Archive for: December 2008
December 31, 2008
The battle over radio royalty rates will likely continue into 2009, with the latest issue tackling how and when cable, satellite, and Internet stations should report their playlists to copyright holders in order to determine payment.
The Copyright Royalty Board, a government body that sets royalty rates, released a notice on Tuesday that suggests altering the reporting requirements for stations.
CRB wants any entity that pays royalties under sections 112 and 114 of the Copyright Act, including Internet radio, satellite radio, digital cable radio, and any other radio-like services delivered by digital means to report every single song they play on the air to SoundExchange, which governs the music industry's royalty rates. Under current rules established in 2004, they are only required to report their playlists for two weeks every quarter.
Pure Internet radio stations like Pandora will not really be affected by this type of "census reporting" because they already agreed last summer to report all activity electronically.
CRB also noted that satellite and cable could have difficulty actually calculating how many users are listening to a particular song, and might have to come up with an alternative means of payment.
Who will feel it?
"Where this change is likely to have the most impact is in connection with the operations of broadcasters who also stream their programs on the Internet," David Oxenford, a partner with Davis Wright Tremaine, wrote in a blog post. "Noncommercial broadcasters, such as college radio stations, have repeatedly complained that their small staffs to not have the ability to maintain these electronic records, especially where the stations are volunteer-programmed by DJs who select their own music on the spot."
Comments on this ...
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It's a little early to start talking about cupids and love, but a warm thought in the middle of the winter is always welcome--and LoveTweet has plenty. The service features Twitter posts of love, whether someone is professing their love for their sweetheart or ironically grousing about how much they "love" their job, and updates in real time.
LoveTweet doesn't really do anything aside from give you some insight into what people on Twitter are in love with right now. The service reminds me a bit of Twistori, another Twitter social project that kept track of what people love, hate, think, believe, and feel in real time. LoveTweet dispenses with the other emotions and focuses on love. As you watch, the site automatically updates with tweets that have been posted that contain love.
Not all of the tweets at LoveTweet are actually about what the user loves. The service doesn't screen against true love, personal love and ironic love, the way some people "love" their jobs, or school, or anything else they actually really hate, but it's interesting to see how frequently and in what context people use the word "love."
The idea for LoveTweet brewed in the developer's head until the 2008 US Presidential election, when the developer found himself posting about love and hope so much he was curious what others were saying, and build LoveTweet to find out. The service posts the tweets as well as the Twitter user who wrote the post and when the tweet was posted, ...
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Online spending during the 2008 holiday shopping season declined about 3 percent from last year, though Amazon, Wal-Mart, and Apple still came out ahead, according to data released Tuesday by comScore.
E-commerce sites took in approximately $25.5 billion between November 1 and December 23, down from $26.3 billion in 2007. Online purchases during the first seven days of December were up 7 percent, but that increase did not hold.
The drop was the first time comScore has reported negative growth for the holiday seasons since 2001.
"The combination of having five fewer shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas and the severe economic headwinds faced by consumers has made this a really tough season for retailers, both offline and online," comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni said in a statement.
Overall fourth quarter online sales are expected to be a 4 percent decline over the same period last year.
It was not all bad news. Apple saw a 19 percent increase in the number of visitors to its Web site in December with 35 million. Amazon Web sites, meanwhile, grew 7 percent with 76.2 million visitors, while Wal-Mart.com visitors increased by 4 percent.
Target saw a 1 percent decline with 46.8 million visitors overall, comScore said.
Online auction site eBay actually recorded the most traffic in December with about 85 million hits, but that was a 4 percent decline from the same period in 2007. Hewlett-Packard came in at number 13, but its 19.4 million recorded visitors was a 28 percent increase over last year.
Best Buy traffic remained the same, Circuit City saw a 28 percent decline, Dell dipped 17 percent, while Overstock.com also saw a 16 percent drop.
Earlier this month, ...
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If you're looking for a way to get files off of your computer and onto your blog, you could upload different files to different services designed to host them and them post them individually. Or you could use Embedit.in, a new service that allows you to upload images and documents and gives you a Flash widget that you then embed in your site for visitors to see.
Images are easy to post on the Web; just about any browser can understand an image. But what if you're hosting a gallery of your own work and would like to keep the source images from being shared freely? Perhaps you need a way to post a document on the Web, but you need an easy way to present it to visitors without just providing them a download link to a Microsoft Word file.
With Embedit.in, you can upload nearly any type of image or document and the service will create a Flash widget with the document inside. Once the widget is created, the service provides you the embed code you need to post the widget to your blog so your visitors can read your Word document in its original form, or view your images without the ability to right-click and simply download them to their computers.
Embedit.in is particularly useful when you have long Word documents you want to present to the Web for discussion, like legal papers, letters, court rulings, or even complex rebate forms that you just have to show the world. You could also use it on a professional site ...
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On January 1st, California will become the latest state to ban text messaging while driving. That's in addition to the existing ban on talking on cell phones without a hands-free device, which went into effect this past July 1st. To date, 24 states are considering legislation to restrict texting while driving, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Meanwhile, 29 states and the District of Columbia have laws on the books against using a handheld cell phone while behind the wheel.
It goes without saying, but texting while driving is incredibly dangerous. One option is to use a voice-enabled service like Mobivox. Among its more traditional VoIP-based features, Mobivox can listen to a spoken message through a hands-free device (like the BlueAnt SuperTooth Light pictured above), transcribe it to text, and then fire it off as an SMS or e-mail message. It can only do that to someone in a Mobivox-hosted address book, though. That means you need to set it up beforehand, since it doesn't work directly with your cell phone's address book. Or you can just pull over—it's cheaper, and probably safer still.
    
