Warner to offer cheaper Blu-ray movies later this year

300 is one of the movies that will feature a lower price tag in the fall." height="270" width="270">

300 is one of the movies that will feature a lower price tag in the fall.

As much as we complain about the high prices of standalone Blu-ray players, in some ways the high prices of Blu-ray movies are even more frustrating. Today, Warner Home Video has taken a step in the right direction, by announcing that the company will offer discounted pricing on select titles this fall. Blu-ray buyers can expect prices between $17 and $20, which is a lot more than DVDs sell for, but less than the $20-$30 prices Blu-ray discs currently go for.

While there isn't a complete list of movies that will be available at this lower pricing, Video Business reports that The Fugitive, Enter the Dragon, Clockwork Orange, The Shining, The Aviator, Road Warrior and Swordfish will get the discount. Additionally, some newer movies will get a smaller price cut, including 300, The Departed, I Am Legend, Ocean's 13 and We Are Marshall.

While this certainly won't make everyone run out and buy a Blu-ray player, it's definitely good news that studios are hearing complaints that Blu-ray movies are just too expensive at their current levels. Of course, we'd prefer if the prices fell below the $15 mark, which would make them feel comparatively-priced to DVDs, but we'll probably have to wait until at least 2009 to see those prices. In the meantime, at least there's always Netflix.

Sources: Video Business via High-Def Digest... Read more

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Microsoft E3 2008 press conference wrap-up

The E3 conference opened Monday in Los Angeles with a press conference from Microsoft. Here are some highlights.

Microsoft showed off first-ever game play footage from the post-apocalyptic title Fallout 3Resident Evil 5, shipping on March 13. We got a peek at the new co-op feature in the game, where players will be able to team up and make their way through together. Developer Square Enix also made announcements that included the release of four titles for Xbox 360 including Final Fantasy XIII. and announced that there will be downloadable content exclusive to Xbox Live. We saw real-time action from

As for console exclusives, we saw in-game action from Fable 2, shipping in October. Players will be able to seamlessly invite other friends who are also playing the game. Finally, we were blown away by the impressive game demo of Gears of War 2 shipping November 7. The game actually looks better than the original and will feature a five-player online co-op mode.

Microsoft will be releasing a new dashboard interface this fall that incorporates an avatar system--the Xbox answer to Nintendo Mii characters. The new feature allows you to join up with other friends to form a "party," a group of up to eight people where you can share multimedia items or start a game. A new mode called Primetime will actually incorporate real-life TV shows like 1 vs. 100 and allow Xbox Live members to play and watch these game shows and possibly even win real prizes.

Microsoft also announced ... Read more

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Sun issues upbeat fourth-quarter forecast

Sun Microsystems on Tuesday announced preliminary fourth-quarter results that were higher than Wall Street's expectations, sending its shares up more than 11 percent in after-hours trading.

Shares of Sun climbed as high as $9.83 per share in after-hours trading, up from a close of $8.80 a share during the regular session.

"In these difficult economic times, we continue to see customers across the world look to open software and hardware as a source of savings," Jonathan Schwartz, Sun's chief executive, said in a statement.

Sun said it expects to report fourth-quarter revenue between $3.7 billion and $3.8 billion for the period ending June 30, compared with nearly $3.84 billion a year ago.

Wall Street, meanwhile, expected Sun to generate revenue of $3.8 billion, falling in the high end of Sun's range, according to Thomson Financial.

On the earnings front, Sun said it expects to generate net income of 5 cents to 15 cents a share. After excluding special charges, the hardware maker expects fourth-quarter net income to be in the range of 25 cents to 35 cents a share.

Analysts, meanwhile, were expecting Sun to post earnings of 27 cents a share, according to Thomson Financial.

Sun expects to report its fourth-quarter results on August 1.

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Intel rides high on strong notebook demand

Intel says its business remains unaffected by the economic headwinds set loose by the subprime crisis.

Speaking with analysts following the release of its second-quarter earnings statement, Intel's brass remained upbeat about demand for Intel products--especially for notebook processors.

"We are very aware of the global economic issues which dominate the world these days," said Intel CEO Paul Otellini. But he quickly added that order patterns played out as expected in Q2 and that the company sees "continued healthy demand" in the third quarter.

Intel CEO Paul Otellini

That news may provide some relief to worried Wall Streeters, fretting about the impact of the banking crisis on IT demand.

Notebook sales now comprise more than half of the market but they also carry lower average selling prices. Intel said that as notebook prices continue to decline in price, Intel expects to see increased demand.

"What we're seeing is a fundamental shift to notebooks," said Otellini, adding that the crossover transition was taking place six months sooner than expected.

In particular, the company expects to ship more Atom-based notebooks in the second half of the year. The design of the Atom processor is particularly suited for the emerging market of low-cost subnotebooks. However, Intel does not see the Atom cannibalizing its other notebook product lines.

