Articles by date
05 September 2010
Online television: Old-media firms are firmly in control of internet video (The Economist)
Like stallholders in a busy market, technology companies hawked their online-video services this week. In Berlin, Sony announced it would begin selling films over the internet to Europeans. In San Francisco, Apple unveiled a smaller, cheaper Apple TV, a set-top box designed to play videos. It also said some television shows would be available à la carte for 99 cents. YouTube, a video-streaming website owned by Google, is trying to cut deals with studios that would allow it to rent newly released films. Amazon too is reportedly trying to build a subscription service. But while technology companies are making all the noise, old-media firms are quietly steering the market.
Texas Probes Google on Ranking of Search Results (New York Times)
The Texas attorney general has opened an antitrust investigation into how Google ranks search results, the first United States case to strike at the heart of the company's main search business.
German court rules against YouTube over copyright (Washington Post)
A German court ruled Friday that Google Inc.'s subsidiary YouTube LLC must pay compensation after users uploaded several videos of performances by singer Sarah Brightman in violation of copyright laws.
Google Helps Users Learn What it Knows About Them (Wall Street Journal)
Ever wondered what Google knows about you? The Internet giant on Friday made it easier to understand and control the information it collects.
Saudi telecom shuts websites violating Fatwa edict (Boston Globe)
Saudi Arabia's telecom regulator has shut down three websites that were violating a government decree limiting the issuance of religious edicts to the country's most senior group of clerics, authorities said Saturday.
Is There a Relationship Between Online Safety Concerns and Broadband Uptake? by Adam D. Thierer [The Progress & Freedom Foundation] (Social Science Research Network)
Abstract: Child safety concerns are probably not a factor in broadband adoption. In my research, I have never unearthed any substantive empirical evidence suggesting a correlation between parental concerns about online activity and overall household broadband uptake.
Online advertising still doesn't pack a fraction of print's punch (The Observer)
You can have opinion (and hope, and aspiration) or you can have facts. Benedict Evans, at Enders Analysis, has just trawled through all the data of newspaper finances present and future - and he has concluded that one current print reader is worth four times as much as any prospective online website reader.
04 September 2010
ITU head: Cyberwar could be 'worse than tsunami' (ZDNet)
International cyberwar would be "worse than a tsunami" and should be averted by a global cybersecurity peace treaty, according to the head of the International Telecommunications Union.
Google to Simplify Its Privacy Policies (New York Times)
It's no secret that privacy policies on the Web are incomprehensible to most of the public. They're long, convoluted and contain acronyms and language that require a master's degree if you want to figure out what the company is doing with your personal information.
Net Neutrality: The Struggle for What We Already Have (New York Times)
For something that seems so simple and straightforward, "net neutrality" has sure created one big mess.
03 September 2010
Mobile phones and America's adults who text more, but voice calls the main reason (Pew Internet and American Life Project)
Overview: Texting by American adults has increased substantially over the past year, but still does not approach the magnitude of text messages exchanged by adolescents. Some 72% of adult cell phone users send and receive text messages now, up from 65% in September 2009. Fully 87% of teen cell users text. Teens text 50 messages a day on average, five times more than the typical 10 text messages sent and received by adults per day.
The future of the internet: The internet has been a great unifier of people, companies and online networks. Powerful forces are threatening to balkanise it (The Economist)
The first internet boom, a decade and a half ago, resembled a religious movement. Omnipresent cyber-gurus, often framed by colourful PowerPoint presentations reminiscent of stained glass, prophesied a digital paradise in which not only would commerce be frictionless and growth exponential, but democracy would be direct and the nation-state would no longer exist. One, John-Perry Barlow, even penned "A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace".
YouTube Ads Turn Videos Into Revenue (New York Times)
Last month, a YouTube user, TomR35, uploaded a clip from the AMC series "Mad Men" in which Don Draper makes a heartfelt speech about the importance of nostalgia in advertising.
Facebook: Teens want to unfriend their cyber-stalking mothers (Los Angeles Times)
More than three-quarters of parents on Facebook are friends with their kids -- to many of those kids' dismay
Number of Japanese internet crime cases hits record high in 1st half (Japan Today)
Police responded to a record 2,444 Internet crime cases nationwide in the first half of this year, a National Police Agency survey showed Thursday. The number, up 586 or 31.5% from a year earlier, represented a new high since the NPA started gathering statistics for Internet crimes, defined as crimes which use a computer network, on a half-year basis in 2004.
Apple, Google to clash in music space by Christmas (Reuters)
Google Inc is in talks with music labels on plans for a download store and a digital song locker that would allow its mobile users to play songs wherever they are as it steps up its rivalry with Apple Inc, according to people familiar with the matter.
BlackBerry should share data: UN (The Australian)
Blackberry's Canadian manufacturer should give law enforcement agencies access to customer data, the United Nations telecommunications chief said.
More U.S. Adults Embrace Texting, Pew Survey Finds (Tech Daily Dose)
A survey released Thursday found that U.S. adults are following teens in embracing text messaging, with 72 percent of adults saying they have sent or received text messages compared with 65 percent in a September 2009 survey. Adults, however, still have a ways to go to catch up to the 87 percent of teens who reported using their mobile phones for texting.
UN reveals global disparity in broadband access (BBC News)
The global disparity in fixed broadband access and cost has been revealed by UN figures.
Nigerian scam tops list of decade's online cons (CNET)
We've all received e-mails from deposed Nigerian princes asking for help in getting lots of money out of their country. But that's just one of several scams that made Panda Security's list of the most frequent online cons of a decade.
FCC asks for public comment on net neutrality proposals (BBC News)
American net users are being asked to help decide what ISPs can do to the web traffic flowing over their networks.
02 September 2010
China Will Require ID for Mobile Phone Numbers; Noncompliance Means No Service (New York Times)
The Chinese government on Wednesday began to require cellphone users to furnish identification when buying SIM cards, a move officials cast as an effort to rein in burgeoning cellphone spam, pornography and fraud schemes.
Blackberry loses more ground to Apple and Android (Computerworld)
In a continuing trend, more businesses are shifting loyalties from Blackberry to iPhones and Android devices as the relative newcomers make inroads into the corporate world. Three-quarters of the 200 businesses surveyed in the United States and the U.K in the study reported that their employees are choosing other than Blackberry, Sanford C. Bernstein Ltd. reported to Bloomberg. The number was 83 percent for U.S. companies.
NZ Police: Google committed no crime with Wi-Fi data grab (New Zealand Herald)
Police have found no evidence Google committed a criminal offence by gathering personal wireless internet data during its street view operation in New Zealand.
Will Russia's Bloggers Survive Censorship Push? (Der Spiegel)
With so many of their media sources controlled by the state or government-friendly oligarchs, Russians have turned to their bloggers to keep informed and give voice to their grievances and concerns. But many of those in power are now seeking to impose rigid limits on online freedom.
