Yahoo Buzzes right past Digg
Web traffic analyst comScore is reporting that Yahoo's Buzz social news service has already overtaken Digg in unique visitors per month, even though the social news site is still only in beta.
Yahoo Buzz had an explosive first few months, showing that it could generate 90% of the traffic that three-year old Digg could in only a matter of weeks. Furthermore, users of Buzz have been found to be more likely to comment on Buzzed stories.
Samsung's co-CEOs quit in scandal-driven shakeup
Samsung's family line of succession has been broken -- at least temporarily -- in a shakeup that could pave the way for some reform at the scandal-ridden conglomerate.
With the now finalized exit of Samsung Chairman and co-CEO Lee Kun-hee, Lee's son -- long-time heir apparent Lee Jae-yong -- will be sent off to "humble working conditions" overseas instead of jumping into his father's shoes.
Opera Mini 4.1 full release now available
The next version of the up-and-coming graphical browser -- a popular alternative to what phone manufacturers typically supply -- has emerged from beta and is available free.
The latest iteration of Opera Mini, which has already been ported over to Android, promises an all-around faster experience on the mobile Web. In addition to intelligent text-completion for entering URLs to speed the browsing process, Opera Mini's servers have been upgraded to expedite page loads. In-text searching ("Ctrl-F") was also added to streamline content location.
Microsoft + Yahoo deal could happen anyway, if Icahn has his way
Fresh from forcing a reorganization at Motorola, Carl Icahn is now reportedly giving serious thought to trying to replace Yahoo's current board of directors, and engineering a deal with Microsoft.
Billionaire "activist" investor Carl Icahn has been busily buying up Yahoo shares over the past week, and he is interested in waging a proxy fight to elect a new board that would bring Yahoo and Microsoft back to the negotiating tablet, according to an article in Reuters which cites unnamed sources.
Samsung and LG join forces to combat Qualcomm, DVB-H on US mobile DTV
An agreement between Korea's principal developers of mobile digital television technology has paved the way for a direct agreement between them and the US' leading broadcasters for a standard to compete with cell phones and satellite.
Next February, American analog television stations will cease transmission, as their broadcasters complete their move to an all-digital standard on new frequencies, using the ATSC DTV broadcasting standard. So there will already be one over-the-airwaves standard for US broadcasters, and very likely Canadian. This has left many wondering, does there really need to be a second or even third standard exclusively for mobile digital television?
Sony to expand 'transaction-based game play'
The PS3 manufacturer said the feature that allows gamers to trade virtual items for real money will be expanded into two new titles to be released by its in-house game studio.
Those titles, The Agency and Free Realms, use technology from Live Gamer that serves as a secure back-end for online marketplaces. The company incorporated Sony's Station Exchange technology into its own product earlier this year.
Craigslist counters eBay's suit tenfold
After eBay sued Craigslist, accusing it of manipulating its stock holdings to dilute eBay's minority interest in the online classified service, Craigslist countersued yesterday, citing ten ways eBay has wronged it.
Yesterday, Craigslist filed suit against eBay in California Superior Court, San Francisco, asking for punitive damages, full restitution and disgorgement of profits, and for eBay to return shares acquired as leverage for unfair competition. Failing those, it's asking the court to force eBay to divest itself completely from Craigslist.
Dell denies it's phasing out its XPS systems early
While the enthusiast community was puzzling over how an entire product line that just replaced its flagship desktop only two weeks ago was being canceled, Dell found itself quelling yet another false rumor propagated by a major news source.
In a blog post yesterday evening inspired partly by BetaNews' inquiries yesterday, Dell spokesperson Anne Camden flatly dismissed as "incorrect" a Wall Street Journal story Tuesday that stated the company was making plans to phase out its premium XPS systems, beginning with four models next month.
Outcry over BitTorrent blocking stretches to Canada
Canadians are joining Americans in their outcry over ISPs allegedly blocking BitTorrent and other P2P applications. Now, two Canadian groups have now asked the privacy commissioner to investigate the activities of Bell Canada.
The Canadian Internet Policy and Public Internet Clinic (CIPPIC) is accusing Bell Canada of failing to obtain consent from its Internet customers around the use of deep-packet inspection (DPI), a technology capable of reporting on how subscribers are using their Internet connections.
Creative launches its Vado pocket 'camcorder'
Offering a device for individuals to keep handy just in case a "must record" moment happens ("Don't Taze Me, Bro" moments), Creative has unveiled its VF0570-P Vado Pocket Video Camcorder.
With 2 GB of memory, and 640 x 480 VGA MPEG4 videos recording at 30 fps, Creative's Vado has specs conspicuously similar to PureVideo's 2 GB Flip Video. The main difference between the two is the price. The 2 GB flip carries with it an MSRP of $149.99, while the Vado shaves the price down to $99.99.
Next Office:Mac will bring back VBA support
The Mac business users' community was in an uproar two years ago over the removal of a key feature of Office that was created, ironically, for Windows. Now, the company that "listens to its customers" is finding a way to restore it.
Easily Office 2008's most lamented missing feature for Mac users, the lack of support for Visual Basic for Applications -- Microsoft's first, best genuine effort at making its principal application engines cross-platform -- will return in the next edition of the product, according to an announcement this morning by the Mac Business Unit of Microsoft.
Sun expands its AMD quad-core server portfolio
Sun Microsystems today announced the launch of several server products based on AMD's quad-core Opteron CPUs, the product of what Sun is calling today an extensive collaboration between the two manufacturers.
The three main products in today's server launch are very similar to the current Sun offerings based on Intel CPUs. "Same chassis and form factor," except with AMD and NVidia technology instead of Intel hardware, a Sun spokesperson told BetaNews.
Sprint in court around $3.5 B Clearwire WiMAX pact
Not everybody stands in favor of the WiMAX deal rolled out by Sprint Nextel, Clearwire, and five industry partners last week. Now an affiliate in Illinois is taking Sprint to court in connection with the $3.5 billion wireless pact.
The affiliate, iPCS, charges that Sprint's WiMAX agreement with Clearwire and five other companies -- Google, Intel Capital, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House Networks -- violates exclusivity agreements within its own affiliation contract with Sprint.
NSA authorizes Seagate self-encrypting HDD for government use
Seagate's Momentus 5400 FDE.2 HDD has been approved for one of the most demanding security standards in the US government, the National Security Telecommunications and Information Systems Security Policy (NSTISSP) #11.
This marks the second time a federal agency has honored Seagate's product with security accreditation. Last Year, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) gave certification to Seagate's Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) encryption algorithm. This transparent hardware-based encryption powers the Momentus hard drive.
Stalemate on terrestrial radio royalties tightens with new Senate bill
On one side of the issue is the poor artist who never sees more than a dime for her work. On the other is the poor broadcaster struggling to earn a profit in a changing radio landscape. And in the middle of it all, as always, is Congress.
Last November, opponents of US House legislation to lift the exemption for terrestrial radio stations from paying performance royalties for recorded music, advanced a draft resolution pledging that the House would never pass such a measure, directly calling such royalties a "fee" and indirectly calling them a "tax." With little change on that front in the House, the stagnation now finds itself being duplicated in the Senate, with a proposal yesterday for an identically worded, possibly non-binding, resolution.
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