Modern Media Mom » digital

Headlines for December 9th, 2009 through December 10th, 2009

[modern media mom] — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 18:00:21 +0000

Feds Go Global To Fight Cybercrime Overseas" – Concerned about the rise in this type of sophisticated computer attack from abroad, the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service are beefing up their international cybercrime enforcement, sending agents who specialize in the threats overseas to specifically deal with digital perils."
Study: You’ll wolf down 34GB of data today – "A study released Wednesday from the University of California, San Diego, reports that the average American consumes a whopping 34GB of data and 100,000 words of information per day."
Amazon Disc+ on Demand: Buy a DVD, watch it instantly – "With Amazon’s Disc+ on Demand, when you buy a DVD or Blu-ray movie, you will be able to stream it instantly via Amazon On Demand. Pretty awesome huh?"
Facebook’s New Privacy Settings: 5 Things You Should Know – "The new settings are supposed to make it easier and simpler to control your information, but the changes are drawing a mix of criticism and praise from privacy watchdogs such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California (ACLU), and the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)."
AT&T’s Data Crackdown: I’m Calling a Bluff – "AT&T is huffing and puffing about limiting the data consumption of smartphone users and educating them on the meaning of a megabyte. Yet we know nothing about the carrier's actual plans."
Magazine Publishers Take On The Internet – "Some of the nation's largest magazine publishers have joined forces to launch a digital initiative they hope will restore their appeal—and profits—in the Internet age.
Conde Nast, Hearst, Meredith, News Corp, and Time Inc. said they plan to jointly develop a common software standard that will be used as the basis for delivering highly interactive versions of their products to a range of digital devices, such as e-readers, smartphones and laptops."

Headlines for November 18th, 2009

[modern media mom] — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:00:33 +0000

Feds Mull Rules, Fees to Spur Net Access – "Federal regulators are considering whether the government should take greater control of the Internet and ask consumers to pay higher phone charges in order to provide all Americans with cheaper access to broadband Internet service."
Microsoft Bing Investments Starting to Pay Off In Market Share Gains – "Microsoft's Bing search engine continues to make incremental gains in search share, with new numbers bringing Bing's share closer to double digits."
Word of The Year: Should It Be Unfriend Or Defriend? – "But the decision by the dictionary sparked some debate on Facebook as well as other social networks, such as Twitter, as to whether or not the word of 2009 should be "defriend."
Reactions on Twitter were mixed, ranging from the benign to the more impassioned."
How Microsoft Blew It With Windows Mobile – "Microsoft Windows continues to dominate the PC market with a 90 percent market-share stronghold, but when it comes to smartphones, Microsoft is getting beat up worse than a mustachioed villain in a Jackie Chan movie.
Windows Mobile has lost nearly a third of its smartphone market share since 2008, research firm Gartner reports. Windows Mobile had 11 percent of the global smartphone market in the third quarter of 2008, according to Gartner, and last quarter Windows Mobile’s market share plummeted to 7.9 percent."
Casio Unveils ‘Toughest’ Digital Camera – "Casio introduced Wednesday what it is calling "the world's toughest camera" in the Exilim G EX-G1.
The digital camera was said to have been developed with "endurance engineering as its cornerstone."
Casio’s Exilim G EX-G1 ($300 suggested retail) is said to be the world’s toughest camera.
Casio’s Exilim G EX-G1 ($300 suggested retail) is said to be the world’s toughest camera.

The EX-G1, which will ship in December at $300 suggested retail, is the first in the company's new Exilim G camera line and features a 0.78-inch (19.9-mm) slim-line, low-profile, stainless-steel frame design."
Google to pop Chrome OS cherry tomorrow? – "Google plans to steal some attention away from Microsoft’s annual developer shindig by unveiling more details about its Chrome OS tomorrow."

