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Hotels tack extra charges onto your bill when you raid the minibar–or if they’re really mean, when you steal towels. If a new Warner Music Group executive gets his way, your Internet service provider will be billing you each month for music downloads.
Jim Griffin, Warner’s latest top-shelf …
Original post by Caroline McCarthy and software by […]

Both Red Hat and Oracle had excellent quarters, but Oracle’s was apparently not “excellent” enough for Wall Street’s tastes. Its shares and the market went south on fears that technology spending is in decline. Apparently Wall Street didn’t notice that Red Hat actually raised its fiscal year 2009 guidance. …
Original post by […]

Three new models and a prototype to watch.
Original post by Gadgets, gizmos, and video games - CNNMoney.com and software by Elliott Back

I’ll let you in on a troubling secret: Ever since I married into a golf family, I’ve struggled to hide my lack of enthusiasm for the game (it’s impossible to hide my lack of talent). It’s not the sport itself; it’s the time it takes to play 18 holes. Granted, I’m a speed junkie, but […]

The predicted thinning of the herd of video-sharing start-ups launched in the last few years hasn’t–at least so far–gone according to naysayers’ projections.

Last month, Revver, the video-sharing site famous for splitting advertising revenue with videographers, was sold for pennies on the dollar. The same month, Stage6, the YouTube …
Original post by Greg Sandoval and software […]

It’s that time of year again when U.S. cell phone executives gather at the semi-annual CTIA Wireless trade show to show off new products and hobnob with each other. But this year it seems like some companies are working extra hard to clear the air before they hit …
Original post by Marguerite Reardon and software […]

In August, a Chinese antimonopoly law takes effect that will extend the nation’s economic influence far beyond its borders. (From The New York Times) Microsoft’s hostile-takeover attempt against Yahoo may encounter an unexpected hurdle in August after a Chinese antimonopoly law takes effect that will extend the nation’s…
Original post by Gadgets, gizmos, and […]

Jim Williams, the MPAA’s chief technology officer and senior vice president, says broadband providers need to filter out pirated material.
(Credit: Declan McCullagh/News.com)

HOLLYWOOD, Calif.–The Motion Picture Association of America is calling on broadband providers to pull the plug on copyright-infringing users.

Jim Williams, the MPAA’…
Original post by Declan McCullagh and software by Elliott Back

Early Robert Kagle investment multiplied many times over during the dot-com era and was worth upward of $5 billion at its peak. (From Reuters) eBay said Thursday that early venture capital backer and longtime board member Robert Kagle plans to step down as a director of the company…
Original post by Gadgets, gizmos, and […]

Complaints alleging “abusive registration of trademarks on the Internet” last year were up 18 percent from 2006. (From Reuters) The World Intellectual Property Organization ousted a record number of “cybersquatters” from Web sites with domain names referring to trademarked companies, foundations, and celebrities in 2007. WIPO, a…
Original post by Gadgets, gizmos, and […]

Earlier this week, I described some Registry tweaks that force Windows to shut down faster. Another weapon in the fight against interminable shutdowns in XP is Microsoft’s User Profile Hive Cleanup service, a free download written by Robin Caron.

Some programs and services don’t release their connections to …
Original post by Dennis O’Reilly and software by […]

Earlier this week I described some Registry tweaks that force Windows to shut down faster. Another weapon in the fight against interminable shutdowns in XP is Microsoft’s User Profile Hive Cleanup service, a free download written by Robin Caron.

Some programs and services don’t release their connections to …
Original post by Dennis O’Reilly and software by […]

Zoho is preparing to announce the public release of Zoho Invoice, yet another Web-based app in the company’s growing suite of paid business-focused services. Lately we covered Zoho People, a robust app for managing HR tasks.

Zoho Invoice is a clean, straightforward, and flexible invoicing service. I gave it a quick spin and was creating estimates […]

Microsoft’s Office Open XML may win last-minute favor from a key British standards body, but Microsoft would need more votes to change before OOXML becomes a standard. The British Standards Institution could change sides, days before voting closes, and register a vote in favor of Microsoft’s Office Open…
Original post by Gadgets, gizmos, and […]

The Frito-Lay division of PepsiCo is using solar power to help transform its SunChips line of snack chips into a “green” brand. (From The New York Times) Madison Avenue has always been a place for sun worshipers, whether it was naming brands like Sun, Sunlight, Sunbird, Sunbeam…
Original post by Gadgets, gizmos, and […]

CBS has begun testing high-definition streaming video.

Buried in the lab’s section of the network’s Web site is a gallery of short HD clips from shows such as Jericho, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Dexter.

TechCrunch was first to report the story and said the clips are available
…
Original post by Greg Sandoval and software by Elliott […]

CBS has begun testing High Definition streaming video.

Buried in the lab’s section of the network’s Web site, is a gallery of short HD clips from shows such as Jericho, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Dexter.

