deal of misunderstanding about our plans to roll out additional tests on consumption based billing. As a result, we will not proceed with implementation of additional tests until further consultation with our customers and other interested parties, ensuring that community needs are being met."
Founders Fund opens nominations for $50,000 TechFellow Awards
Whether it's a new investment tack or simply goodwill to the technology community in a down economy, early-stage venture capital firm Founders Fund is taking a unique approach to the tired award ceremony with TechFellow. Instead of celebrating a product or company, Founders Fund wants to draw attention to those behind the scenes who actually make the innovation happen.
12 fellows will be selected by a panel of 21 judges, which reads like a who's-who of Silicon Valley, including Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, LinkedIn's Reid Hoffman, Flickr's Caterina Fake, MySpace's Chris DeWolfe, former Yahoo CEO Terry Semel, Esther Dyson and Marc Andreesson, among others. Nominations (including self-nominations) will be accepted until May 8, with an awards dinner slated for June.
You can build your own photo mosaics with National Geographic
You know those composite picture mosaics, where thousands of individual photographs are combined into a single, large image? National Geographic Digital Media has debuted a photo community tool that creates an infinitely zoomable loop of that sort called Infinite Photograph.
The application takes between 200 and 500 user-uploaded photographs from the My Shot public database and turns them into the finished mosaic which can be endlessly zoomed through. Eventually, National Geographic says the tool will be turned over to users to let them build an infinite photograph out of solely their own photos.
Google posts its first-ever revenue decline
Describing the current economic landscape as "uncharted territory," Google CEO Eric Schmidt acknowledged that his company hasn't been immune from the prevailing mayhem as he announced the search giant's first-ever quarter-to-quarter revenue decline for Q1 2009.
Google on Thursday reported year-to-year growth of 9% -- the first time since IPO the company hasn't posted double-digit growth -- and gross revenue of $5.5 billion. Quarter-to-quarter, gross revenue dropped about $200 million, but it beat market estimates. Operating income was up a bit to 34% of revenues, or $1.88 billion, and free cash flow's in the $2 billion range.
There will be an Office 2010 public beta sometime, reasserts Microsoft
The news from Microsoft Tuesday evening of the first technical previews of Office 2010, coming in the third quarter of this year, referred to being limited to several thousand testers -- Exchange product manager Julia White told us perhaps a few hundred thousand, after all the invitations were processed. But a technical preview is not exactly a "public beta," so when a prepared Q&A Monday with Microsoft's senior VP Chris Caposella failed to mention a public beta for Office 2010, some bloggers and journalists came to the conclusion that there wouldn't be one.
So when Microsoft reported today that there would be a public beta, it was reported in various locations that the company had changed its mind. In fact, as a Microsoft spokesperson verified for Betanews this afternoon, not only was there no change of mind, but no statement regarding the lack of a public beta was ever made. Microsoft told Betanews earlier this week that there would be a public beta of Office 2010, though the company has not yet finalized a date.
Simple economics: Week one of the iTunes price change
Billboard magazine today said that sales of newly-priced iTunes tracks are trending downward as a result of last week's price increase. The publication's figures pertain to tracks that were formerly 99¢ and are now $1.29. A price increase of roughly 30% correlated to a 12.5% drop in sales. Meanwhile, tracks that were unchanged in price actually sold 10% more than the previous week, and sales were up 3% overall.
It is a path that labels do not want sales to follow. Before the changes went into effect, a major label executive who wished to remain anonymous, told Reuters, "If we can gain traction with $1.29 that will be good for greater margin."
Nokia looks up from bottom of well, sees the sky
For all those who find the stock market maddening, here's something else to add to your list: After digesting reports that mobile-phone makers Nokia saw a 90.6% year-to-year drop in net profit, the stock market sent shares in the Finnish firm up ten percent.
A few things are happening in this latest financial snapshot from the company. First, as you may have heard, things are tough all over. We're just hours away from the announcement of first-quarter results from Sony Ericsson, another major player in the mobile market, but no one's expecting miraculous growth for this or any other player in the sphere not named Apple, Research In Motion, or Palm.
Code-frozen Firefox 3.5 beta gains 4% more speed against Chrome 2
We may see the latest Mozilla Firefox 3.5 public beta -- now with the whole numbering thing straightened out -- as soon as next Wednesday, and quite likely a Firefox 3.0.9 update in the same timeframe. In the meantime, as Mozilla's developers test the final nightly build prior to the opening of the floodgates, Betanews tests reveal that regular Firefox users should appreciate about double the speed and performance of Firefox 3.0.8, and 450% the performance of the final release of Microsoft Internet Explorer 8.
But as Mozilla's developers make tweaks to its rendering engine and its new TraceMonkey JavaScript interpreter, Google's developers (some of whom, admittedly, are the very same people) are making tweaks to its development series browser, Chrome 2.0.172.6. (Google's development browser now co-exists with its Chrome 1 series, which represents finalized code.) As a result, our latest tests show Apple may not hold claim to "the world's fastest browser" for much longer, as Chrome 2 pulls within 2% of Safari's general performance, and as Firefox 3.5 makes up some ground.
Smartphone malware: Still the next big thing?
Conficker may have dominated security headlines this quarter, but Finnish security company F-Secure says the lesser-known "Sexy View" worm represented a new threat: the SMS and phone-based worm and the mobile botnet.
Sexy View is a social engineering worm which uses a device's contact list to spread. It sends a text message to all contacts with a link to a Web site that installs a malicious application that shares the phone's information (like its serial number) with the virus' creators. It targets devices running Symbian S60 3rd edition and was first found on Nokia 3250 handsets.
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