Articles about Cloud

Apple is rumored to be readying an on-demand video service that would let users stream iTunes Movie and TV show purchases directly from iTunes servers for playback. The speculation springs from a report in Apple Insider, which proposes that such a service would benefit users by eliminating the need for local storage of media files.

According to Apple Insider, Apple is now putting the finishing touches on "iTunes Replay" for inclusion in iTunes 8. But the report also noted that it appears undecided by Apple whether or not it plans to charge for the service. Apple Insider does not cite any sources at Apple as the basis for the report. When Betanews attempted to confirm this information with Apple today, spokespersons were not immediately available for comment.

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With Larry Heck going aboard Microsoft this week, Microsoft has hired yet another Yahoo executive in efforts to make a larger dent in the search engine market versus industry leader Google. At Yahoo, Heck was in charge of a laboratory that developed algorithms for more accurate searches and ad targeting.

Although Microsoft announced 5,000 job cuts a few weeks back, its search arm is still hiring, and at least three of its recent key hires are from Yahoo. Others from Yahoo include Sean Suchter, hired by Microsoft in November, and Dr. Qi Lu, appointed president of Microsoft's online services group in December. In a new job slated to start within the next few weeks, Heck will report to Satya Nadella, a senior VP in Microsoft's online services unit.

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Over one year ago, Southwest Airlines announced its intention of bringing in-flight wireless internet to its passengers.

Yesterday, Yahoo said the tests will take place on a single plane starting this month, with three more equipped by March, all running on the same Row 44 system they noted last year. What does Yahoo have to do with it, you ask?

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Major Linux and open source software distributor Red Hat today released JBoss Enterprise Portal Environment 4.3, an update designed to make it easier for Java developers to deploy rich applications and portlets on corporate Web portals. In one new feature, the 4.3 release brings support for JBoss Portlet Bridge, an implementation of the JSR-301 specification aimed at letting developers get JavaServer Faces (JSF), Seam and RichFaces apps up and running quickly without concern over underlying portlet development or the API.

Portal Environment 4.3 is also the first release of the environment to support the Portlet 2.0 (JSR-286) standard for improved management of portal-to-portal communications, caching, and the Ajax frameworks often used for composite applications, or "business mashups," in service-oriented architectures (SOA). At the same time, Red Hat announced that its upcoming JBoss Developer Studio 2.0 will contain portlet plug-ins and wizards geared to simplifying portal development for both Portlet 2.0 and Portlet Bridge environments.

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Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg paid $65 million to two former Harvard classmates who claimed he stole their idea for a social networking site, a law firm has revealed.

The settlement amount in the suit waged by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, Zuckerberg's ex-classmates, was supposed to be confidential.

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A public beta of an innovative, if ambitious, project originally announced in December is being launched this morning: Imagine if someone who normally sends you mail via your US Mail box outside your front door were instead to send an electronic document to an address that's keyed to that same postal address -- not your e-mail, but your street number. You'd have access to that electronic delivery location because, well, you live there.

That's the notion behind Zumbox, a service that relies on both sender and receiver to be interested in sending regular mail electronically. You may have read about this "electronic mail" concept, it's in all the papers. Zumbox's value proposition is that it may enable services like public utilities, print publications, and other firms that do their business with consumers using dead trees and postal carriers, to instead save the time and post electronic documents (maybe PDFs, maybe Word files) online to the very same postal address.

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As it turns out, Google did not develop a calendar and contacts synchronization platform all on its own. Rather, it licensed Exchange Server patents from Microsoft, in a deal that company is describing today as an "open" license.

This morning, Google launched its initial beta for a contacts synchronization service that enables individuals to share information for up to five mobile calendars and three e-mail addresses between devices, including iPhone, S60, BlackBerry, Sony Ericsson, and Windows Mobile phones. If that list sounded familiar, it's because their manufacturers are all on the patent licensing agreement list announced by Microsoft last December 18.

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Google has released a tool that allows Google calendar and Gmail contact data to be synced with iPhone and Windows Mobile devices. Similar to the Blackberry application Google released last year, Google Sync integrates a user's Google calendar data with the phone's native calendar. It also works with Google Apps accounts, but administrator approval must first be granted.