"You're dealing with something that most of us wouldn't use," said Otellini, adding that Atom was designed primarily for Net access. "You would not want to ... Read more

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Cuba and Venezuela to lay undersea Internet cable

A new undersea fiber-optic cable being laid between Cuba and Venezuela will help provide high-speed Internet access to Cuban citizens by 2010.

Earlier this week, Wikileaks published documents that were signed in 2006 by officials in Cuba and Venezuela describing plans for the new undersea cable that will connect the two countries.

The United States economic embargo against the island nation has forced the communist country to rely on slow and expensive satellite links for Internet connectivity, according to the Wikileaks article. Even though it would cost less and be more efficient to lay a new cable between Cuba and the U.S., which are only 120 kilometers apart, Cuba is working with Venezuela to lay a 1,500-kilometer cable to get high-speed Internet connectivity.

The proposed cable, which is being deployed by CVG Telecom (Corporacion Venezolana de Guyana) and ETC (Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba), will also provide high-speed Internet access to Jamaica, Haiti, and Trinidad.

According to the Wikileaks article, the new undersea cable is being built as a strategic partnership between Cuba and Venezuela to encourage an interchange between the two governments; foster science, cultural and social development; and increase economic relationships among Cuba, its South American neighbors, and the rest of the world.

Cuba has traditionally kept a tight lid on Internet access in the country. In 2003, the government cracked down on ordinary Cuban citizens, who were accessing the Internet over the government's painfully slow phone network.

But recently since Raul Castro has taken ... Read more

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Synthasite gets even easier to use with new UI

This morning simple site builder Synthasite has a new and improved user interface that's different from any other site creation tool I've used. There are still themes to choose from, and widgets to drop in, but the site building tool has received a far more polished feel that I think new users will be a little more comfortable with.

The biggest change users will notice is that the tool now scales to the entire width of your monitor. Everything is still drag and drop, but now each element also includes right click contextual menus to tweak various bits of metadata or options.

Having just looked at Wix a few weeks back, there are definite similarities between the two, although I found Synthasite's theme directory to be more straightforward. There are now 60 different themes to choose from, and most have color pallets that you can pick to further tweak the look of your site.

Also new with this morning's redesign are some widgets you can plug into your page, like a new Flickr gallery builder that will put together a pretty svelte looking photo collection from your Flickr photo stream. Photos uploaded to your Synthasite account can now be edited within the tool using photo editor Picnik.

One thing to note is that the service is not using Amazon's S3 storage service to host the blogs like many other simple site hosts do. Instead it's using its own server farm that's located in the same part of the world. Synthasite's CEO Vinny Lingham tells me that he'd eventually like to move to a hybrid solution using several server solutions at once to make sure sites won't go down even if one server cluster does.

In the coming months the service will be expanding to cover niche sites like resumes, specialty blogs, and portfolio sites.

Synthasite's new page creator is a simple drag-and-drop affair. It'll also scale as wide as your monitor to let you see how your site will look live, as you change it.

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Is Google's iPhone app all that?

With so much fairy dust in the air over Apple's day-early release of the App Store and iTunes 7.7 (for Windows and Mac), it's easy to get caught up in the excitement. And we are excited. Being the intrepid reviewers we are, we're taking the unofficial iPhone 2.0 firmware for a ride to test out some of these apps. Be forewarned that the firmware has not yet been Apple-approved for wide release and cannot be vouched for.

More than 500 applications are already clustered in the App Store, many of them tiny apps and widgets that have been custom-built to run natively on the upgraded iPhone firmware. Most of these early entrants are nearly identical to the iPhone-optimized versions previously released by publishers to work with the iPhone Classic.

Google's app is a prime example. It opens with a blinking search bar and with the keypad already engaged. Like the optimized Web app version, suggested matches are displayed as the search begins; this time they are listed below the search field. Below the search space is a shortcut bar for seeing the array of Google apps, including Gmail, Maps, Docs, and Reader. These icons are themselves quick links for launching the Web-optimized versions of Gmail and clan.

The app does save a fraction of time in bypassing Safari's initial loading of the iPhone-optimized page and works without a hitch.

Catch the most recent news about the iPhone 3G and App Store.

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eBay's iPhone app now out of the box

When the native eBay app for iPhone was demoed at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco in June, Webware.com Editor Josh Lowensohn commended it for its slickness, storage capacity, and winning looks. The application is indeed easy on the eye and similar in look and feel to eBay Desktop that runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux on the AIR platform. At least the home screen is.

After that, the application might as well be considered eBay Light. You can quickly take in an overview of your personal stats on the home screen to see how many items you're watching, winning, outbidding, and so on. Drilling deeper takes you to the My eBay screen, which is tabbed to show greater detail about the items you're watching, buying, and selling. There's also a separate search screen for browsing and reading listings descriptions.

However, unlike the eBay Desktop and eBay.com, eBay's iPhone app has been stripped of browsing categories and ways for sellers to add or amend input on auction items. This app is strictly for bidding and viewing purposes.

