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Sun, 11 Nov 07
Disney to launch cell phone carrier services in Japan: report (AFP)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071111/bs_afp/usjapanentertainmentmediatelecomcompanydisney

AFP - US media and entertainment giant Disney will launch cell phone carrier services in Japan early next year by leasing local telecommunications networks, a press report said Sunday.

Fri, 10 Jul 09
Avernum 6 'old school' RPG announced (Macworld.com)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/macworld/20090709/tc_macworld/avernum6oldschoolrpgannounced
Macworld.com - Spiderweb Software has announced Avernum 6, the final installment of their long-running series of adventure role playing games (RPGs) for the Mac and WPC. The game is expected to be released in late 2009, first on the Mac, then on Windows in 2010.

Wed, 5 Nov 08
Apple Hires IBM's Papermaster Despite Noncompete Suit (NewsFactor)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20081104/bs_nf/62825
NewsFactor - Apple has hired Mark Papermaster, a 26-year IBM veteran, to lead its hardware engineering team and work directly under Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Papermaster will direct Apple's iPod and iPhone engineering.

Tue, 6 Jan 09
Apple's Jobs has hormone imbalance, will stay CEO (AP)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090105/ap_on_hi_te/apple_jobs_health

AP - Apple Inc. founder Steve Jobs, a survivor of pancreatic cancer whose gaunt appearance in the past year has alarmed the Mac and iPod lovers who look to him as an oracle, said Monday he has an easily treated hormone imbalance and will remain in charge of the company.

Tue, 8 Jan 08
Blu-ray Triumphs at Electronics Show
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=57598
The International Consumer Electronics Show is turning out to be a celebration party for Blu-ray, the high-definition format that Sony Corp. backed, and a wake for a rival movie disc technology pushed by Toshiba Corp.

Just two months ago, Sony CEO Howard Stringer said the fight between Blu-ray and Toshiba's HD DVD was at a "stalemate," and expressed a wish to travel back in time to avert it.

The impasse was broken Friday by Warner Bros. Entertainment, the last major studio to put out movies in both formats. It announced it was ditching HD DVD, and from May on, would only publish on Blu-ray and traditional DVD.

The decision puts a strong majority of the major studios, five versus two, in the Blu-ray camp.

Asked Monday at the show if the Warner announcement decides the format war, Stringer said: "I never put up banners that say 'Mission Accomplished.'" But his cheerful delivery belied his words.

By contrast, the main media event scheduled for the show by the North American HD DVD Promotional Group, which includes Intel Corp. and Microsoft Corp., was canceled because of Warner's defection.

"We are currently discussing the potential impact of this announcement with the other HD DVD partner companies and evaluating next steps," the group said in a statement.

The shift in the format struggle isn't a reason to run out and buy Blu-ray players, however: today's players can't take advantage of the features planned for future Blu-ray discs.

On Monday, Panasonic parent Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. demonstrated prototypes that can handle the new interactive features coming to Blu-ray.

This spring, Panasonic plans to introduce a player for the so-called BD-Live standard. It will be able to connect to the Internet to download movie trailers, and will be able to play simple games.

At the Blu-ray booth at CES, a prototype Panasonic player was showing an...

Fri, 5 Jun 09
Hulu Might Consider Charging Fees, Executive Says
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66992
Hulu may go from offering free online access to TV shows, movies and clips to a fee-based model, according to an executive from News Corp. Hulu is a joint venture between News Corp., NBC Universal, and Disney.

Over time, paying for some of the content on Hulu is a logical thing, said News Corp. Chief Digital Officer Jonathan Miller during an Internet Week event earlier this week. Miller, who was formerly at AOL, prefaced his comments by saying he won't attend his first Hulu board meeting until Monday, June 8, so his opinions are his own.

"I don't see why over time that shouldn't happen," Miller said. "I don't think it's on the agenda for Monday {but} it seems to me that over time that could be a logical thing."

"It was essentially a throwaway comment and more a reflection of whether they would," said Michael Gartenberg, a vice president at Interpret. "The question is what they'll pay for what content and under what consequences."

Money, Money

Celebrating its first year recently, Hulu went from being in beta to offering users access to online videos, television shows, and clips from various providers of content and has had tremendous growth. In the past year, the company has gone from 50 content partners to more than 130, has grown the number of advertisers from 30 to 175, and has increased the number of streams from 63 million as of May to 308 million.

Although the service has gained a lot of momentum, and has been backed by top players, including Fox, MGM and Sony Pictures Television, moving from a free model to a fee-based model may put the brakes on Hulu's momentum.

"Of course you'll have to pay for it," posted one blog poster with the screen name bloominoctober. "Hulu was too much of a good thing to...

