Articles about Cloud

This morning, AOL launched its latest version of Web Mail, which gives users the ability to tailor their Web Mail window with gadgets from the myAOL Gallery, and integrate their mailboxes with third-party mail services like Yahoo and Gmail. Additionally, the AOL Mail Synchronization feature that has been in beta testing since November has been added to the completed feature list.

Rounding out today's update is the ability for users to skin their AOL Web Mail page, similar to Windows Live Home and iGoogle.

Continue reading →

Web radio service Pandora has announced plans to start playing short audio ads, now and then between songs. The ads were first introduced on Pandora's Twitter feed. The company pledged to be "prudent" and "respectful" in delivering the commercial interruptions to the personalized listening service.

In press interviews today, Pandora founder Tim Westergren made clear this may be the only way the company can afford its now-higher royalties, while avoiding layoffs or even a possible shutdown. Yesterday, the company's Twitter feed read, "So you know, we did not take on audio ads lightly. We try to be extremely respectful of your listening experience, & p romise to be prudent [sic]."

Continue reading →

One of the canceled projects on Google's list last week was a surprise: a cloud application with at least the hope to become ubiquitous. It was called Google Notebook, and it was essentially a way for individuals to jot down notes in a way that they could be retrieved from multiple locations.

We learned today that Zoho, a cloud application provider that began deployment of some of its services on Google's App Engine just last month, is more than happy to pick up the slack. A Zoho spokesperson told Betanews today that the latest beta of its Zoho Notebook, which includes a plug-in for Firefox, will feature an interesting kind of on-screen interface that will let users who are logged onto both services simultaneously export their Google Notebook content (while that service is still active) directly into the plug-in, hopefully without change of format or function.

Continue reading →

Kentucky is just about out of luck in its attempts to leverage its own state legislature and court system for protecting online horse race betting from competition by overseas gambling Web sites.

The Kentucky Court of Appeals decided on Tuesday that the state does not have the authority to seize 141 Internet domain names associated with online gambling.

Continue reading →

It's too soon to know what will remain standing as new CEO Carol Bartz makes her way through the the halls of Yahoo, but here's a modest proposal from one admirer: Show some love to the BOSS.

I don't mean Bartz, yahoos (though could it hurt if you're employed there?). I mean Yahoo Search BOSS (Build your Own Search Service), the company's open search Web services platform. Amidst the thicket of advertising-based this and widgetastic that, here's a Yahoo project that thrives on mashing up searches. Remember search? Yahoo used to do search...

Continue reading →

It was never the legendary Wild West of the early Web (as if that ever accurately described the early years, then or in retrospect), but on Wednesday, Twitter gained a list of rules designed to reign in current and future mayhem.

Twitter's been flapping along with the sparsest of Terms of Service for quite some time now. No more: On Wednesday, Twitter support team lead Crystal posted a list of rules of the road.

Continue reading →

Expanding on its efforts to drive revenues from its online application suite, Google this week launched a plan to help authorized reseller partners sell, customize and support the Premier Edition of Google Apps.

Beyond the capabilities included in the free but ad-supported edition of Google Apps, the Premier Edition offers features such as Google Video (although we've learned today that may be scaled back), calendar resource scheduling, SSL enforcement for secure HTTPS access, and e-mail and phone support, according to a comparison chart on Google's Web site.

Continue reading →

Adults and teens alike use social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace more so to stay in touch with old friends than to make new ones, according to a new report by analyst group Pew/Internet.

Pew's study also found that the number of online adults with a profile on a social network site has more than quadrupled since 2005, from 8 percent back then to 35 percent today.

Continue reading →

Apple's App Store has added an iPhone application for managing mobile-optimized contact information slated to be provided in conjunction with .tel domain names.

New to the App Store since last week, the iPhone client software is one of several similar applications from Telnic Limited, the registry operator for .tel, an emerging domain directory service for lightweight contact information that looks likely to see widespread use.

Continue reading →

In Google's Mac blog last night, the team announced the developer preview of Google Quick Search for Mac (OS X 10.5+), what they call a much more experimental version of the app for iPhone.

The application acts as a quick launcher, a browser location bar, and a search field which allows the user to search for files or text on his own computer or on the Web. It even has one boxes for word definitions, mathematical equations, and weather conditions.

Continue reading →

All three Chinese telecommunications companies received 3G licenses last week from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and each has a different standard of choice.

China Mobile, the largest mobile phone operator in China, will build and operate a TD-SCDMA 3G network. The 3G standard is a Chinese development that differs from W-CDMA in that it uses Time Division Duplexing, a method of separating uplink and downlink signals and dynamically allocating spectrum to each. Over the weekend, the company told the Beijing News that its plan for the network includes a 58.8 billion yuan investment ($8.6b/ €6.43b) on some 60,000 TS-SCDMA base stations and have coverage in 238 cities.

Continue reading →

CBS' TV.com, a site formerly providing information about television programming has begun its transition to a video site, and is expected to announce some critical distribution deals today.

Numerous reports have surfaced that CBS has signed content distribution deals with PBS, Showtime, MGM, Sony, and Endemol USA (the company responsible for Deal or No Deal, and 1 vs. 100) that will bring a multitude of new shows to TV.com's streaming video library.

Continue reading →

Download Windows 7 Beta from Fileforum now (or at least try).

After adding some server horsepower to the Windows 7 beta download over the weekend, some testers did manage to receive working copies. That's not to say everything's working perfectly just yet.

Continue reading →

Newly bought out by Best Buy, Web-based music maven Napster is now looking into delivering location-based services such as notifying Best Buy customers on their cell phones about local concerts, said Napster's CEO, speaking at CES last night.

Addressing an audience at a CES mobile forum, Napster CEO Brad Duea pointed to a study by JupiterMedia analysts showing that, of all location-based services they'd most like to use, music -- at 11 percent -- is topped only by weather, at 14 percent.

Continue reading →

One of Intel's software stacks will run the Yahoo-powered Widget Channel, whereas the other will operate tru2way technology for applications that work across environments from different cable providers.

Both software stacks will run on top of a media processor, Intel officials said, speaking with Betanews on Sunday in the Intel booth at CES.

Continue reading →