And that's too bad. While limiting the on-screen activities admittedly keeps the application from paralyzing users with choice, it also keeps it from being as useful as it could be. Imagine wanting to add another photo of your sale piece directly from your iPhone, or want to lower the price of a not-so-hot item while waiting to board a plane? And here's a crazy thought--why not clip in to that GPS capability to show users any listed sale items nearby, an estate sale in the neighborhood, for instance?

While the app definitely has its uses as a tracking and bidding tool, I really had expected more iPhone integration from eBay, and at the very least, the visually appealing wrapper from the home screen to carry over into the other views.

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Eventful offers free iPhone application

Eventful For iPhone's interface.

Eventful Inc., an event-driven social Web site, announced today its release of Eventful For iPhone application. The software works on both iPhone and iPod Touch and makes it easy for users to find events and things to do in their local communities.

The application basically provides access to all of the Eventful Web site's key functions through an iPhone-friendly interface. It automatically tailors search results and recommendations based on the user's current location and integrates with the iPhone's built-in applications such as Calendar and Contacts so users can easily share the events with friends or sync those with their desktop Outlook or any other calendaring software.

Eventful for iPhone has five navigational sections that users can access at any time, including Profile, Track, Featured, Search, and Demand. All of these sections are self-explanatory. For example, Demand is a tab where you can demand your favorite performers to come to your city and see which performers are most in demand throughout the world and in your location. You can also view your current list of demands and see all of the demands that your friends have joined but you haven't.

The application is available now for free from Apple's App Store.

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Apple offers 30 days free to MobileMe customers

Amid the shaky launch of the iPhone 3G, Apple's new MobileMe service--a juiced-up revamp of its .Mac offering--also took a blow. Apple has consequently opted to entitle eligible members to 30 days free as a we're-sorry gift.

.Mac accounts had been scheduled to "migrate" to MobileMe last Wednesday evening, but instead produced an outage in which neither service was available. New subscribers, meanwhile, had experienced issues signing up.

"The transition from .Mac to MobileMe was a lot rockier than we had hoped," a details page from Apple explained. The offer isn't for everyone: only .Mac members whose accounts were active on July 9, and MobileMe members who registered before 7:00 p.m. PDT on Tuesday (i.e., amid the activation chaos) are given the 30 free days.

It's automatically added to eligible accounts, Apple's site explained.

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Facebook face-off: Scrabble vs. Scrabulous

Scrabble is finally on Facebook. Officially. While the Scrabulous game has been online for a while and is wildly popular, it's had a sword hanging over its head since launch. Hasbro, owner of the Scrabble franchise, has threatened and tried to kill Scrabulous--while at the same time prepping to launch its own, official, Scrabble app on Facebook.

In conjunction with Electronic Arts, that official Hasbro Scrabble app is now up, in beta. How does it compare to Scrabulous? Pretty well. Too well, actually. While Scrabulous fans will see no reason to switch to the official Scrabble app, newcomers to the game on Facebook (like me), will find Scrabble easier to get into, easier to use, and just as competitive and fun.

The two apps have a lot in common. Both let you quickly and easily invite people from your list of friends. Both let you manage multiple games. Both keep track of games scores and multiple-game ratings. Both have useful features that let you shuffle the tiles in your rack, chat with your competitors, look up valid two-letter words and access a Scrabble-official word look-up feature.

Scrabble's game interface is more intuitive than Scrabulous, and it looks nicer, too. The screen automatically redraws when an opponent makes a move or leaves a message; Scrabulous requires a manual refresh. This is not a big deal if you're playing a drawn-out asynchronous game with a correspondent, but if you want to play in real-time with someone it's a drag to use Scrabulous.

Scrabulous, for its part, has a faster interface for playing a turn. You can select a location on the board to place letters and just start typing. In Scrabble you have to drag your letters to the board one by one. And if you're playing multiple games at once, it's much faster, since there's a "next active game" link that puts you in the action on another board with just a click. Scrabble takes three clicks and makes you sit through tedious board-swap animations and load times.

Scrabulous' biggest advantage is that any stats or ranking you've collecting while in the game don't transfer out. If you don't want to have to earn your rank all over again, avoid Scrabble. Also, avoid Scrabble if your gaming partners are overseas: Scrabble is available for U.S. and Canadian users only.

Scrabulous has many more online users than Scrabble does, at least so far. But this game has just begun, and there's no reason that Scrabble's official online app--the developers of which don't have to worry about getting sued out of existence--can't surpass Scrabulous on the Web in general. Although Scrabulous could maintain its lead in the Facebook universe for a time, the world of social gaming goes beyond just that one platform, and Hasbro/EA could (and should) push its new, fully legal online game out to social networks all over the Internet.

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For teens, the future is mobile

Advertisers are clamoring to reach teens in digital environments because that's where they're spending much of their time--either online, with cell phones or playing video games. What's more, teens wield an estimated $200 billion annually in discretionary spending.

Fuse, a marketing agency based in Vermont, talked in recent weeks to senior technology executives from companies such as Sony, MTV Networks, Yahoo, and Nokia to find out what the future of technology will look like for the teen market.