Thu, 27 Sep 07
Minnesota says Sprint duped customers (AP)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070927/ap_on_hi_te/swanson_sprint_lawsuit

AP - Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson sued Sprint Nextel Corp. Thursday, accusing the wireless carrier of extending customers' contracts without their informed consent.

Fri, 21 Nov 08
T-Mobile's Web2go Will Use Yahoo's oneSearch
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=63147
Yahoo has won another wireless carrier for its mobile Internet search tool. The company joined T-Mobile in announcing Thursday that oneSearch will be the search utility for T-Mobile's web2go service.

Yahoo said more than 70 mobile operators worldwide are now using its mobile search tool.

T-Mobile said oneSearch will provide web2go users a better Web-browsing experience "by making it easier to view and navigate the Web through a customizable home page," as well a simplified shopping and download experience.

Grouped Results

oneSearch enables users to search for a variety of information on the Web. It also allows users to find content on the T-Mobile store, including ringtones, wallpaper and games.

The search results will place relevant ads at the customer's fingertips, with either sponsored search results or display ads.

Since a mobile user's display space is limited, the Yahoo tool has been designed to provide results grouped around a given search term. For instance, a search for a movie title returns theaters with show times, reviews, information on the actors, and related articles. Or a search on a sports team returns relevant scores, schedules, profiles for teams, news, and a link to the team's Web site.

'More Easily Digestible Content'

The basic idea is that, rather than having to use a mobile device to drill down into search links as one might do on a computer, the most common collection of related data comes to the top on the first search. This approach, said T-Mobile USA Chief Development Officer Cole Brodman, "delivers a more intuitive mobile experience that places the most relevant information at the fingertips of T-Mobile customers."

Sean Ryan, an analyst at industry research firm IDC, noted that efforts have been ongoing to determine the most useful way to search on a mobile device. "It's limited, of course, by the small screen, alphanumeric...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
Nokia to beef up venture fund, expand in China (AP)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080731/ap_on_hi_te/techbit_nokia_venture_fund
AP - Nokia Corp. is more than doubling the size of its direct venture investment fund with an injection of $150 million, with a view to putting some of the money to use in India and China.

Thu, 24 Sep 09
Navigating the New Cybercrime Threatscape, Part 3
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/68188.html
With the constantly evolving Internet security threatscape, being able to actually get a grasp on the latest threats, let alone arm oneself against them, can seem overwhelming. While there are seemingly limitless best practices in regard to cybersecurity, below are several that should help reduce the likelihood of becoming a victim of cybercrime. As stated in previous entries to this series, cybercriminals have typically been on the inside edge when it comes to the race between cybercrime and cybersecurity.

Wed, 16 Jul 08
Japan cautious in iPhone's bid for world dominance (AP)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080716/ap_on_hi_te/tec_japan_iphone

AP - Kentaro Tohyama is proud of his new iPhone. He stood overnight in line to get it when the device became available in Japan for the first time. But the 29-year-old computer engineer isn't about to part with his made-in-Japan cell phone either.

Tue, 28 Apr 09
Jaunty Jackalope: Are Alarm Bells Ringing in Redmond?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66905.html
With the release of Ubuntu 9.04 last week, it's not too surprising that few other topics got much attention on the Linux blogs in the ensuing days. Yes, there was a rather intriguing discussion of porn and piracy over on DaniWeb and LXer; and yes, a moderately active conversation fired up the Slashdot community following Keir Thomas's post about "Good Enough Computing" on the PC World blogs. When it came right down to it, though, it seemed people mostly just wanted to talk about Ubuntu 9.04 -- Jaunty Jackalope, that is, the successor to Intrepid Ibex.

Sun, 14 Oct 07
Hitachi: Hard drives are getting better (AP)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071015/ap_on_hi_te/hitachi_hard_drives
AP - Multimedia stockpilers need not worry about laptops, digital video recorders or portable music players hitting a storage capacity ceiling any time soon.

Wed, 30 Apr 08
Solid-State Drives Inspire Technolust
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/62792.html
One of the best ways to speed up any computer is to add more memory to it. As the old joke goes, you can't be too rich, too thin or have too much RAM. There are two places data live in a computer: in memory and in storage -- either a hard drive or an optical disk, such as a CD or DVD. Working with information in storage is always slower than working with it in memory.

Sun, 11 Jan 09
Wireless Power Energizes CES (PC World)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20090111/tc_pcworld/wirelesspowerenergizesces
PC World - There's something futuristic about wireless power that has grabbed people's attention at the Consumer Electronics Show this week, and 2009 could be a big year for the technology judging from what's on show here.