Today’s Guests: Sebastian Rupley , Co-Crank, Editorial Director, PCMagCast.com Jason Young , CEO, Ziff Davis Media Jason Cross , Senior Editor, ExtremeTech.com
The Topics:
Imitation New York Times New Yorkers were truly perplexed when a fake, 14-page version of The New York Times was circulated on a mass scale throughout the streets of New York City this morning. The imitation paper was reinforced by a seemingly professional online version. The headlines announced that the Iraq War had ended and that ExxonMobil has been taken into public ownership. The one thing that was a dead giveaway was the date which read July 4th 2009. The Yes Men, a left-wing activist group, took credit for the prank. AT&T May Impose Tiered Broadband Pricing AT&T is testing the concept of restricting the amount of data that subscribers can use. AT&T, also the largest Internet provider, will begin apply the limits in Reno and further consider expanding the operation. AT&T will limit downloads to 20 gigabytes per month for users of their slowest DSL service, at 768 kilobits per second, beginning in November. In order to receive more gigabytes per month users must increase the speed of the plan, up to 150 gigabytes per month at the 10 megabits-per-second level.
Sun Microsystems Aiding Microsoft Get Search Traffic Sun has announced it will promote a Microsoft toolbar for the Internet Explorer browser to U.S.-based Web surfers as they download Sun’s Java software. The software is necessary to view certain Web sites. Microsoft is focusing on toolbars and default settings because 35 percent of Web searches are conducted from the browser’s address line, built-in search boxes and add-on search toolbars, not the search provider’s Web page.
CEO of Google Denies Techie in Chief CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, claimed he was not interested in becoming CTO for the nation under President Barack Obama. Schmidt publicly endorsed Obama and supports his plans for more investment in renewable energy but told the New York Times. “I am extremely happy serving the shareholders of Google as the C.E.O., so I have no interest in serving as a government employee.”
Former IBMer gone Apple Forced to Stop Work Mark Papermaster has been commanded by a federal judge to quit working immediately in his new job at Apple, because he may be violating an agreement with IBM, his past employer of 26 years. IBM filed a “non-compete” lawsuit against him maintaining that as a primary designer and executive Papermaster was “privy to a whole host of trade secrets and confidences” used by Big Blue to design products. The defense upheld that Apple offered a “once in a lifetime ‘dream job’” and that IBM and Apple had completely different tech gear.
Show Guests: Sebastian Rupley, Co-Crank, Editorial Director, PCMagCast.com Natali Del Conte, Senior Editor, CNET TV’s “Loaded”
Bill Schmelzer, Tech Analyst, Ziff Davis Media
The Topics: Sun to Help Old Foe Microsoft Get Search Traffic Microsoft has turned to an old rival, Sun Microsystems, for marketing help in its latest move to increase Internet search traffic. Sun will advertise a Microsoft toolbar for the Internet Explorer browser to U.S.-based Web searchers when they download Sun’s Java software. This decision was made because of reserach showing that 35 percent of Web surfers are conducted from the browser’s address line, built-in search boxes and add-on search toolbars. YouTube Channels Google with Search-Driven Ads YouTube is experiencing increased pressure to profit from its massive audience and therefore is letting advertisers promote their commercial clips alongside the search results at the Internet’s most popular video site. Just as they do at Google, advertisers can now attach their commercials to specific terms entered into YouTube’s search box.
Unlicensed Stories Reel In Online Readers A study from Attributor Corp. proved that on average, the audience perusing unauthorized online copies of newspaper and magazine articles is nearly 1.5 times larger than the readership on their own Web sites. Will media companies discover a way to extract advertising revenue from the traffic swarming to their stolen articles on blogs and other sites? Obama’s Web Reach Expands Transition officials call it Obama 2.0 — an ambitious effort to transform the president-elect’s vast Web operation into a modern new tool to accomplish his goals in the White House. Obama’s team is determining how best to convert his army of online activists into a viral lobbying and communications machine. Staffers are reluctant to discuss specifics, but Obama clearly is poised to become the first truly “wired” president of the digital age.
Apple Executive Claims iPhone the Future of Portable Gaming Apple’s vice president of iPod marketing Greg Joswiak believes that the iPhone is the future of portable gameplay. He also sees the The Nintendo DS and Sony PSP becoming continually obsolete. “A big part of that is not just the device itself… but it’s the electronic distribution of the apps as well,” he says. Is he right?
Show Guests: Sebastian Rupley, Co-Crank, Editorial Director, PCMagCast.com
Garnett Lee , Executive Editor, 1Up.com
David Spark , Tech Journalist
The Topics:
Microsoft CEO Must Testify in Vista Capable Debacle Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, has been mandated by a federal judge to testify in a class action lawsuit over the “Vista Capable” fiasco. US District Judge Marsha Pechman gave consumers approval in February to file a class action lawsuit against Microsoft for giving false information about Windows XP computers being able to run Vista. Plaintiffs in the case allege that Microsoft artificially inflated demand in the run-up to Christmas 2006, by advertising that PCs would be capable of running the full version of the firm’s delayed Vista operating system.
eBooks Are Now Thriving! Random House announced Monday that it is making thousands of additional eBooks available in digital form, now that sales are exploding, even in the currently sluggish market. Products include novels by John Updike and Harlan Coben, as well as several volumes of the children’s series, “Magic Treehouse”.
Obama’s Cell Phone Privacy Violation After some nosey employees took a peek at President-Elect Obama’s cell-phone records, Verizon Wireless had to apologize however privacy advocates say what happened to Obama is just an example of what is happening to the broader whole of the American public. Facebook Wins $873 Million Judgment Against Spammer In a recent court case against Adam Guerbuez of Montreal, Facebook has won a $873 million. The Canadian, who bombarded users with millions of unsolicited messages about drugs and sex, was targeted his business, Atlantis Blue Capital. Facebook claimed that Guerbuez had tricked users into giving their passwords so he could send out over 4 million messages that included promos for marijuana.