Among the predictions: Mobile phones in the United States will surpass the popularity of desktops for teens. Only an estimated 20 percent of teens currently own a smartphone such as the iPhone, but mobile phone and content companies are counting on the idea that smartphone adoption will spread fast among teens in middle America and other areas.

"The iPhone is just the beginning of the all-in-one device. Uses of mobile devices will expand to include all kinds of bar code applications and prepaid debit card payment methods," said Bill Carter, a partner at Fuse, who presented the findings here at the YPulse 2008 National Mashup, a two-day conference on teens and technology.

That's likely why geographic ad targeting to teens via the phone is expected to explode in the coming years. Right now, mobile phone providers analyze an estimated 4 billion Internet Protocol addresses to provide street-level targeting to consumers. Companies like U.K.-based Blyk, for example, are reaching teens through the phone with ads and information on nearby nightspots. Teens sign up for the service.

"When you combine this new technology with teens giving their permission to market to them, the growth could be exponential," Carter said.

But, he said, mobile phone providers likely won't succeed as the entertainment leaders for the phone, despite their efforts to sell ringtones, games, and music. Other companies like Apple, Google, and Yahoo will be more effective at "side-loading" the cell phone with services.

Case in point: Most teens download music to their iPod that's been ripped from a friend's collection as opposed to bought from the iTunes music store. "There's a natural gravitation to get content on a device that's different than the one the manufacturer intended," he said.

As a corollary, he said that most teens will eventually buy subscription-based music services, much like the cable TV model. He predicted that Apple's iTunes will offer an unlimited monthly download service for music. Mobile phone companies, too, will launch music subscriptions on the smartphone.

Another prognostication: Other technology platforms will save, not kill TV networks, Carter said. The analog-to-digital conversion will make it possible for teens to watch live TV on portable devices. The technology will help the television networks target programming to specific audiences, and that will buoy the cost of advertising, he said.

"The device is inconsequential compared to the content," he said.

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Wal-Mart taps Dell for its own 'geek squad'

Already the biggest seller by volume of electronics in the U.S., some Wal-Mart stores are now trying their hand at tech support.

Starting this month in 15 stores around Dallas only, employees manning a new kiosk concept called Solutions Station by Dell will be available to do TV and home theater installations, PC repair, wireless network setup, and probably some other tech-related stuff too.

Dell and Wal-Mart have a pretty cozy relationship--Dell picked Wal-Mart as the first place to sell its PCs when the company started selling retail again last year--so the pairing isn't so surprising.

And this could potentially work out well for both. Dell has had problems with its customer service; in-person tech support, if Solution Stations customers feel satisfied, could be helpful in fixing its image. And Wal-Mart says this pilot program will help it find out more about what its customers want when it comes to installation and tech-related services--or if they want them.

For now, Wal-Mart says there are no plans to expand the service.

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Adobe PDF Ads Program Gets Even More Tempting

Ads for PDF program from Adobe is a good opportunity for bloggers & other content publishers to monetize content via PDF files.

Adobe displays contextually relevant ads in the sidebar when your PDF files are viewed inside Acrobat Reader (see screenshot) - you make money based on clicks just like Google AdSense.

Today, Adobe announced certain changes that makes the program all the more tempting.

For instance, publishers can now embed ads inline with the content rather than displaying ads in the sidebar which often go unnoticed. See AdSense heatmap.

Other than deciding the location of Yahoo! ads in the PDF files, you also have the option to change fonts and color schemes so that the ads blend more nicely with your content and thus yield better CTR.

Tempting, right? The issue is that Adobe Ads for PDF program uses Yahoo! ad inventory and is only available for US based publishers since you require an SSN at the time of signing up.

Google has a much larger pool of advertisers than Yahoo! and can serve highly relevant contextual advertising but they generally limit themselves to displaying ads only on web pages. So am not sure if Google would agree to partner here but Adobe should seriously consider accepting international publishers.

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Digg Is About To Launch “Digg Recommendation Engine” This Week

Digg is always adding something new and interesting. Kevin Rose announced today that they are going to roll out a new feature called “Digg Recommendation Engine” beginning this week.

The feature will be in beta and presented to registered Digg users first, based on a random sampling of logged-in users. Look for the red beta flag on your Upcoming tab - this means you now have access to the Recommendation Engine. It will be rolled out to everyone within the week or so.

“The Recommendation Engine is a cool way to discover new content on Digg. Now that there are more than 16,000 stories submitted to the Upcoming section every day, it’s difficult to sort through everything to find the best content. The Recommendation Engine uses your past digging activity to identify what we call Diggers Like You (who you can see on the right hand nav) to suggest stories you might like.”

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Use Google Talk for iPhone in Firefox & Other Desktop Browsers

Google today launched a new version of Google Talk for iPhone and iPod Touch that includes no new features but looks slightly more pleasing than the regular Flash based Google Talk gadget.

If you like to use the new iPhone version of Google Talk gadget on a desktop browser or your Firefox sidebar, just use the following links.

