Firefox Continues To Grow in Europe
Firefox continues to grow in Europe, with the browser share now approaching 30 percent. Meanwhile, Internet Explorer has gone below 70 percent.
According to data released Wednesday by XiTi Monitor, 27.8 percent of Web users now surf with Firefox, up nearly 4 percent from March. Slovenia holds the browser's highest market share at 47.9 percent, followed closely by Finland at 45.4 percent.
Ooma Launches $400 Free Phone Service
As one VoIP provider is laid to rest, another is born. Ooma today launched its long-awaited Internet-based telephone offering for consumers. While the company is entering into a crowded market, Ooma is hoping to entice customers with a promising offer: free domestic calls for life.
Compared to Vonage and other providers, Ooma's offer may seem too good to be true - and there is a small catch. In order to join the service, you must cough up $399 USD for the Ooma hardware, which requires a broadband connection. The device plugs into a standard phone and includes answering machine functionality.
PC Shipments Up 12% in Second Quarter
Both IDC and Gartner reported worldwide shipments of PCs were up strongly in the second quarter, thanks to surge in demand in the Far East and surprisingly brisk sales in the US.
IDC said that shipments were up 12.5 percent to 58.8 million units, while Gartner said 61.1 million PCs were shipped, resulting in 11.7 percent increase. The methodology used differs from company to company, resulting in the different figures.
Potter Publisher Sues File Sharing Sites
Harry Potter publisher Scholastic has gone to court in an attempt to plug the increasing amount of online leaks ahead of Friday's release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. On the online side, the publisher has filed suit against several peer-to-peer sharing sites and DeepDiscount.com, which had apparently already mailed out its copies of the book, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Approximately 1,200 books are said to have made it to customers' hands early, Scholastic said. In addition to the books being mailed out early, pirated versions of the book were said to be available for download through BitTorrent sites. J.K. Rowling, author of the book, begged those that have received the book early to keep it secret. "In a very short time, you will know EVERYTHING!" a note on her Web site read.
Microsoft Reminds: No Vista SP1 This Year
Following reports that Microsoft would deliver a beta of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 this week, well before the originally-stated November date, the company has taken the unusual step of issuing a statement to quell any expectation, saying no changes have been made to the release timeframe.
The first news of a Vista SP1 beta arriving this week came from Microsoft watcher Mary Jo Foley, who cited sources that said a release would be made to a group of select testers. Although Foley never specified how widespread the beta would be, and never characterized it as a public release, the news quickly circled the Web.
Google Goes to Capitol Hill Over DoubleClick
Google is finding itself increasingly having to explain its planned acquisition of DoubleClick, and is now being asked to testify in September as part of a broader Congressional inquiry into advertising industry consolidation.
The Senate Judiciary Committee plans to hold hearings in September, and the House Commerce Subcommittee on consumer protection will question the two companies in the fall, focusing more on privacy concerns.
Google Officially Expands Print Ads Offering
After expanding the service to a handful of AdWords advertisers in May, Google on Wednesday officially made its Print Ads offering available to hundreds of thousands of companies, adding more newspapers to the list of where ads can appear.
Google began testing print advertisements last November with 50 newspapers. That number has grown to 225 and a combined circulation of 30 million. Any advertiser that has a Google AdWords account can now select which publications they'd like to appear in, with costs starting at $100 per week. While many have been skeptical as to how well online text links would translate into print, Google says the response has been positive for both advertiser and publisher.
Sprint, Clearwire Team on WiMax Network
Sprint will work with fellow WiMax provider Clearwire on building its national "4G" network, the two companies said on Thursday.
The deal includes a roaming agreement between the two companies, and will lessen the strain on Sprint to quickly cover a large portion of the country. Sprint will focus on major markets, while Clearwire will build out in the smaller ones.
Rivals Fight for SunRocket Customers
Following news that Internet telephone provider SunRocket was shutting down its business effective immediately, the company's former competitors have swooped in to pick up customers left out in the cold. Vonage is offering two months of free service, while 8x8 and Unified Communications were picked as "preferred" providers for SunRocket users.