Headlines for November 10th, 2009

[modern media mom] — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:00:05 +0000

Nov. 10, 1983: Computer ‘Virus’ Is Born – "1983: Fred Cohen, a University of Southern California graduate student, gives a prescient peek at the digital future when he demonstrates a computer virus during a security seminar at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. A quarter-century later, computer viruses have become a pandemic for which there’s no inoculation."
LinkedIn and Twitter Partnership: Do’s and Don’ts for Users – "LinkedIn and Twitter announced a partnership on Monday allowing you to push your LinkedIn status updates out to your Twitter account or pull your tweets into your professional profile. Twitter co-founder Biz Stone called it "bringing the peanut butter and the chocolate together to make the perfect combination.""
Say goodbye to sleep: Modern Warfare 2 arrives – "Arguably the most anticipated game of the year, Modern Warfare 2 finally lands today. Following a week of content controversy and broken street dates, Modern Warfare 2 promises to elevate the action and intensity beyond even the classic original game."
Apple’s Snow Leopard Update Zaps Bugs, Kills Hackintosh Netbooks – "On Monday Apple released an update to its Snow Leopard operating system (10.6.2 ) that fixes flaws, including one that wipes out a users' personal data. But along with fixes, Apple's update also kills support for Intel Atom processors, in a bid to stop users from hacking their netbooks and creating "hackintosh" systems."
Google Offers Free Wi-Fi in 47 Airports for Holidays – "One inevitable fact of the holiday season is that airports around the country will be packed. That means that millions of American's will be schlepping through airports on layovers looking for something to do with their time and keep in touch with friends and family.
Google has already given travelers its holiday gift with free Wi-Fi in selected airports. The free Wi-Fi service is available as of today and will remain free through January 15, 2010."

Headlines for October 12th, 2009

[modern media mom] — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 16:01:54 +0000

Crowdsourcing digital signal strength – "Until now, cell phone users have had no detailed and impartial way to assess and compare which network offers the best data and voice service where they use their phones.
Root Wireless Inc., a Bellevue, Wash., startup, aims to change that."
Some Attention-Getter: Tennesse Woman Arrested For Facebook ‘Poke’ – "A Tennessee woman has been arrested for virtually "poking" someone who had taken out an order of protection against her. Shannon Jackson, 36, of Hendersonville, Tenn., used the Facebook "poke" feature, which sends a quick note with no text to another person to try to get their attention. But the order of protection against Jackson meant that she was prohibited from "telephoning, contacting or otherwise communicating with the petitioner," according to The Tenneseean newspaper."
Photoshop releases an iPhone app – "Adobe Photoshop finally released a long-awaited iPhone application last week. Photoshop.com Mobile for iPhone lets users edit pictures directly on their phone with a number of settings and tools found in the full version."
Is AT&T targeting Google Voice to stop “traffic pumping”? – "Google is grumpy about an AT&T-prompted FCC letter asking the company to explain the feature's call-restricting policies. But it may be that AT&T really just wants action on a dubious business technique called "traffic pumping." We looked into this practice and the details aren't pretty."
Levinson quits Google’s board – "Another executive with ties to both Apple and Google is leaving one company's board of directors. Arthur Levinson, former chairman of Genentech, has resigned from Google's board of directors, effective immediately, Google said Monday. A member of Google's board since 2004, Levinson has also served on Apple's board since 2000."

Headlines for October 2nd, 2009

[modern media mom] — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 19:00:29 +0000