TechCrunch was first to report the story and said that that the
…
Original post by Greg Sandoval and software by Elliott […]

It’s Our Tree is a genealogy service that lets people create very simple family trees using Adobe Flash. Like Geni (review), and Kindo (review) the idea is to get your entire family involved by inviting them to join and add family members they remember. It doesn’t offer some advanced services like DNA sleuthing using cheek […]

HOLLYWOOD, Calif.–Who doesn’t remember, even now, the satirical animation of George W. Bush and John Kerry, set to the tune of “This Land,” that rocketed to Internet stardom during the 2004 presidential race?

The video may have drawn some 80 million views since then, but its masterminds at …
Original post by Anne Broache and software by […]

Attorneys general from 11 states urged the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday to impose conditions on the proposed union of Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio should it decide to approve the megamerger, according to Reuters.

The state leaders said they were disappointed by Monday’s decision by U….
Original post by Michelle Meyers and software by […]

AT&T said Thursday that it will start offering live mobile TV service from MediaFlo in May, but will anyone be watching?

AT&T first announced its partnership with MediaFlo in February 2007. Back then it said it expected the service to begin by the end of 2007. AT&#…
Original post by Marguerite Reardon and software by Elliott Back

On February 15 this year, Amazon S3, the “cloud” storage service that’s part of the Amazon Web Services suite of infrastructure applications, failed. Web 2.0 entrepreneurs who had been attracted to AWS based on its promised reliability and low cost had their confidence shaken. Several lost revenue when the service seized up.

Last week at the […]

BitTorrent president and co-founder Ashwin Navin talks up Comcast detente, even though BitTorrent will still be filtered on a ‘protocol-agnostic’ basis.
(Credit: Anne Broache/News.com)

HOLLYWOOD, Calif.–Public pronouncements of the thaw in Comcast-BitTorrent relations continued on Thursday, with BitTorrent’s president calling their newly hatched agreement a “win” …
Original post by Anne Broache and software by Elliott Back

Chris Beard, VP Labs, Mozilla
(Credit: Rafe Needleman / CNET)

After the product roadmap roundtable I liveblogged yesterday, I had a talk with Chris Beard, VP of Labs for Mozilla. Chris is working on the things you won’t see in Firefox 3, but will, if he has his way, surface in Firefox 4.

Beard’s philosophy is this: The […]

Wireless equipment maker Nokia Siemens Networks said Thursday that it has new software that will more than double the download speed on networks using 2.5G EDGE (Enhanced Data for GSM Environment) wireless technology.
This is good news for first generation iPhone users whose phones connect to the mobile Net …
Original post by Marguerite Reardon and software […]

Women’s-focused media and advertising company Glam Media has acquired StyleMob, a small social-media site consisting of a blog and some community features pertaining to fashion. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The rumor was first reported in Valleywag earlier on Thursday, where blogger Nicholas Carlson added that StyleMob’s founders “weren’t happy” about the acquisition. Glam Media recently […]

A new report on the tech habits of women shows that the female of the species is edging out the male in the areas of DVR use and ownership of portable game devices.

The study, done independently by Solutions Research Group, and released Thursday, was undertaken to explore the “digital …
Original post by Erica Ogg and […]

I’m always on the lookout for new ways to host images for quick and dirty sharing. Worth checking out is Photie, which is incredibly simple photo host. It’s light on features, but offers unlimited storage and file sizes (great for people with 14 megapixel SLRs), along with generous sharing options both for downloading shots and […]

Trash hauler says it spent more than $100 million on a computer system that turned out to be “undeveloped, untested, and defective.”(From Reuters) Waste Management says it spent more than $100 million on a computer system that was supposed to help it save money, but instead turned out…
Original post by Gadgets, gizmos, and […]

Hackers have turned their attention to Facebook’s hundreds of independent applications. The results are not terribly surprising, but do not tell a good tale: app developers don’t seem to know a thing about basic security, and are putting private user information at risk. As a result, malicious hackers …
Original post by Chris Soghoian and software […]

There’s nothing fun about being on a wait list, especially when you’re told the wait just got longer.
Skyfire, a new cell phone browser demoed in February, hit such demand in its closed beta program, the company split participation into two rounds. According to a Skyfire statement, those …
Original post by Jessica Dolcourt and software by […]

The latest paid-click data for search engines shows that Americans are clicking on paid search ads less than we did last year — not an encouraging trend for the state of online advertising.
For Google alone, which represents about 60 percent of the U.S. search market and is a …
Original post by Elinor Mills and software […]

The movie industry has seen mixed results from suing individuals for file sharing but continues to clobber BitTorrent search engines.

TorrentSpy, once one of the most popular indexes of BitTorrent files, shut down on Monday following a two-year copyright battle with The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). TorrentSpy, accused
…
Original post by Greg Sandoval […]

The movie industry has seen mixed results from suing individuals for file sharing but continues to clobber BitTorrent search engines.