Those who switch to 8x8's Packet8 service won't have to pay the typical $100 activation fee, while Unified is offering a $12.95 special rate for its Teleband service. As part of being a "preferred" service provider, both companies will pay a fee to SunRocket creditors for every customer that switches. Smaller VoIP companies such as VoicePulse are also trying to gain a few customers from SunRocket's 200,000-strong user base.
Toshiba Recalls More Sony Batteries
Toshiba is recalling 5,100 laptop batteries sold around the world after three instances of the batteries catching fire, two in Japan and one in Australia. Affected batteries were manufactured by Sony in December 2005 for Toshiba's Dynabook, Dynabook Satellite, Satellite and Tecra lines.
The computer maker said the batteries in question were not part of last year's massive recall of Sony batteries, which affected over 10 million units shipped by Dell, Lenovo, Apple and Sony itself. The problems are caused by metal particles falling into a battery during production, causing it to short circuit. Toshiba previously recalled 340,000 batteries, and the latest recall follows one from Gateway last month.
Wal-Mart Debuts $298 PC
Wal-Mart began selling $298 PCs from Everex on Wednesday that use Windows Vista, are free of so-called "bloatware" and feature open source software.
The system features a 1.5GHz Via C7-D processor, which contains energy-saving features. Instead of using Microsoft's Office suite, the system ships with OpenOffice.org version 2.2.
PS3 Passes 1 Million Sales Mark in Japan
Sony's PlayStation 3 has passed the 1 million unit sales mark in Japan, game publisher Enterbrain reports. It took about eight months for the company to reach that mark, a half-year longer than it took competitor Nintendo to reach the same milestone. As of July 15, Sony sold 1.01 million PS3s, compared to 2.9 million Wii consoles being sold. Microsoft has sold 420,705 Xbox 360s in Japan.
Microsoft has always struggled to do well in the region, so its low sales numbers are not altogether surprising. However, Sony has always performed well in Asia, easily outselling its rivals. The PS3 has been on sale in the country since November 2006, with the Wii debuting the following month. The Xbox 360 has been available in Japan since December 2005.
EU Backs Nokia's Mobile TV Standard
Nokia scored a win Wednesday over U.S. rival Qualcomm, as the European Union officially selected DVB-H as the single standard for mobile television delivered to cell phones and other portable devices. The choice over Qualcomm's MediaFLO was largely expected by industry watchers.
The EU says that establishing a single standard will help the fledgling technology get off the ground, just in time for the 2008 Olympics and European football championships. DVB-H, or Digital Video Broadcasting for Handhelds, is also used in the United States, although both Verizon and AT&T have backed MediaFLO instead. The U.S. is unlikely to force a single standard, which could lead to a technology split between the continents like occurred with GSM and CDMA.
Cheaper TiVo Series 3 Coming Soon
TiVo's Series 3 digital video recorder has become an almost required device for any high-definition aficionado, and it's far and away the best DVR on the market. But a $799 USD price tag has kept the S3 confined to a relative small number of homes. TiVo hopes to change that with the Series 3 "Lite," priced at $299 USD.
According to product specifications leaked to the TiVo Community Forums, the slimmed down Series 3 will pack nearly as many features as its predecessor. Instead of a 250GB drive, the new version will include 160GB of space, which amounts to 20 hours of HD recording instead of 30 hours, and 180 hours of standard-definition recording as opposed to 280 hours.
EU Likely to Protect File Swapper Identities
While the RIAA has been making headway in the United States by suing anonymous alleged file sharers with just an IP address and obtaining their names and addresses from the Internet service providers, things could prove more difficult in Europe if a recent court recommendation holds up.
An advisor for the European Court of Justice has stated that Spain's Telefonica is not required to reveal the identity of file swappers so Spanish music association Promusicae could take legal action against them. Telefonica argued that it should only have to disclose personal information for a criminal prosecution, not a civil action. The advisor's opinion will be taken into consideration by the judges, which typically follow such recommendations.
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