For Google Accounts / Gmail users: http://talkgadget.google.com/talkgadget/m

For Google Apps: http://hostedtalkgadget.google.com/a/mydomain.com/talkgadget/m

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Google Apps continues to build in Europe

With Google Apps nearing the venerable age of 17 months, we have already seen more than 500,000 organizations adopt Apps as part of their business, with another 3,000 signing up every day. Many of those customers are small- and medium-sized businesses, but more and more large enterprises are also opting for the cost savings and greater flexibility that cloud computing offers.

A good example is Taylor Woodrow, a UK-based construction, facilities management and engineering company that has just moved all its employees onto Google Apps Premier Edition. Their 1,800 users can now collaborate from offices, construction sites, and client premises across the UK and Benelux. Not only has it brought greater mobility and flexibility to everyone, but Taylor Woodrow's director of IT estimates he's saved £1 million in the process. Read more on the Google Enterprise Blog.

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Biz-school exam maker seeking Web cheaters

Prospective and current graduate business students who used a Web site to cheat on entrance examinations over the past five years could have their scores thrown out.

Business-school students beware: If you cheated on your GMATs, the exam's maker may toss out your scores.

The exam's publisher, the Graduate Management Admission Council, is tracking down users of Scoretop.com after winning a lawsuit to shut down the site and seize a computer hard drive containing payment information and user identifications.

Scoretop sold VIP access for $30 a month, giving users previews to current questions on the latest Graduate Management Admission Test. Some were posted by users after taking the exam.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema also ordered site operator Lei Shi to pay $2.35 million plus legal costs in a June 20 ruling in the copyright infringement lawsuit.

In court documents, GMAC cited a posting by a user who said the information offered on the site was "inestimable," saying that he saw 10 to 12 "word by word" items and "many of the other questions felt very familiar."

About 6,000 GMAT scores from when the Web site started in 2003 to the present are in question, GMAC spokeswoman Judy Phair said Wednesday. It's unclear how many test-takers are involved, because they can take the test several times a year.

"We have an ethical responsibility to schools and students to say this is a secure and fair test," Phair said. "Obviously, you're not being fair if you have an unfair advantage."

The council plans to match data with test-takers and cancel the scores of anyone it determines knowingly used Scoretop to cheat on the GMAT. It will also notify the schools receiving scores, and perhaps prevent them from retaking the test. Phair said she can't offer a timetable on the process.

Shi wasn't represented by an attorney, according to court documents. McLean, Va.-based GMAC said Shi has returned to his native China and couldn't be reached.

About 200,000 students a year take the GMAT, and its scores are used by more than 4,000 graduate management programs at 1,800 business schools worldwide, GMAC said. Test-takers must sign a no-cheating pledge when registering for and when taking the test.

Business schools are trying to determine how they will handle canceled scores, including those of students already enrolled in master's of business administration programs and those admitted for the fall term.

The dean of the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business, Robert Bruner, wrote on his blog that Darden "will brook absolutely no cheating."

Melvin T. Stith, dean of the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University, said that most of the school's incoming MBA students have informed them that they haven't used Scoretop, but if GMAC discovers otherwise, the school will make them retake the GMAT.

"To us it's a great test up front to determine the ethics and honesty of students you're admitting," Stith said in a telephone interview.

Anxious MBA students have been calling GMAC seeking information, and possibly reassurance.

Phair said the council is focusing on Scoretop's VIP members -- users bragging about the questions they had in advance, for example -- not those who just casually accessed the site.

"If you posted live questions, then you should be worried," Phair said. "Canceling scores is a really serious thing. We're going to be careful but also we're very serious about this."

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Google wins source code ruling against Viacom

Google scored a legal victory in keeping its search source code secret from Viacom, but YouTube users were not so fortunate with their privacy.

A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the search giant doesn't have to turn over the code to Viacom, which filed a $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit against Google in 2007. In granting Google's motion for a protective order, U.S. District Judge Louis L. Stanton in Manhattan agreed with Google's characterization of the source code as a trade secret that can't be disclosed without risking the loss of business.

"YouTube and Google should not be made to place this vital asset in hazard merely to allay speculation," the judge said. "A plausible showing that YouTube and Google's denials are false, and that the search function can and has been used to discriminate in favor of infringing content, should be required before disclosure of so valuable and vulnerable an asset is compelled."

The judge also denied Viacom's motion for Google to produce source code for its Video Identification Tool, which helps copyright notify Google of copyright infringement.

However, the judge granted a Viacom motion that records of every video watched by YouTube users, including their login names and IP addresses, be turned over to the entertainment giant.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation called the ruling a threat to YouTube users' privacy.

"The court's order grants Viacom's request and erroneously ignores the protections of the federal Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), ... Read more

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Yahoo and Microsoft making the rounds with old lovers?

A bit of deja vu is creeping into recent media reports of Microsoft whispering into the right ear of News Corp. and Time Warner's AOL about potential partnerships, while Yahoo is whispering in their left.

