Roundup: Dell’s iPhone-sized gadget, Malcolm Gladwell vs. Chris Anderson, books on smartphones
Dell engineers are working on a pocket Android gadget — It’s roughly the size of an iPhone, the Wall Street Journal reports. In industry-speak, the device is what Intel calls an MID — a “mobile Internet device” somewhere between a smartphone and a laptop. What’s news isn’t that Dell engineers are fooling around with gadgets, but that the PC maker is seriously considering taking this product to market. Sources told the Journal that Dell has explored selling the… Continue Reading
Cable TV online may sound great, but a la carte pricing is still the key
I recently ditched all but the most basic television package from my cable provider — and I would have ditched it all, but it was something like $5 for basic cable on top of my internet service. I simply don’t watch cable television anymore. But that’s not to say I don’t watch television shows anymore — I do, just through my Apple TV, Xbox 360 or on the web through services like Hulu. In moving… Continue Reading
Twitter starts to talk up corporate-account plan
Sometime soon, Twitter is expected to unveil its plan to make money. Based on comments made by Twitter co-founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams recently, it seems likely the plan will involve charging companies for accounts with special privileges.
In New York Magazine this week, both Stone and Williams said that charging companies for brand verification is something that the company was looking into. This makes a lot of sense, especially given the rise of fake… Continue Reading
Roundup: Moore’s Law extended, AT&T pays Apple $900M, Bill Gates’ new venture and more
Here’s the latest action:
Moore’s Law gets a life extension — Researchers at McGill University claim to have discovered a new state of matter, a “quasi-three-dimensional system,” that may extend the famous trend of tech companies being able to pack twice as many transistors onto computer chips every two years.
AT&T income up; company surprised by iPhone payments — AT&T has lifted its net income 5.5 percent over the same reporting quarter last year, but its stock price dropped…. Continue Reading
Roundup: Google Chrome gains steam, Comcast goes against the FCC, Newspaper ad revenues plummet and more
Here’s the latest action:
A new web browser power rising? — Google’s new web browser Chrome has already gained some significant traction after just one day in use, according to Hitwise.
Comcast to appeal FCC ruling – The Internet service provider will appeal the Federal Communications Commission’s memorandum on network management — also known as “throttling.” GigaOM has more.
Newspaper sales plummet — The industry’s advertising revenues are off $3 billion in the first six months of this year. They… Continue Reading
Comcast to dam and damn the Internet with usage caps
You just knew it was too good to last. Starting on October 1 of this year, Internet service provider Comcast will begin placing a cap on the amount of data its customers can access a month, DSLreports has learned.
The 250 gigabyte cap, now confirmed by Comcast, represents around 14,000 of the company’s 14.1 million users, it claims. While that may be true today, and while 250 gigabytes may seem like a very high cap, going… Continue Reading
Microsoft invests in online video startup Move Networks
Microsoft just made a strategic investment of undisclosed size in Move Networks, a startup that helps companies offer high-definition video on the web. The funding should help promote Move Networks’ integration with Microsoft’s Silverlight platform.
The American Fork, Utah-based startup says its technology encodes high-quality video and cuts down on buffering delays. Microsoft, meanwhile, has found some high-profile uses for its relatively new technology Silverlight, including the online broadcasts of the Beijing Olympics. You can already… Continue Reading
Roundup: Market researchers report on global game sales, Microsoft introduces Photosynth and more
Here’s the latest action:
Leading market researchers team up to report on video game sales – The leading research companies in the field (The NPD Group, GfK Chart-Track Limited and Enterbrain) have released the Top Global Markets Report in a long overdue move to provide reliable data on worldwide game sales. The bestselling game of the year so far is Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto IV, according to the report.
Microsoft introduces photosharing technology Photosynth — A “synth,”… Continue Reading
Comcast to slow traffic for bandwidth hogs for 10 to 20 minutes
It looks like Internet service provider Comcast is moving forward with plans to reduce connection speeds for its heaviest users. Senior vice president Mitch Bowling told Bloomberg yesterday that certain Comcast customers will see their Internet speeds slow for periods of 10 to 20 minutes.
These plans are a response to the ongoing legal and PR debacle surrounding the revelation that Comcast “throttles” the service of customers using filesharing protocol BitTorrent. Earlier this month, the Federal… Continue Reading
Comcast acquires DailyCandy, but for less than its most recent valuation
Cable giant Comcast has purchased the female-oriented email newsletter DailyCandy for $125 million, Silicon Alley Insider reported earlier today. What isn’t being reported though is that the sale price is actually less than the valuation DailyCandy received following its last round of funding, a source close to the sale tells us.
