IAC to shed HSN, other properties, to re-focus on Ask.com
The owner of traditionally fifth-ranked search engine Ask.com, Barry Diller's IAC, will complete its break-up into five different companies within three to four weeks, and the company will hang on closely to the search engine.
"I expect [the] new IAC to exceed the current size of IAC," said the high-profile CEO, in making the announcement at IAC's annual shareholders meeting in New York City this morning. "It will be focused on an area of the Internet I'm still very curious about."
Internet ticket scammers strike Beijing Olympics
The International Olympic Committee said Monday that thousands of unlucky fans, including the families of some athletes, were victims of a sophisticated ticketing scam.
Unfortunately, many will not be able to find replacement seats for the events as tickets were already sold out for these events. Affected non-ticket holders reside in Australia and New Zealand -- there including the families of athletes -- as well as the United States, Japan, Norway, China, and Great Britain.
Details on LG's Netflix-enabled BD300 Blu-ray player, latest HDTVs
LG has released more information about its Netflix-enabled BD300 Blu-ray player, while also introducing new LCD HDTVs -- the "ultra-thin" LGX Series, and the LG90, a model with 1080p resolution.
NEW YORK (BetaNews) -- No longer does it need to be "Super Blu." In a meeting with BetaNews, Allan Jason, VP of sales and marketing, confirmed that unlike its second generation BH200 hybrid disc player, its third generation BD300 will support only Blu-ray, as well as streaming video content from Netflix.
Grand Theft Auto blamed after taxi driver murdered in Thailand
The controversial Grand Theft Auto is once again the focus of worldwide attention, after being pulled from store shelves in Thailand following the stabbing death of a taxi driver by a student who said he was acting out a scene.
According to the Bangkok Post, 19 year-old Polwat Chinno told police he was addicted to Grand Theft Auto and that robbing and killing looked easy in the game. In GTA, players can kill a taxi driver and take his vehicle in order to escape from police.
Hulu in talks about expanding online TV from US to Australia
Online streaming TV portal Hulu has reportedly been talking with Australian broadcasters about an advertising-based portal there, in a move that could thwart the chances of the ABC's new iView technology being used instead.
After launching a pilot of Hulu in the US last year, the two founding members -- News Corp. and NBC Universal -- sold a 10 percent stake in the portal to Providence Equity Partners for $100 million.
Congress' probe of target advertising expands to 33 companies
Microsoft and Google are among those who have received letters from four members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee expressing concerns over their online advertising methodologies.
The letter asks the companies to respond by Friday to eleven questions revolving around the subject of targeting ads to specific users, based on behavior or other disseminated factors. The congressmen are looking for answers as to how the companies engage in the practice and to what extent, as well as with regard to address privacy and legal concerns.
Freescale, others join open source mobile Linux effort
In an effort to effectively battle competitors and make a Linux-based operating system available for mobile phones, the Linux Mobile Foundation (LiMo) announced it has added several new members.
The most significant additions to the organization are Telecom Italia, Freescale Semiconductor, and PacketVideo, although Cellon, Escmertec, Loncheer Holdings, MIZI Research, Movial Corporation, SK Innoace, VirtualLogix, and ZTE also joined the effort.
Firefox 3.1 will try native Ogg video and audio, despite W3C
Should a Web browser be capable of decoding audio and video for itself? Mozilla is seriously experimenting with the notion, despite a turn of events in the open source community that may mean its experiment won't be a standard.
For years, one of the most significant debates in the field of Web browser development concerns the issue of openness versus choice. Specifically, should a Web browser support an open standard for embedding audio and video elements by default, or should it continue to enable Web site developers to include the formats of their choice, thus compelling users to download the appropriate, corresponding plug-ins?
IOC looks to wipe hands clean of net censorship dustup
The governing body for the Olympic games wants to make sure that nobody thinks it allowed the Chinese government to impose Web access restrictions.
International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge made the comments at a Saturday press conference where reporters grilled him on the subject. Rogge has stayed generally silent on the matter, although his press chief has not.
Yahoo's agreement with Icahn fizzles the boardroom fight
What had been built up to become one of the most explosive corporate boardroom battles in history, by multiple sources (BetaNews among them...guilty as charged), ended up being a near picture-perfect example of resolve.
Last week's Yahoo shareholders' meeting, which could have pitted the forces of Carl Icahn's investment empire against some of the founders of modern Internet media, ended up as a vindication of the board's plan, announced on July 21, to pare down its existing board membership to eight, and then make room for three new members from Icahn's slate, including Icahn himself.
Tool from EFF tests whether your Internet is being throttled
Just hours before the FCC slapped Comcast on the wrist for its BitTorrent throttling practices, the Electronic Frontier Foundation unveiled an open source tool for users to test their high-speed Internet connections.
Developers have said that up until now, tests for interference had been narrow and for specific categories, often very difficult to use. Now, the EFF's Switzerland tool aims to be easier -- at least at some point in its development -- while at the same time testing for a broader set of techniques employed by ISPs.
FCC finds Comcast in violation of net neutrality rules for BitTorrent blocking
The Federal Communications Commission has concluded its vote on Comcast, finding the cable operator in violation of net neutrality rules by a margin of 3-2, but it will not issue fines.
Democrats Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein, as well as Republican chairman Kevin Martin were reported earlier this week to have voted in favor of taking action against Comcast for secretly degrading or blocking peer-to-peer traffic -- specifically that used by BitTorrent.
Toyota developing a Segway-like transportation device
Better known for its automobiles, Toyota is now planning to move into the personal transport business with the "Winglet," scheduled to become available in the early part of the next decade.
The devices seem to share a lot in common with the Segway, which pioneered the category with its Human Transporter. In fact, the design of Toyota's "L" Winglet model looks quite similar.
Next-generation FireWire finalized, but USB 3.0 will be faster
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) recently approved IEEE 1394-2008, a faster version of the standard known to most simply as FireWire and used for connecting PCs with digital video devices or external hard drives.
"The new standard includes all of the amendments, enhancements and more than 100 errata which have been added to the base standard over the last 12 years," IEEE chair of the working group Les Baxter said in a statement. "This update provides developers with a single document they can rely upon for all of their application needs."
Police: Skip YouTube and upload eyewitness videos to us
Videos or photographs implicating members of the police force in acts of misconduct will soon be directly uploadable to the New York Police Department, representatives reported yesterday.
The announcement from Police Commissioner Ray Kelly came after a recent string of videos of NYPD officers engaged in questionable practices were posted on YouTube.
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