According to a Reuters report, Yahoo and Time Warner have been chatting for months about a potential deal involving Time Warner's AOL and Yahoo. The report, however, notes that the parties don't appear any closer to inking a deal than they were when Microsoft had a buyout bid on the table for the Internet search pioneer.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Yahoo's talks with Time Warner have regained some traction, now that Microsoft's withdrawn offer of $33 a share for the Internet search pioneer appears to remain comatose. But as with Reuters, the Journal also notes that the discussions don't appear to be serious. For one thing, the Journal notes such a combination had put an approximate $10 billion valuation on AOL, but that was before Yahoo's stock had plummeted back to trading levels near the pre-Microsoft offer watermark.

In the end, Yahoo is looking for ways to bring its value back to the $33 a share that Microsoft had offered before merger talks broke off in early May, and Microsoft is looking for ways to bring scale to its online advertising search business, which may one day ultimately pay for any free business applications the Redmond giant gives out to compete with those currently ... Read more

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Microsoft's Facebook stake influenced ConnectU case

One of the burning questions in technology the past year, also played a major role in the dispute between social networks ConnectU and Facebook, according to documents obtained by CNET News.com.

Some interesting details about Facebook's valuation were revealed in partially redacted court records released Wednesday by James Ware, a Federal district court judge. The documents were a transcript of a June 23 hearing in the case that Ware closed to the public. The judge released the redacted transcripts after CNET Networks, parent company of News.com, filed an objection.

ConnectU, founded by twins, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and Divya Narendra, filed suit against Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 and accused him of stealing their business plan. The two sides reached a settlement, but ConnectU's side tried to pull out of the deal after alleging that Facebook fraudulently misrepresented the value of its stock. Ware disagreed and last week ordered that the settlement be enforced. That means Facebook is nearing the end of the ConnectU case.

But what the transcripts show was just how much Microsoft inadvertently influenced the proceedings.

Last fall, Microsoft paid $240 million to acquire a 1.6 percent share of Facebook. The day news of the deal broke, headlines screamed that Facebook was worth $15 billion based on Microsoft's purchase.

Analysts said all along that the money Microsoft paid was more a reflection of the company's need to strengthen ties to Facebook

... Read more

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Broadband Internet? No thanks

A new study suggests that attitude rather than availability may be the key reason why more Americans don't have high-speed Internet access.

Thirty-five percent of those surveyed say they're still on dial-up because broadband prices are too high.

The findings from the Pew Internet and American Life Project challenge the argument that broadband providers need to more aggressively roll out supply to meet demand.

Only 14 percent of dial-up users say they're stuck with the older, slower connection technology because they can't get broadband in their neighborhoods, Pew reported Wednesday.

Thirty-five percent say they're still on dial-up because broadband prices are too high, while another 19 percent say nothing would persuade them to upgrade. The remainder have other reasons or do not know.

"That suggests that solving the supply problem where there are availability gaps is only going to go so far," said John Horrigan, the study's author. "It's going to have to be a process of getting people more engaged with information technology and demonstrating to people it's worth it for them to make the investment of time and money."

Nonetheless, the Pew study does support concerns that rural Americans have more trouble getting faster Internet connections, which bring greater opportunities to work from home or log into classes at distant universities.

Twenty-four percent of rural dial-up users say they would get broadband if it becomes available, compared with 11 percent for suburbanites and 3 percent for city dwellers.

Vint Cerf, one of the Internet's key inventors and an advocate for the idea that the government should be more active in expanding broadband, suspects that many more dial-up users would be interested in going high-speed if they had a better idea of what they're missing. He pointed out that broadband access is available from only one provider in many areas, keeping prices high and speeds low.

"Some residential users may not see a need for higher speeds because they don't know about or don't have ability to use high speeds," Cerf said. "My enthusiasm for video conferencing improved dramatically when all family members had MacBook Pros with built-in video cameras, for example."

Overall, Pew found that 55 percent of American adults now have broadband access at home, up from 47 percent a year earlier and 42 percent in March 2007. By contrast, only 10 percent of Americans now have dial-up access.

Despite the increase in overall broadband adoption, though, growth has been flat among blacks and poorer Americans.

Of the Americans with no Internet access at all, about a third say they have no interest in logging on, even at dial-up speeds. Nearly 20 percent of nonusers had access in the past but dropped it. Older and lower-income Americans are most likely to be offline.

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Create Disposable Web Notes That Disappear After Being Read

Got a secret message to share with someone? Check out Privnote.

Privnote (short for Private Notes) is a simple web service for creating web notes that self-destruct or become unavailable as soon as they are read.

Type a text note in the space provided and you’ll be provided with a one-time use hyperlink that you can send over an IM or email message. Once the link is clicked, the associated text note is deleted forever.

There’s a read receipt option if you like to get notified as soon as your web note is opened by the recipient.

PrivNote - If you send a note and suddenly regret having done so, just click the link yourself which will erase the note forever so no one can read it. Thanks Robin Good.

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Get a Reminder to Unplug Your USB Flash Drive from the Computer

Flash Drive Reminder is a handy utility for people (especially college students) who work across different computers and carry their data on a USB memory stick.