TorrentSpy, once one of the most popular indexes of BitTorrent files, shut down on Monday following a two-year copyright battle with The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). TorrentSpy, accused
…
Original post by Greg Sandoval […]

Li Ka-shing, the Hong Kong telecom mogul who invested $60 million in Facebook last year, has upped his stake to $100 million and may invest even more, MarketWatch reported Thursday.
Facebook was valued at an eyebrow-raising $15 billion when Microsoft purchased a five percent stake at $240 million.
According to MarketWatch, Li made the initial announcement during […]

Skyhook Wireless‘ geopositioning can be useful, but rarely does it save you from a $400 speeding ticket. A start-up named Trapster is trying to change that.
The company has taken a creative spin on using geopositioning to help lead-footed drivers avoid known and newly discovered speed traps and other police dragnets. By installing the application on […]

Skyhook Wireless‘ geo positioning can be useful, but rarely does it save you from a $400 speeding ticket. A startup called Trapster is trying to change that.
The company has taken a creative spin on using geo positioning to help lead-footed drivers avoid known and newly discovered speed traps and other police dragnets. By installing the […]

Want a tax break?
Then be like Larry Ellison. All you have to do is spend around $200 million on a replica of a 16th-century Japanese summer palace. Add extreme landscaping, such as a few hundred mature maple and cherry trees and a man-made waterfall carved into rock to look …
Original post by Jim Kerstetter and […]

Joe Waz, Comcast’s senior vice president for external affairs and the company’s public policy counsel, speaks about the BitTorrent detente.
(Credit: Declan McCullagh/News.com)

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — BitTorrent and Comcast have declared a detente in a Net neutrality cold war that has drawn a slew of angry …
Original post by Declan McCullagh and software by Elliott Back

Google’s terms of service, while ignored by the vast majority of users, contain a pretty shocking clause: Under 18’s are not permitted to use any of Google’s web properties. Thats right kids - no search, YouTube, Gmail, news, or images.
Under 18s wishing to watch YouTube videos …
Original post by Chris Soghoian and software by Elliott […]

It’s official: Comcast and BitTorrent are calling a truce.

Ever since the cable giant admitted to disrupting file-sharing traffic based on the BitTorrent protocol, a very public debate has erupted over what kind of “network management” by Internet service providers is appropriate, and with it, a resurgence of calls …
Original post by Anne Broache and software […]

(Credit: Engadget)

If you’re not making a cheap and tiny laptop to compete with the Asus Eee PC, what are you doing? HP’s forthcoming mini-notebook will use Via processors (not Isiah, however) and start at $549, so says a spec sheet that Engadget got its hands on. The …
Original post by Matthew Elliott and software by […]

A prolonged legal fight with the movie industry has forced TorrentSpy, BitTorrent’s popular search engine, to shut down.

“The legal climate in the USA for copyright, privacy of search requests, and links to torrent files in search results is simply too hostile,” said a note on TorrentSpy’s front door. “…
Original post by Greg Sandoval and software […]

Intel has posted the quad-core QX9775 on its price list, indicating the top-of-the-line chip used in the Skulltrail motherboard is available in volume.

Intel QX9775 Extreme processor
(Credit: Intel Corp.)
The Skulltrail motherboard was announced in mid-February but the QX9775 processor was initially very scarce. Intel has now listed (PDF) …
Original post by Brooke Crothers and […]

Are Comcast and BitTorrent secretly an old married couple, prone to bickering over their peccadilloes and never quite comfortable together in public, but still joined tightly by an abiding sense of union and shared purpose?

So it would seem. The Wall Street Journal on Thursday reports a deal in the …
Original post by Jonathan Skillings and […]

Apple, it seems, hasn’t totally gotten used to making browsers for this Windows thing.

The license terms for the company’s Safari Web browser on Windows include a curious restriction: “The software allows you to install and use one copy of the Apple Software on a single Apple-labeled computer …
Original post by Martin LaMonica and software by […]

Dash Express
(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET Networks)
It’s been almost two years since Dash Navigation first announced its Dash Express portable navigation system, and we’re happy to say that you can now finally get your hands on this device. The Dash Express is unlike any other portable navigation system …
Original post by Bonnie Cha and software by Elliott […]

Adobe is getting all of the attention today in the digital photo world with the launch of Photoshop Express. Google, meanwhile, continues to add features to Picasa, Adobe’s main online rival.

Google has released a new application programming interface (API) for Picasa that makes it easier to transfer pictures …
Original post by Mike Ricciuti and software […]

Last December it was Word 2007, then two weeks later Outlook 2003. Out of the blue, a program that worked just fine yesterday freezes up today. A few days ago I described how to force Windows to close hung applications faster at shutdown. That fix might get you out the …
Original post by Dennis O’Reilly […]

Amazon Web Services on Thursday is scheduled to release features meant to give its hosted computing service a better safety net.

Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) service now has an application programming interface (API) that lets developers choose where its application physically runs.

This Availability Zones feature is important …
Original post by Martin LaMonica and software by […]