Following an investment two years ago (after a failed attempt to sell), DailyCandy was valued at $130 million, The Wall Street Journal reported at the time…. Continue Reading
Comcast gets a wrist-slap from FCC over blocking P2P, just as anti-P2P bill passes Congress
The Federal Communications Commission this morning took the expected step of passing a cease-and-desist order for Internet service provider Comcast, which has persistently blocked or “throttled” peer-to-peer traffic using the Bittorrent protocol on its networks.
Mostly symbolic, the rule will likely be overturned on a court appeal, as the FCC has not been given formal authority to regulate how ISPs handle their traffic. However, it should help to bring a long-contested issue to a head.
P2P traffic… Continue Reading
BitTorrent’s plan: Ride the video wave to the bank
For almost a year, a private war of sorts has been waged on the tubes of the Internet: A handful of large Internet service providers, challenged by the traffic loads caused by peer-to-peer file sharing protocol Bittorrent, have been secretly, persistently blocking Bittorrent traffic. The community has fought back, enlisting media and political support to force the ISPs to observe Net neutrality — the concept of treating all traffic equally.
It’s a fight with broad implications,… Continue Reading
The next time you complain about a company on Twitter, Get Satisfaction may be listening
While it wasn’t made very clear during its outages over the past several months, Twitter has been using the online customer service site, Get Satisfaction to respond to customer complaints. Now, the two are going to work hand in hand with one another to handle customer inquiries about other companies.
Technically, Get Satisfaction is teaming up with Summize, a great Twitter message search and tracking utility, to launch its new “Overheard” feature. (We previously pointed out… Continue Reading
Comcast continues blocking Internet traffic, joined by rival Cox
If a person steals and gets caught, then continues to do so over and over again, what do you call them? Either an idiot or a kleptomaniac, generally. I’m not sure what the name for a compulsive Bittorrent-traffic blocker is, but that or “idiot” is certainly a label that could apply to giant Internet service provider’s Comcast and Cox, according to a new report.
Here’s the boiled-down summary: Last year, the Associated Press caught Comcast “throttling”… Continue Reading
Comcast buys Plaxo to make itself more socially viable
After months of rumors, Plaxo, the social contact service, finally announced today that it is, in fact, being purchased — by Comcast.
Aside from Comcast, both Facebook and Google were rumored to be purchasing the service at one point. Of all of those, Comcast may seem to be the least likely suitor, but thanks to a deal the two already had in place, Comcast apparently thought it was time to take the relationship to the next… Continue Reading
Roundup: Facebook’s big profile changes, MySpace misses revenue targets, and more
Big Facebook profile changes are coming, sure to impact developers — Facebook has been experimenting with a ground-up redesign of its user interface for months, that it hopes will improve communication among users. Now, the company is providing Facebook application developers with more details on the changes — and how those changes are going to affect applications. The new home page will have a tabbed interface for news feed, personal info, photos, and something tentatively called… Continue Reading
It’s official: Sprint teams up with Clearwire for wireless partnership
Sprint and Clearwire have confirmed yesterday’s reports that they’re teaming up to create a new wireless broadband company. The new company, which will also be called Clearwire, should be the first to create a national mobile network using Intel’s WiMax technology, delivering broadband Internet at a much higher speed than existing 3G networks.
Intel, Google, Comcast, Time Warner and cable company Bright House Networks will invest $3.2 billion in this new company, while wireless veteran John… Continue Reading
Round-up: Google acquisition rumors, Apple 3G iPhone coming
Intel bullish on mobile Internet handhelds: The world’s biggest chip maker said more than 25 companies have signed up to use its low-power Atom microprocessors in upcoming “mobile Internet devices” (MIDs). The new category of wireless broadband-enabled devices will combine the features of Internet-enabled computers and navigation units in a handheld, with the first devices appearing in late May and early June in China, South Korea, and Japan. The chips consume anywhere from 0.65 watt… Continue Reading
BitTorrent and Comcast have a deal, but is P2P really safe?
Peer-to-peer traffic on the internet appears to have received a temporary reprieve this morning, with an announcement by major internet service provider Comcast that it will stop specifically targeting BitTorrent traffic on its networks and instead focus on limiting only the heaviest bandwidth users, regardless of which download protocol they use.
P2P traffic is essentially a technique for spreading data transfers through a cloud of users’ computers, rather than sending data directly from a commercial server… Continue Reading
Roundup: Motorola splits up, cable giants back WiMax venture, and more
Here’s the latest action (updated):
Struggling cell phone manufacturer Motorola announced it would split itself into two different companies. Under pressure from activist investor Carl Icahn, the company will divide itself into a cell phone company and a company with broadband and mobility equipment operations. The latter firm would create infrastructure equipment for wireless networks as well as build television set-top boxes. The company had said in January that it would consider a breakup, mainly since… Continue Reading