This will display a desktop reminder saying that the USB drive is still in the computer if you try to log off without unplugging the stick.

Brad Greco writes – “I have an annoying tendency to leave my flash drive plugged in to the computer when I leave. I began to get tired of returning to the library and asking the front desk if anyone had found a flash drive, so I decided to write a little program that would ensure that I’d never leave it plugged into a computer again.”

Flash Drive Reminder adds an option to the autorun box that appears when you insert a flash drive into the computer. When you log off from Windows, this will pop up a dialog box reminding you to remove the flash drive.

Works on Windows XP and Vista systems provided AutoPlay option is enabled on the computer where you insert the drive.

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No more money from Google Adsense referral program

Google announced that “Google Adsense referral program” is now retired and will be stopped during the last week of August.

If you are using Google Adsense referral units to promote Google products or Adsense referrals then you need to remove referral ad code from your site before August end, in order to effectively monetize your ad spaces. Also if you are using referral reports then run and save all important report data on your machine.

Google also suggested revenue source for publishers in order to fill the referral revenue gap. The two obvious options suggested by Google are:

1) Use Google Affiliate Network: Obvious since Google acquired DoubleClick’ affiliate ad network. In this Affiliate programs you will need to apply for advertiser programs and will get paid according to actions.

2) Increase Adsense for content ad units on your sites: Obvious solution to fill the revenue gap anyone can think first. If you are currently running two Adsense ad units then make it to three.

The first option is not good for many publishers outside US, as you will see very few good targeted affiliate programs to show on your sites having main traffic from other counties than US.

Many US publishers have good earnings from Adsense referral program and they are going to hit by this Google move.

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Google and Yahoo! now able to index flash site content also

Google and Yahoo! improved their indexing algorithm with the help of Adobe to crawl flash sites. Adobe will now provide optimized flash player to Google and Yahoo! to index SWF file content.

All flash files, flash menus, banners and flash sites with textual content and links can be crawled and indexed now. This means any keyword in your flash files can be used to match the search query from search engines and will bring more traffic to your site.

No need to develop and optimize two versions of website, one for users and one for search engine bots. Now flash content can be seen in search engine result pages with flash snippets enriching the user experience.

Though there are some limitations to index flash rich pages, like:

• If flash pages are loaded through JavaScript then search engine bots won’t index those flash files.
• Currently only content in English text is indexed from flash files.
• If there are images in flash files then the text in those images can not be indexed by search engines.

Google already implemented this algorithm and Yahoo! will be updating it in future update to Yahoo! search.

Bill Coughran, senior vice president of engineering at Google said, “Through our recent collaboration with Adobe, we now help Web site owners that choose to design sites with Adobe Flash software by indexing this content better. Improving how we crawl dynamic content will ultimately enhance the search experience for our users.”

This is a big step from Adobe and search engines to show better search results. Win-win situation for Adobe, Google, Yahoo! and all flash content publishers!

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Searching for Flash files

Flash has not been easily searchable until now, but Adobe Systems is working with leading search engines Google and Yahoo to solve the problem. CNET News.com Editor in Chief Dan Farber and reporter Elinor Mills discuss the impact of making Flash pages more visible to search engines. One question is whether Microsoft, which developed Silverlight, a competitor to Flash, will also index Flash files in its search engine.

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Google's new foray into image search

R.J. Pittman, Google's director of product management for Consumer Search Properties, shared some details of future versions of image search. In the interview with Beet.tv's Andy Plesser, Pittman said that Google is developing visual crawling software that can be used for facial recognition and scene analysis. In addition images can be matched with display ads and utilize geotagging information for various applications.

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PINs stolen from Citibank ATMs

We all worry about keeping our online passwords safe from prying eyes. But now our faith in ATM PIN codes is being shaken.

Three people face charges in federal court in New York for allegedly breaking into Citibank's ATM network inside 7-Eleven stores and stealing PIN codes, according to court filings reported on by The Associated Press on Tuesday.

The alleged thieves made off with about $2 million between October 2007 until March of this year. Officials believe they remotely broke into the back-end computers that approve cash withdrawals and grabbed the PINs as they were being transmitted from the ATMs to the transaction processing computers, which increasingly use Windows, the report says.

Wired News was the first to report on the ATM network breach.

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Justice Department to review Google-Yahoo deal

The U.S. Justice Department plans to gather information from third parties in a probe of the advertising deal struck last month between Google and Yahoo, according to sources familiar with these types of investigations.

Within the next week, the Justice Department is expected to issue civil investigative demands (CIDs) that seek documents from the third parties, said one source, noting the information requested could range from a general request on the competitive landscape to very specific requests involving Yahoo and Google.

Third parties that are expected to receive the CIDs include competitors, customers like major advertisers, and potential partners, the source added.

Representatives for Yahoo and Google did not immediately return requests for comment.

