Real gets into the DVD ripping business
Seemingly without the direct blessing of the movie industry, RealNetworks has introduced a new application that allows consumers to "rip" DVDs.
Set to debut before the end of the month, RealDVD will retail for $40 and will allow the user to copy a complete DVD image to a hard drive, though very likely in a format that only RealDVD can play. This would include the disc artwork and any extras that may be on the disc.
Plastic Logic displays newest e-book reader
More than two years after debuting the concept, Plastic Logic will premiere its first demo model e-book reader at DEMOfall in San Diego.
Like most other E-books, Plastic Logic's Reader is built around E-Ink's VizPlex imaging film. This Electronic Paper Display (EPD) technology can be found in the Amazon Kindle, Phillips spinoff iRex's Iliad, the Sony Reader, and the soon-to-be-available Readius from Polymer Vision.
Business software vendors impressed with Chrome's faster JavaScript
SaaS providers NetSuite and NETTime Solutions are already claiming that their applications operate more quickly with Google's Chrome than with any other browser. Will larger applications vendors start optimizing for Chrome soon, too?
Within the first week of its existence, Google's new Chrome browser has drawn official support from NetSuite and several other business software-as-a-service (SaaS) vendors, with some declaring that their applications run better with Chrome than with Internet Explorer or Firefox.
How dangerous are the first Google Chrome vulnerabilities?
A pair of security holes whose proofs-of-concept were validated by BetaNews show that Google Chrome may not have been as thoroughly inspected as Google would have us believe. But isn't finding bugs and holes what beta testing is all about?
A beta test is not a product debut, at least not by definition. So the discovery of the first few serious security vulnerabilities in Google's Chrome shouldn't, in and of themselves, raise alarm bells. However, one may rationally wonder why a project that was in the works for at least two years, if not four, wasn't able to find these same security holes long before the independent researchers did.
Mozilla's Aza Raskin: The journey back to Ubiquity
In an in-depth interview with BetaNews, the user experience chief of Mozilla Labs discusses a unique journey of discovery, backtracking through the groundbreaking work of his own father to rediscover the power of the command line.
He is the son of the man said to be the father of the Macintosh. As Aza Raskin told BetaNews, to this day, he still comes across papers or lecture notes or sketches that introduce him a little more to Jef Raskin, a man who passed away way too soon. And he continues his father's legacy, working now with Mozilla Labs to generate more sensible ways for people to use computers. A large part of his job consists of evangelizing a community of developers and users, generating interest in a new project called Ubiquity -- an experiment in endowing Firefox with a versatile, interpreter-driven command line.
Red Hat buys virtualization specialist Qumranet
The Linux vendor will now add KVM to its existing hypervisor-based approach to virtualization, an advantage the company envisions as providing as complete a portfolio as VMware, Microsoft, and Xen.
In a move that gives Red Hat new ways of managing Windows and Linux desktops, the Linux vendor on Thursday acquired virtualization player Qumranet.
Analysts: Online news viewers rising as newspaper readership falls
Newspaper readership is down -- especially among younger adults -- and so is newspaper circulation. But online TV viewing is on the rise overall, with news the most popular content category.
Consumers seem to be getting more of their news online these days and less of it from newspapers and traditional broadcast TV, suggest the results of some industry surveys.
Where does Sarah Palin stand on technology issues?
While Gov. Palin is fairly new to the political scene nationwide, the Alaska native's stance on key topics may give clues into the policies she would support if she were elected Vice President.
[M.E.'s NOTE: BetaNews contacted the press office of Gov. Sarah Palin earlier this week, and received assurances that we would be receiving responses to our inquiries about the governor's position on critical technology issues, five of which we listed and explained in detail. This has been the week of the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, so any number of reasons may have delayed the press office's final response to us. However, they were aware of our already-once-postponed deadline, so in the interest of absolute fairness -- especially since we already profiled Sen. Joe Biden last week -- we will proceed with as thorough an assessment as we possibly can of Gov. Palin, given the information we do have.]
Adobe Flash to deliver NFL games in full
The National Football League, NBC Sports, and Adobe have announced their collaboration on Sunday Night Football Extra -- full-length live streams of NFL Sunday night football games.
Delivered in Adobe Flash, the games are promised to include the ability for viewers to change their camera angles, as well as access live statistics, in-game highlights, picture-in-picture views, and live blogs from color commentators.
Exclusive beta invitation from GameTap and BetaNews
Broadband entertainment network GameTap is searching for people who love to play games to join its beta program. Sign up through this exclusive invitation before the spots fill up.
Whether you prefer action games such as Tomb Raider, strategy games such as Civilization IV, adventure games such as Sam & Max, fighting games such as Street Fighter Alpha 3 and King of Fighters 2003, or puzzle games like Bust-A-Move and Columns, GameTap has them all playable for free.
Report: OLPC buy one, give one deal returns
Internet retail giant Amazon will be running the One Laptop Per Child "Give one / Get one" (G1G1) program for this year's holiday season, confirming announcements made in May.
Matt Keller, director of Europe, the Middle East and Africa at OLPC, recently told IDG that Amazon will be handling the sales of the G1G1 program due to its size and ability to handle a large volume of customers. The program will be roughly the same as last year's, where customers buy an OLPC XO to donate to a developing country and get one of their own in return.
No ruling yet in TiVo vs. EchoStar patent case
The judge presiding over the patent case between TiVo and EchoStar has delayed any ruling until possibly November, buying EchoStar some time and causing TiVo some short term duress.
TiVo's share value plunged 16.5 percent on Thursday as news of Judge David Folsom's plans broke, although it had rebounded nearly nine percent on Friday to nearly $8 in late afternoon trading.
Google Analytics starts tracking Chrome, with intriguing results
Since Google Analytics started tracking Chrome on Thursday, the new browser is showing a browser share of 6% or higher on some Web sites -- including BetaNews. But that's much higher than the under 2% share reported by Net Applications.
A follow-up look at Net Applications' hourly statistics for estimated worldwide Web browser usage share, conducted at around 2:00 pm today -- showed that Chrome achieved its peak penetration of 1.73% of the world's HTTP requests on Sept. 5 at 4:00 am EDT.
Comcast challenges FCC's authority in sanction appeal
In a filing Thursday with the US Court of Appeals in Washington, DC, the broadband service provider argued that the agency did not have the authority to impose sanctions in the first place.
The FCC's order did not fine Comcast, instead ordering the company to make changes to the way it handles traffic. Comcast had already agreed to make such changes on its own, including targeted throttling and a 250 GB cap on bandwidth per customer.
An ad about nothing: First Seinfeld + Gates ad omitted Vista
Just minutes after viewing the first installment of Microsoft's new $300 million TV ad campaign featuring comedian Jerry Seinfeld and Chairman Bill Gates, BetaNews' Tim Conneally filed this video to record his first thoughts.
BetaNews' Tim Conneally shares his first thoughts on the premiere Microsoft + Seinfeld ad. (Do forgive Tim, he started out thinking this was next Tuesday.) The premiere ad itself, entitled "Shoe Circus." (Tagline: The Future. Delicious. [Microsoft logo])Most Commented Stories
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