There are currently some limitations to the application. The iPhone, for example, cannot sync more than five calendars, and contact information cannot hold multiple numbers for fax, mobile, or pager headings, and each contact is limited to 3 email addresses.

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Rupert Murdoch's empire is sprawling, varied and, as everyone saw in yesterday's News Corp earnings report, hurting in the current economy. What does that mean for MySpace and the company's IGN Entertainment properties?

News Corp. files its Fox Interactive Media endeavors, which include all of those properties along with Photobucket, Hulu, Beliefnet and many more, in the "other" segment of its quarterly earnings reports. And Thursday's report was not cheerful; "other" reported a Q2 2009 adjusted operating loss of $38 million, down from a $23 million profit in Q2 2008 -- most of it due to weakness at IGN and News Digital Media (which operates mainly in Australia and has since been taken private by the company).

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Microsoft's MSN together with BermanBraun Interactive yesterday launched Wonderwall.com, a celebrity gossip site like the popular TMZ.com or People.com. Sites like these are in no short supply, but neither is their demand. Yahoo's top ten search terms overall are consistently dominated by celebrity names. 2008's top 10 from Yahoo, for example, included Britney Spears, Miley Cyrus, Jessica Alba, Lindsay Lohan, and Angelina Jolie. Google Zeitgeist year-end summaries have shown the celebrity search trend every year since 2001.

BermanBraun was founded in 2007 by ex-Paramount Pictures executive Gail Berman, and former Disney, ABC and Yahoo executive Lloyd Braun. The company focuses on providing the content and advertising on the site, MSN handles the rest.

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Online music streaming leader Pandora is indeed "putting a bid" on Palm's Pre, but the company's founder, Tim Westergen, doesn't exactly see the Pre as the only game in town. Westergren spoke with Betanews last night.

In an interview with Betanews, Tim Westergren said that while the personalized Internet radio provider is now working on software for the Pre, Pandora will also keep developing for Apple's iPhone. Other mobile platforms -- including a possible future application for Google's Android -- are still in the cards for Pandora, too.

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The number of Xbox 360 users downloading the Watch Instantly application from Netflix has now reached the 1 million mark, according to Microsoft and Netflix. Introduced less than three months ago, the application is designed to let Xbox Live Gold members use their TVs to watch movies and television shows streamed from Netflix to an Xbox gaming system from Microsoft.

By now, Xbox customers have used the application from Netflix to watch 1.5 billion minutes of movies and TVs, the companies maintained in a statement. Over 12,000 movies and TV episodes are available for instant viewing through Netflix, with a growing percentage available in high definition format. Beyond supporting Netflix streaming in the US, the Xbox Live Video Marketplace also offers more than 17,000 other pieces of standard and HD content.

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Maybe the cold weather had something to do with it, and maybe the ever worsening economy. In any case, online video viewing increased a record 13% in December versus November of last year, according to analysts at comScore. During December, viewers watched 14.3 million videos online, with YouTube accounting for 49% of the incremental gain.

In fact, considerably more videos (41%) got viewed on Google Sites than anywhere else, with 99% of the viewing on those sites happening on YouTube. Fox Interactive Media took second place, at 3.1%, followed by Yahoo Sites at 2.3%, and Viacom Digital at 2.0%. Microsoft Sites and Hulu.com tied for fifth place, each with 1.7%. Also placing in the rankings were AOL with 1.4%, Turner Network, 1.3%; Disney Online, 1.0%; and ESPN, 0.7%.

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Less than four months after buying games distribution and development specialist Reflexive Entertainment, Amazon rolled into beta with its own casual games download site on Tuesday, celebrating the occasion with a one-week trial offer.

The games available for free download from February 3 - 10 include Jewel Quest 2, The Scruffs, and Built A Lot.

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This morning, Google announced the availability of Latitude, a social location tool for Google Maps accessible through BlackBerry, Windows Mobile 5.0+, and Symbian S60 devices or the corresponding iGoogle gadget.

Users with Latitude turned on show up as an icon on their buddies' Map, which acts as an interface to launch SMS, Google Talk, or GMail communications. Similar to mobile social network Brightkite, Google Latitude's locations are granular and can be as specific as a user's GPS coordinates, or as vague as his hemisphere.

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