Yahoo announced the nonexclusive partnership in June under which rival Google would supply it with some search ads, a move that could increase Yahoo search revenue but that also gives Google even more power in the market. Yahoo expects the 10-year deal to raise revenue by $800 million in its first year and to provide an extra $250 million to $450 million in incremental operating cash flow.

The partnership idea came to light during Microsoft's attempt to acquire Yahoo, which put more pressure on the Internet company to improve its financial results.

Faced with that financial challenge and a desire to push the Google ad deal through, Yahoo proposed to regulators that it subject the search advertising deal to

... Read more

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Diesel Amazing Watch

Diesel is not just a commodity that helps fuel the world, but it is also a fashion label with a plethora of goods for the consumer to choose from, and among them include watches. This time round, Diesel has a new scrolling LED watch which boasts a mirrored surface when you aren’t checking out the time. along with the ability to program the display to scroll a custom message of up to 20 characters - perfect for you to advertise your blog when you’re out without making a conscious effort. Dubbed the Diesel Time Frame, these will retail for $170 a pop.
[ Source ]

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Google goes after video, forgets about YouTube

In an important announcement that could have a major impact on Google's future in video, the New York Times is reporting that Seth MacFarlane, the creator of "Family Guy," will start "Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy", which Google will syndicate (using AdSense) to thousands of Web sites that fit with MacFarlane's target audience. Instead of a static ad, Google will place the video clip on the site.

Interesting, huh? Not only has the company found a way to bring video to the Web and finally make some money on it, but it has nothing to do with YouTube.

Am I missing something here?

Did Google just happen to forget that YouTube is still hanging around with no prospects for revenue and no advertising platform? I commend Google on forming this deal with the world's most popular cartoonist, but why wouldn't it try to do something on the YouTube front?

Ostensibly, Google believes this idea will yield better revenue, but it still doesn't solve the one problem it can't figure out: YouTube is becoming the company's albatross. And if you ask me, this "Cavalcade" would be best served on YouTube.

Then again, maybe Google doesn't want to play the traditional advertising game with Seth MacFarlane. Instead, the company seems to be under the impression that by using it on its AdSense platform, it'll use the video to its advantage, while helping customers add some entertainment to their sites and hopefully increase their own ad revenue.

But I'm not sold on that.

Regardless of the fact that Google can probably make more money on ad revenue through this distribution scheme, I don't think it's the best way to go about it. Instead of tying MacFarlane's income to a portion of advertising revenue, and thus forcing itself into this distribution deal, Google should have paid MacFarlane a flat fee for his services and added this show as an exclusive on YouTube.

Upon doing so, Google solves two problems: it solves the issue of controlling content, thus ensuring that more advertisers would be willing to spend cash on the show, and finally turns YouTube into a destination for high-quality content and advertising dollars, instead of a toilet for the worst videos on the Web.

This deal strikes me as nothing more than a cash grab. Sure, it's a big step for online video and it could have a major impact on the industry, but let's not forget that it does nothing for YouTube -- the one place Google needs all the help.

From a purely financial standpoint, this deal makes sense, but finances should be the least of Google's troubles right now if it can't turn YouTube around. It's already a company with solid financial health, but its looming issue with video has yet to be solved. If it can't turn things around with YouTube soon, all the money it's making with MacFarlane could be lost at the hands of its video albatross.

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Microsoft Surface Computer Amazing

Microsoft Have Developed an amazing computer called as surface computer...
see video for detail...

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Gates to step down from Microsoft

The chairman of Microsoft and one of the world's richest men, Bill Gates, is stepping down from his job running the world's largest software company.

Mr Gates, who made his fortune through developing software for the personal computer, plans to devote his time to charity work.

As a teenager Bill Gates had a vision of a personal computer on every desk in every home.

He says he caught sight of the future and based his career on what he saw.

Great responsibility

The son of a successful lawyer from Seattle, Mr Gates programmed his first computer at the age of 13.

During his two years at Harvard University, he spent much of his time finessing his programming skills as well as enjoying the occasional all-night poker session.

He eventually dropped out of college and moved to Albuquerque, in New Mexico, where he set up Microsoft with his childhood friend, Paul Allen.

Most of our competitors were very poorly run Bill Gates Timeline: From geek to billionaire The original Microsoft family

Their big break came in 1980 when Microsoft signed an agreement with IBM to build the operating system that became known as MS-DOS.

Microsoft went public in 1986 and within a year Bill Gates, at 31, had become the youngest self-made billionaire.

In an interview with the BBC, Mr Gates explained that Microsoft benefitted because "most of our competitors were very poorly run".

"They did not understand how to bring in people with business experience and people with engineering experience and put them together. They did not understand how to go around the world."

Now 52, he still has boyish looks, but he is no longer the world's richest man. He has been overtaken by the investor Warren Buffett and the Mexican telecom tycoon Carlos Slim.

But Mr Gates' fortune is at the root of his decision to leave his day job and concentrate on his charitable organisation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

He will remain as Microsoft's chairman and work on special technology projects, but according to Mr Gates, great wealth brings great responsibility and his future work will include finding new vaccines and financing projects in the developing world.

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