The Pentagon Bans Flash Drives Due to a serious virus threat officials detected on Defense Department networks, the Pentagon has temporarily banned the use of external computer flash drives. Friday, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman provided no details on the virus, but he described it as a “global virus” that has been the subject of several public alerts.
iPhone Hackers Boot Linux A new opportunity was discovered in the ongoing battle between Apple and iPhone hackers, now that a hacker group has created an iPhone boot with a Linux 2.6 kernel. The announcement of the successful kernel porting was made on the “Linux on the iPhone” blog, complete with thorough instructions and source code.
SCO’s days over? Though SCO still has the option to appeal, federal district court judge Dale Kimball has now officially written its death sentence in the form of a somewhat fierce final verdict. Judge Kimball decided that SCO was subject to a contract with Novell, which it infringed upon by revoking SVRX confidentiality provisions in a licensing agreement with Sun. Many bloggers praised the judge’s decision, calling SCO officials “patent trolls.”
Sling.com: Like Hulu, With a Twist Video-streaming site Hulu has become a popular place to catch TV shows, video clips and movies for free on the Web, since its launch in March. This week, Sling Media, which makes the Slingbox device that lets you watch your home TV remotely, created a “beta” version of its own video-streaming site, Sling.com. If you have a Slingbox device, which lets you control and view your TV from any Mac- or Windows-based computer with high-speed Internet access, you can also use the site to control your Slingbox.
More Yahoo! Speculations The Sunday Times of UK reported, or speculated, last weekend that Microsoft is going to buy Yahoo’s search business for $20 billion in a very complicated way. The story states that Jonathan Miller, formerly chief executive of AOL, and Ross Levinsohn, a former president of Fox Interactive Media, are going to direct the new management team. Is this justifiable a rumor?
Interpol Increases Use of YouTube Interpol, the “world police” is boosting up its social networking efforts. Utilizing sites such as YouTube, Interpol has been able to thus far, arrest two pedophiles and collect video clips of Rwandan war criminals through the user-video site and other social networking platforms. Cranky Geek Discounts!!
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Today’s Guests: Sebastian Rupley, Co-Crank, Editorial Director, PCMagCast.com Garnett Lee, Executive Editor, 1UP.com David Spark, Host, The Spark Minute
The Topics:
Corrupted Youth
The Josephson Institute’s Center for Youth Ethics released a survey saying that American youth are becoming completely unethical in all possible ways. Fully 40 percent thought that you cannot succeed in the U.S.A. without lying, cheating, or stealing. A lot of stealing goes on on the Internet. I say that kids should be allowed to take information from the Net, but include proper citations..
Cybe-Bullying Can’t Stop Net Anonymity
Lori Drew was recently convicted of computer fraud in a cyber-bullying case. The Missouri mother used Myspace to make a fake persona for a teenage boy, leading a teenage girl to believe that persona, and ultimately engaging in cruel behavior that led to the girl’s suicide. “The reality is that many, many people lie about their identities online,” says PCMag editor-in-chief Lance Ulanoff. This will not change, and whether Drew committed “computer fraud” is questionable..
The Netbook Hype Machine “I get a big kick out of the way everyone is falling all over themselves to anoint “netbooks” as the next big thing,” says Lance Ulanoff in another recent column. Ulanoff agrees that the economic downturn is good news for these $350 stripped down portable computers, but thinks their success is largely coming from marketing. Is a slightly more expensive laptop a better choice?
Sex v. Internet According to a study commissioned and released by Intel, close to half of the women questioned by Harris Interactive said they’d be willing to give up sex for two weeks rather than give up their Internet access. Only 30 percent of the men surveyed were willing to do the same. For women 35 to 44 years old, the figure jumped to 52 percent. Are these numbers believable?
The Topics: Steve Jobs’ Exit: Turning Point for Apple? Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs might return in June, but will consumers, or Apple, ever be the same? asks Lance Ulanoff in a recent article. Lance predicts that Apple will be okay even if Jobs doesn’t come back to work, regardless of Apple’s turbulent history without Jobs as CEO.
Opera Sides With Europe, Against Microsoft Opera Software, Microsoft’s browser-rival, has welcomed a European Commission statement that the company has broken European competition law by including Internet Explorer with Windows. Opera CEO Jon von Tetzchner supports that the browser is the most important innovation within humanity’s history, and because of this, Microsoft should “start competing on merits in the browser market and letting consumers have a real choice of internet browsers.”
Steve Ballmer’s Biggest Regret Microsoft’s president Steve Ballmer’s claimed in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that his biggest regret of the past ten years is impatience. Eight years after replacing Bill Gates as chief executive, Ballmer resents that Microsoft did not strongly pursue a Google-like paid search business back in 1999. Although Microsoft began a paid search project that year, the project crashed after only two months.
Pope Benedict the Next YouTube Star? The Vatican is showing strong reciprocity towards technology as Pope Benedict XVI announces Saturday that he will get his own YouTube channel. The Vatican TV Center and Vatican Radio are collaboration with Google on the project. Catholic Church officials believe that it is necessary to use electronics in order to distribute the Bible in today’s world.
Is Google Looking for a Fast Lane? Google has been discussing a need for a fast lane for its offerings in recent months. If Google is put into some fast lane by itself using a more effective protocol stack including, let’s say, a search engine protocol, could it actually make more Internet bandwidth available?
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