Facing pressure from Facebook, MySpace regroups
As competition heats up with Facebook, social network MySpace is set to launch a major redesign of its Web site next week.
While MySpace won't say so directly, it appears its new site design may be the beginning of an effort to slow its competitor's advances. Launching Monday, but not appearing across its pages until Wednesday, the redesign will change many of the most popular features of the site.
How LG's 'Scarlet' snared a global spotlight
Just what -- or who -- is "Scarlet"? A senior LG Electronics official explained that LG wants people all over the world over to ponder the answer. Yes, Scarlet is a TV series...specifically, a series of TVs.
NEW YORK CITY (BetaNews) - To help pull off the goof convincingly, LG hired David Nutter, producer of TV's "The Sopranos" series, said John Taylor, LG's VP of public affairs and communications, during a talk at this week's new Digital Downtown show in New York City.
Yahoo execs provide more details on Google deal
The headend of Yahoo's search results, come this October, will probably continue to look the way Yahoo always intended it would. It's the tail that will change, in a deal where Google has apparently been offered the tail first.
"We gain a right to use Google to backfill some of our advertising, and we have full control over that." That's the characterization Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang gave to the service Google will provide to his company, in a conference call with investment analysts early Thursday evening.
GTA IV leads surge in US video game sales for May
NPD reports that US video game sales were up 37 percent over last year, with Take-Two's blockbuster title leading the charge.
While Grand Theft Auto IV sold a combined 1.31 million units for both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, it appears at least for the time being not to be translating into higher hardware sales as Sony and Microsoft had initially hoped.
AP sends anti-Drudge blogger a DMCA takedown notice
On June 10, the Associated Press sent Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedown orders to Rogers Cadenhead's site The Drudge Retort for seven different articles the news service claims violated copyright.
Drudge Retort is painted as a liberal alternative to the Drudge Report and receives editorial content from about 25 writers. The Associated Press found six instances of bloggers recycling AP copyrighted material, and one instance of a commenter doing the same.
Canadian copyright reform bill to lock down digital content
A sweeping copyright reform bill officially introduced in the Canadian Parliament yesterday would impose stiff penalties on individuals circumventing DRM protection, including on TV programming, and would illegalize DRM-breaking tools.
Canada's Industry Minister Jim Prentice (Con. - Alberta) and Heritage Minister Josee Verner (Con. - Quebec) have introduced a copyright reform bill that updates regulations on digital rights management, file sharing, and penalties associated with trading copyrighted materials.
FCC debates regulation of wireless early termination fees
With complaints to the FCC rising over the long-held practice of fining those who end their cellular contracts early, the agency looks poised to intervene. And for the first time, all sides may be nearing some sort of agreement.
Yesterday afternoon, FCC commissioners heard testimony from consumer advocate groups and carriers alike, and there seemed to be at least some agreement among all parties on the subject of early termination fees (ETFs). Chairman Kevin Martin has taken the lead on the subject, questioning the reasoning for the fee that has become a common part of everyday life with wireless devices.
Concept video from Mozilla Labs gets developers thinking, talking
A typical developer may often leave a major developers' conference thinking that most everything relating to how a graphical operating system works, has already been invented. But a new video from Mozilla Labs blows away that illusion.
A new set of conceptual videos produced by Mozilla Labs engineer and user experience chief Aza Raskin -- the son of the late, legendary Apple Macintosh and Xerox PARC user interface designer Jef Raskin -- offers some completely new ideas for how a Web browser, ostensibly a future version of Firefox for mobile, would work on touch-capable handsets.
Physics engine could become common in future ATI cards
AMD and physics simulation tools provider Havok announced they will work together to study the benefits of optimizing the Havok Physics engine for future AMD CPUs and ATI video cards.
AMD elected to work with Intel-owned Havok after NVidia wisely snapped up Ageia, which is best known for its PhysX physics engine. A possible working relationship between AMD for the PhysX engine hasn't been ruled out by AMD, though nothing has been confirmed by the CPU maker.
Google, Yahoo make the deal: AdSense on Yahoo Search
Late Thursday afternoon, the news came from Google that it will indeed become a full-time provider of AdSense advertising for Yahoo's search pages, and the two companies' IM protocols will become interoperable.
Under the deal, as Google's announcement today describes it, Yahoo will become a carrier of AdSense-driven contextual ads not only within its own search pages, but also optionally for other services that it hosts. But Yahoo will continue to provide the search functionality -- it is not sublicensing Google's search to substitute for its own, or making any kind of a deal that passes control of Yahoo Search over to Google.
Sirius + XM merger still under fire from broadcasters, legislators
A senior Republican US Senator has accused Sirius Satellite Radio CEO Mel Karmazin of misleading Congress and the Justice Dept. about the XM + Sirius merger deal. But this round of opposition has a familiar flavor to it.
Sen. Sam Brownback (R - Kansas), ranking member of the Joint Economic Committee, has long opposed the XM + Sirius merger, saying in April that the Department of Justice had "made a mistake" last March when it found nothing anti-competitive about the combination of the two satellite radio companies.
Opera releases version 9.5
In its plan to gain back usage share it has steadily been losing to Firefox in recent months, Opera this morning released version 9.5 of its Web browsers for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
What do consumers want in an HDTV?
How many consumers base their HDTV purchase decisions around style? At the CEA's Digital Downtown show in New York today, panelists discussed whether consumers will still pay a premium to be fashionable, especially with gas at $4/gallon.
NEW YORK CITY (BetaNews) - Are consumers still willing to pay a premium to keep pace with fashion? Evidently, some CE manufacturers are gambling they will.
Monster Cable announces a wireless HD combo system
Building upon technology from Sigma Designs Inc., renowned cabling company Monster has announced the upcoming availability of its Wireless Digital Express HD wireless HD and ultra-wideband-over coaxial system.
The system will require two boxes: a transmitter that connects to the media components (DVD, Blu-ray, and set top boxes), and a receiver that connects to the TV's HDMI port.
Are Web services replacing some consumer hardware?
Will Web services fulfill the same functions found on today's CE devices? Some panelists answered "yes" and others "no," during a panel presentation at a pre-CES briefing in New York today.
NEW YORK CITY (BetaNews) - On the first day of the new "Digital Downtown" show,
Adam Guy, general manager for telecommunications for Web analytics service Compete Inc., argued that consumers tend to look at new software and services simply as new alternatives, or "adds," rather than as replacements for devices.
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