With writers still striking, is the Web substituting for TV?
According to one recent study, people are spending more time on the Internet than usual during the Hollywood TV writers' strike. According to another survey, more than half of all the people on the Web have watched online videos.
The Internet is displaying more and more of the ramifications of a TV replacement, if results of a couple of major surveys published this week are a good indication.
YouTube comes to the land of mobile TV
Wednesday's announcement of YouTube getting a Korean language portal may not have as big of an impact on the PC consumption of videos as it will on the country's mobile television standards.
South Korea is home to the world's first mobile TV standard, DMB, (digital multimedia broadcasting) that comes in terrestrial and satellite varieties. Broadcasting officially began on the DMB platform in 2005. Mobile TV penetration is logically higher there than in other countries, especially since T-DMB is provided free of charge in select regions.
Last.fm's free, on-demand music could reshape all of radio
In what may later be recorded as a milestone development in the music industry, CBS-owned Last.fm has reached a deal with record labels enabling it to stream music of the listener's choice, from its entire library.
Last May, analysts were asking what CBS Corporation could possibly want with an online streaming media provider in the UK called Last.fm -- enough to have paid $280 million for it. Today, everyone got his answer.
Palm confirms it will close its retail stores
Although the long-time smartphone maker will "continue to focus around core business initiatives," it's still unknown whether these initiatives will include a new home-grown, Linux-based version of the Palm OS.
A Palm spokesperson today confirmed to BetaNews that the beleaguered smart phone manufacturer and marketer now intends to shut down all of its retail stores.
Suffering Sprint fires execs, files patent infringement suits
Will Sprint-Nextel's strife never end? A week after announcing the loss of still more wireless subscribers, the cellular specialist today canned three more top execs while filing more lawsuits seeking financial damages.
While AT&T announced the addition of 2.7 million new wireless subscribers today, its suffering competitor Sprint Nextel fired three of its top executives and filed a patent infringement lawsuit seeking monetary damages from four smaller phone companies.
NPD: Free Blu-ray player deals led to boosted sales this month
A report from NPD Group claimed Blu-ray standalone player sales accounted for 93 percent of the high-def market for the week ending January 12, but NPD itself won't stand behind the numbers, saying they were leaked and that weekly sales data is not a long-term indicator.
According to Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis for NPD, the data "came from an NPD subscriber" and "wasn't approved for release from NPD." He added that the firm typically sees big fluctuations in sales volumes each week, and never makes long-term judgements based on weekly data.
FCC tightens its guidelines on DTV transition extensions
Less than thirteen months remain for US television stations to move off the old analog VHF and UHF spectra, into their new digital allotments. But even now, the FCC has to deal with stations that have yet to finalize their construction plans.
The zero-hour for the US' transition to an all-digital broadcast television system remains February 17 of next year. But only now has the Federal Communications Commission set what it hopes will be a hard and fast timetable for potentially hundreds of stations that have yet to begin even constructing or re-constructing their transmission facilities.
Samsung's BlackJack finally gets Windows Mobile 6
US carrier AT&T has finally given its BlackJack handsets a long-anticipated operating system upgrade, boosting it to WM6 just as 6.1 appears around the corner.
Rumors regarding the release of this upgrade to the popular handset have abounded, since both AT&T and Samsung have kept their release dates vague.
Vudu drops its price to compete with Apple TV
High-definition on-demand service Vudu has announced it is slashing its price for its console by 25 percent, perhaps in response to Apple TV's having replenished its own value proposition.
In the short few months it has been available, Vudu has tried numerous offers in an effort to eke out a measurable stake in the video on-demand market: First, it offered $50 of free movies with purchase, then it announced a tie-in with Sharp's Aquos HDTV line. Now, it's taking a cue from HD DVD by instituting a severe price drop.
IFPI: Music CD sales continued sharp decline in 2007
In what could be perceived as a signal of a thaw in relations between the recording industry and digital music technology, this morning's annual report from its chief international representative points to a turnaround in the piracy problem.
In its annual report on the state of the global music industry released this morning, IFPI, the trade representative for the recording industry worldwide, appeared to embrace digital music as the future backbone of the music trade, rather than as a problem that needed to be combated and overcome.
IBM rides the instant messaging wave
With its Lotus Sametime line-up, IBM is attempting to use instant messenging and "unified communications" to reel in new customers from new places, ranging from small businesses to Microsoft Outlook mail environments. Will the strategy pay off?
With new moves in instant messaging and the broader category of "unified communications," IBM is trying to lure customers from outside of its traditional Lotus Notes environment -- and it looks like this approach could be working.
Skype for Sony PSP delayed in Japan, still on track for US, EU
Sony's game unit announced the rollout of Skype VoIP services for the handheld would be delayed in Japan due to microphones not meeting specifications.
Problems with the microphone standards are being worked on, Sony said. The headsets, Sony revealed earlier this month, work with the newer PSP-2000.
Digg overhauls its definition of 'popular' articles
The social networking and news sharing site has always kept the precise details of its popularity algorithms a secret. But today, Digg did announce the nature of a change which could alter the entire meaning and purpose of the site.
Up to now, the way any online news publisher got one of its articles publicized through the Digg social service is by hoping enough people were interested in it to vote in favor of moving it up the Digg scale -- of giving it enough "Diggs." Starting today, however, that changes: The secret to a heavy publicity on the Digg service won't be having enough people, but having the right kind of people.
Yahoo is next to consider a DRM-free music store
Yahoo is reportedly in talks with major labels about a DRM-free music store. to offer them either for sale or for free in an ad-supported model.
Discussions are still preliminary, executives told the Associated Press under condition of anonymity. But now that the "big four" -- Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, EMI Group, and Warner Music Group -- have all begun the departure from digital rights management with their music tracks, and successes in the DRM-free retail sector in both Amazon's and iTunes' DRM-free stores have been seen, Yahoo looks to be in an excellent position to launch its own.
AT&T may follow Comcast in monitoring Internet traffic
Addressing the issue of global piracy on the Internet, the head of one of the world's largest telcos told no less than Earth's biggest economic summit that some kind of technological solution may be necessary.
At the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum yesterday, during a roundtable of world business leaders, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson was apparently speaking to the issue of Internet service providers' responsibility with regard to the theft of intellectual property. There, according to the Associated Press, Stephenson said he would not be opposed to his company filtering the types of traffic where intellectual property theft more commonly takes place, implying P2P.
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