No Texting at Dinner! Parenting in the Digital Era – “Many parents are establishing control over their children’s computer use — setting themselves up as administrators for Internet accounts, asking kids questions about who they are communicating with online, and at times looking directly over their shoulders at the screen. Some even go so far as to put the computer in a common area of the house.”
Google refines search results to counter Microsoft – “Google is giving Web surfers a few more ways to refine their search results, signaling its resolve to ward off rival Microsoft’s aggressive campaign to lure traffic.The changes announced Thursday might be hard to notice because they require clicking on a “show options” link above Google’s search results. The feature has been around since May, making it possible to focus the results exclusively on videos, discussion forums, reviews or books. Now news and blogs are joining the list of options.”
Sidebar Will Deliver Personalized Mobile Apps And Content To Your Phone – “With over 85,000 apps on Apple’s App Store alone, the task to find apps tailored to your needs and likes is daunting. Who wants to sift through that? Sidebar is hoping to help smartphone users with the process of finding the perfect apps for their phones.”
IBM To Launch Web-Based E-Mail Service – “IBM on Monday plans to formally introduce a low-cost, Web-based version of its Lotus Notes e-mail system for businesses and other organizations.LotusLive iNotes, as the offering is called, starts at $3 per month, per user on a yearly basis. The price for customers choosing to pay month-to-month is $3.75 per month. IBM is also offering a free, 30-day trial period for companies that want to test the service before committing to a contract.”
Bing and Google: Success On Their Own Terms – “OK, so after the hoopla, Microsoft’s Bing search engine may have fallen back to earth. Is Microsoft supposed to just give up? Not hardly.New statistics show Microsoft’s share of searches is down below 4 percent, having risen during the previous three months. Google, meanwhile, captures 90 percent of search traffic.”

Headlines for September 21st, 2009

[modern media mom] — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 20:00:38 +0000

MySpace unleashes two-way syncing with Twitter – “MySpace announced in a blog post on Monday that the company will now offer two-way syncing with Twitter. The service is being rolled out immediately.”
Facebook shuts down thorny marketing tool – “The social network says it will shut down Beacon, a program that tracks users’ activities on other Web sites. When it launched in 2007, Beacon was immediately attacked by users as a privacy violation.”
Google Doodle Mystery Solved: Happy Birthday, H.G. Wells – ABC News – “You might have noticed an unexplained set of doodles on the Google home page and a couple tweets from our official Twitter stream, @google, over the last two weeks,” the company said. “We’re finally acknowledging the reason for the doodles with an official nod to Herbert George, who would be 143 years old today.”
Apple Examines iPhone Battery Woes – “Users are complaining that the iPhone OS 3.1 software decreases battery life, hinders logging in to Exchange accounts, and causes random shutdowns.”
FCC chairman Genachowski outlines Net neutrality rules – “The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission outlined rules on Monday that would prohibit Internet providers from selectively blocking Web content and applications.”

Headlines for August 4th, 2009

[modern media mom] — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 16:09:42 +0000

Mozilla Firefox: Another Day, Another Bug Fix – "Mozilla has issued "security and stability" updates to the Firefox 3.5 and 3.0 open-source browsers that patch several security vulnerabilities, including one disclosed at last week's Black Hat security conference that attackers could exploit to lure users to bogus Web sites."
US man is first domain thief to be charged – "A NEW JERSEY MAN has been the first person in the US to be charged with stealing a domain name and selling it.
The domain in question, P2P.com, was pilfered by Daniel Goncalves, 25, after he hacked into a GoDaddy account belonging to one of its owners. Gonclaves grabbed his virtual swag bag, scurried down a dark alley – in this case Ebay – and promptly sold it to a passing basketball player."
Marines ban social networking amid Pentagon study – "The Marine Corps is banning its troops from going onto Facebook, MySpace and other social network sites, citing a possible security risk."
RadioShack "Makeover" Changes Nothing – "Hasn't anyone told RadioShack how silly comb-overs look? You can change your look, even your name, but you are still just what you are–and people notice."
Nikon touts digital camera/40-inch projector – Nikon today announced a new twist for compact digital cameras. The company’s new Coolpix S1000pj integrates a tiny projector that can display slideshows or videos with a size of up to 40 inches.

