Facebook's UK unique users post an unexpected drop
The latest market research from the UK indicates Facebook is facing its first decline in unique visitors, after seventeen straight months of growth.
According to Nielsen Online, the number of British Facebook users fell from 8.9 million users last December to 8.5 million in January. This could signal a trend that users in the United Kingdom are moving to other services as many schools and companies ban the site from user access.
With Pi buy, EMC fights Microsoft for space on the Internet cloud
Unlikely as it seems, Microsoft and storage vendor EMC Corp. are colliding on cloud computing. EMC today acquired Pi Corp., a start-up developing a novel form of PIM software. Along with the deal, EMC got a former Microsoft exec.
Microsoft's cloud computing initiative will be getting new and potentially powerful rivalry from EMC Corp. with buyout of the still somewhat mysterious software start-up Pi Corp., and the naming of Pi's founder -- former top Microsoft executive Paul Maritz -- as head of EMC's forthcoming Cloud Infrastructure and Services Division.
Vocera announces a shareable, Wi-Fi-only handset
It may share a name with James Cameron's classic cyborg villain, but Vocera's new T1000 Wi-Fi phone system has more in common with communicators of the Gene Roddenberry variety.
Vocera's system of wireless handsets and communicator badges is built upon a Windows server and integrated with both the PBX phone system and the patient monitoring/supply management/point of sale systems. The server handles the call management, user profiles, and speech recognition commands. Devices are interchangeably assigned to a user profile and phone number, making them instantly re-assignable when shifts change.
Macrovision sells its games division for a big loss
California rights protection company Macrovision has sold off yet another of its properties in its move toward concentrating on the interactive video and set-top box market.
RealMedia announced today that it has acquired Trymedia from Macrovision for an undisclosed sum. In Macrovision's quarterly earnings call yesterday, however, it announced its gaming division had been sold for $4 million. Macrovision initially bought the company in 2005 for $34 million.
Apple poises itself to personalize future podcasts
A patent filing filed last January and published on the US Patent Office Web site Thursday indicates the company is looking for ways to give users more control over the content inside their podcasts.
Traditionally, the subscriber of a podcast has no control over the content within. Simply put, they subscribe to the content via a feed, and then the content owner sends them the content.
Google's founder steps up the rhetoric against Microsoft + Yahoo
The possible creation of a large, controlling entity on the Internet capable of driving traffic through specific routes, is "unnerving" to the founder of the Web's principal destination.
A casual statement to reporters yesterday by Google founder Sergey Brin has many wondering whether his company is preparing itself for legal combat against a possible Microsoft + Yahoo combination, should Microsoft's plan to sway Yahoo shareholders' opinion against that of its board of directors gain traction.
Microsoft's latest interoperability pledge: How free is 'open' now?
No move by Microsoft to share information with its competitors will ever be taken at face value, and certainly yesterday's new Interoperability Principle will come under very close scrutiny. Is this the opening of the floodgates the EC has been demanding?
In incremental, measured, if slow steps, Microsoft has made some efforts to comply with directives from the European Commission to make its software and protocols more interoperable with products from other manufacturers. Yesterday, the company surrendered one more boundary between its interoperability policy and the EC's dream situation, making a huge chunk of the information it published in response to the EC's order available to developers free of charge.
Bush grants funding to states for Real ID initiative
President Bush has apparently acquiesced to Congress' and governors' demands to assist in funding the Real ID initiative, with the appropriation of an additional $110 million in grants to assist in the upgrade of driver's licenses.
The Real ID project is aimed at developing a better system for identification when used as a method to gain entrance to federal facilities. This is seen as a counter-terrorism measure since it will ostensibly make it harder to fool the system with forged IDs.
FCC may approve DirecTV handoff to Liberty Media...somewhat
Three Republican FCC commissioners have approved News Corp.'s planned handover of DirecTV to Liberty Media, which would undo a deal that the FCC debated once already. But the two remaining Democrats have not yet signed off.
Both sides agreed to the handover in December 2006, which called for News Corp. to handover its 41% stake in DirecTV in exchange for Liberty's 16% voting share in Rupert Murdoch's media conglomerate.
NVidia premieres its ninth-generation GPU
With generational shifts in graphics processors taking place almost every 12 months now, instead of the 18 months GPU manufacturers prefer, the value proposition becomes more difficult each time. Yesterday, NVidia hoped it could make a play to the mainstream buyer.
The company's ninth generation of graphics processors burst onto the scene yesterday, in the form of the GeForce 9600 GT card, the first unit to feature its GeForce 9 series GPU.
DTV study: Most broadcasters are ready, most consumers aren't
According to recent survey results, most consumers are still virtually clueless about the upcoming DTV transition. More importantly, perhaps, it appears a lot of broadcasters won't even be ready for it either.
Although an unspecified percentage of broadcasters think they'll be ready for the nationwide transition to digital TV a year from now, most consumers are still in the dark about what will -- or what won't -- be happening on their TV screens.
Dialog: The final format war
Has the end of one of the most embarrassing disputes in the history of consumer technology come too late? Has Blu-ray won one war only to find itself facing a new competitor: video-on-demand?
The historic battle between VHS and Beta ended decisively at the dawn of the era of home-recordable video. VHS had plenty of time to enjoy the spoils of its success. A format war might have erupted at the dawn of the compact video disc era between two groups of vendors led by Philips and Matsushita, though they were able to come to terms in time for the sunrise of DVD's window of opportunity.
OpenTV may be the dominant player in set-top boxes
OpenTV, a provider of set-top box technology, announced yesterday that its standard has now been embedded in over 100 million devices worldwide. This spans at least 50 different cable, satellite and IPTV providers worldwide, and hardware from over 40 manufacturers.
Through the continuing support from international customers, like Sky Italia, the satellite TV provider for the Apennine Peninsula, OpenTV has continued to grow.
Flash and DRM: Does Adobe really have any choice?
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is taking Adobe to task for including DRM in Flash Media Server 3 and Flash Player 9. But does Adobe really have much choice, now that social networking sites such as YouTube are under pressure from content providers to implement DRM?
In an article posted today on its Web site, the EFF is now arguing, among things, that Adobe is using DRM as a revenue vehicle, by charging more for the latest edition of its Flash server.
Coming to a video site near you: more ads
Google announced Thursday that it will be beta testing a new AdSense program that would place ads in online video.
The company said that the new platform will extend across a variety of video sites, including Brightcove and Yume. Additionally, a number of social video sites including GodTube and others have signed onto the effort.
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