Headlines for June 15th, 2009

[modern media mom] — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:00:37 +0000

DTV Switch: Mostly A Smooth Move – “The big DTV switch is essentially over and while the FCC continues its mopping up campaign, some consumers are still struggling with converter boxes and antennas to get reception.”
All eyes on Minnesota as RIAA trial starts over – “The only file-sharing trial ever to go before a jury met with a spectacularly unsympathetic one back in 2007. As Jammie Thomas-Rasset (the former Jammie Thomas) prepares once again to face federal charges that she shared 24 songs over KaZaA back in 2005, keep an eye out for these developments:”
Adobe begins to charge in online apps battle – “Adobe has moved its online software suite out of beta and will ask US customers to pay for the privilege of using its the combined productivity and collaboration offering, as of today.”
Twitter traffic growth stalls – “Growth for Twitter, the superhot San Francisco microblogging startup, slowed significantly in May, according to the digital traffic measurement firm Compete.”
Microsoft Will No Longer Pay for Employee iPhones, Blackberries – “Microsoft has implemented a new policy that will no longer pay for employees’ mobile phones and data plans, even when used extensively for work, if the mobile phone runs on anything other than Windows Mobile.”
Millions Grab Their Facebook Name – “Bloomberg reported that more than 3 million people registered user names in the first 12 hours after the social networking site offered members the chance to claim a personalized Internet address.”
Hunch Web Service Is Pretty Darn Nosy – “Hunch, a new Web-based service that is designed to help users answer questions, is now live. But Hunch is not a search engine. Instead, the service wants to help users make smarter decisions.”
Google adding microblog indexing to its search results – “There is evidence that Google is close to launching a service to search micro-blogging services such as Twitter for popular trends. Combined with other Web results, such searches may provide insights into what people say about a particular subject, or even what they are talking about right this minute.”

Headlines for May 26th, 2009

[modern media mom] — Tue, 26 May 2009 14:02:08 +0000

New Yorker Features iPhone Painting On Cover – "Jorge Colombo's latest painting will grace the cover of the vaunted magazine this week — and he created the image using his Apple iPhone."
Report: Microsoft Kumo (Live Search) to be Renamed "Bing" – "Microsoft stole headlines early this year when screenshots of its new Kumo search engine were leaked."
Circuit City Is Back, Return Policy Isn’t – "Port Washington, N.Y.-based Systemax Monday finalized its purchase of the defunct retailer's trade names, domains including www.circuitcity.com, customer lists and information, certain trademarks and other intangible assets of Circuit City's e-commerce business."
Digital TV transition: Almost all are ready – "Here's the number to remember June 12 if your television doesn't get your regular channels, if you waited until the last minute to make the transition to digital TV, or if you have any questions about it: 1-8… (1-888-CALL FCC)."
Microsoft: Plotting an acquisition or joint venture? – "Microsoft last week registered a limited liability company (LLC) in Delaware stoking speculation that it is planning an acquisition or joint venture. If true Microsoft may be planning a little bit more than a demo of its search engine and a big ad campaign to promote it."
Nokia Ovi Store Launch Is A Complete Disaster – This was supposed to be a glorious day for mobile phone giant Nokia.

Headlines for April 7th, 2009

[modern media mom] — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 15:00:31 +0000

Google Voice: A Dutiful but Klutzy Secretary – Interesting technology with some good possibilities.
Newspapers Last Stand: AP declares war on fair use, blogs – "In a speech at the AP General Meeting, AP Chairman Dean Singleton told the audience that 'We can no longer stand by and watch others walk off with our work under misguided legal theories. We are mad as hell, and we are not going to take it any more.' Singleton said that 'AP and its member newspapers must be paid fully and fairly' where other sites quote AP content, including portals ."
FriendFeed’s last throw of the dice to greatness – "Moving the site more towards Facebook, with a Twitter like approach and speed has without doubt lowered the barrier of entry to new users. It’s simpler, quicker, and even prettier now, all qualities that if they play right, will drive a fresh wave of new members, and increase retention rates and word of mouth."
The Best Social Media News Sites for Various Markets – Nice list
Push for digital health records sparks debate – "President Obama wants doctors' offices and hospitals nationwide to follow suit, and the government has set a goal for every American to have an electronic health record by 2014."