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In this season of layoffs, firings and other bad news comes a little good news this afternoon concerning an amazingly valuable and fun website, Consumerist.com. Originally part of Gawker Media and beholden to Nick Denton (and possibly the devil, we've never been totally sure of the financing), Consumerist had fallen on hard times. The new owner is Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports.
If all this sounds familiar, it's because Eric Griffith spread the rumor right here in mid-December.
Consumerist.com, a gritty site with a no-holds-barred attitude and unwavering scepticism toward corporate flacks of all shapes and sizes, had been on-the-block since owner Denton revealed traffic alone was not enough to make money. It has gone through a gut wrenching series of downsizings. The purchase by Consumers Union (CR's parent) means ads are no longer part of the equation.
* Chris and Carey are back!
* Meghann Marco is promoted to co-executive editor and will reign supreme alongside Ben Popken.
* The only ads will be for Consumer Reports and Consumers Union-related stuff.
* There will be a new privacy policy and user agreement. We will let you know when they're up and you can check them out.
What doesn't change?
* Our voice, content, or independence.
* The blog stays free and open, no paid-subscription required.
* You keep your same commenter login and name.
The changes go into effect with the dropping of the energy-saving LED ball in Times Square.
...
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December 30, 2008
 New data from market share analysis firm Net Applications shows that the iPod Touch has tripled its share of the browser market, according to Computer World.
The new Net Applications data shows that the browser share for the iPod Touch averaged 0.17 percent between December 25th and 28th. That's almost three times the average of 0.06 percent for the period from December 1st to 24th, according to the report. The iPod Touch is the only iPod that can access the Web wirelessly, via its built-in Safari Web browser. The device is almost identical to the iPhone, except that it can't make voice calls, has no 3G data radio, and has no GPS radio.
The report cautioned that the increase in browser share could simply be a result of the fact that more users are accessing the Web away from work, now that it's the holiday season—people could also be traveling, stuck in airports, and the like, which would increase mobile device usage numbers. For its part, the iPhone's share has averaged 0.65 percent since December 25th, which is more than a 50 percent increase from its average of 0.42 percent in the first part of the month.
 
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DAEMON Tools is an advanced application for Microsoft Windows which provides one of the best optical media emulation in the industry DAEMON Tools enables you to use your CD DVD images as if they were already burned to CD DVD
What 39 s new
CD DVD BluRay imaging ability
Images mounting from image catalog in menu
Auto update functionality
Preferences dialog
Some GUI improvements
Languages updates
Bugs fixed
Images engine bugs
Device speed detection
Some minor GUI bugs
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FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is reportedly dropping plans for free, national broadband service that would block access to porn. He told Ars Technica that he has circulated an order that would move forward on plans for a free wireless broadband network, but would strip provisions calling for a pornography filter.
"A lot of public interest advocates have said they would support this, but we're concerned about the filter," Martin said. The chairman has sent the plan--minus the porn filter--to his fellow commissioners, but they are apparently not too enthusiastic about the idea.
The commission in June proposed auctioning off spectrum in the AWS-3 band, which would be used for the nationwide broadband system. The winner was supposed to have built out the smut-free service within 10 years and pay a small percentage of its revenue to the U.S. Treasury.
Wireless carriers like T-Mobile, however, objected to the plan, claiming that activity in the AWS-3 band would interfere with wireless activity in the adjacent AWS-1 band--and specifically, its 3G network. T-Mobile paid $4.2 billion for AWS-1 spectrum in 2006.
At the behest of T-Mobile, the commission conducted tests to ensure that a national broadband network would not interfere with mobile phones. The results, unveiled in October, concluded that mobile carriers have little to worry about.
The FCC will host an open commission meeting via conference call Tuesday, though no agenda items have been released. Stay tuned ...
 
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 With MobiTV's existing Blackberry client, TV on the go is nothing new for owners of RIM's popular Smartphone--but for Slingbox users, those pesky $9.99 monthly fees can now be a thing of the past. Sling Media today launched a public beta of its SlingPlayer Mobile application for BlackBerry, bringing a slew of television content to BlackBerry Bold, 8820, 8320, 8220, and 8120 devices.
The 1.5MB application can run on a 3G or Wi-Fi connection, streaming video to your smartphone with no monthly fees. Currently in public beta, the client will cost $29.99 at its official launch, with a 30-day trial available at no charge. You can check out the application on the Web or head to mobile.slingmedia.com from your BlackBerry to download the latest version.
I tried SlingPlayer Mobile on a BlackBerry Bold and had some difficulty connecting to my SlingBox, though the application recognized my username and password. The application worked without a problem, though, after I restarted the BlackBerry.
 
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AnyDVD is a driver which descrambles DVD Movies automatically in the background This DVD appears unprotected and region code free for all applications and the Windows operating system as well With AnyDVD 39 s help copy tools like CloneDVD Pinnacle Instant Copy InterVideo DVD Copy etc are able to copy CSS protected Movies You can remove the RPC region code thereby making the movie region free and viewable on any DVD player and with any DVD player software With the help of AnyDVD you can watch movies with non matching region codes with every DVD Player Software you like AnyDVD is capable of removing unwanted movie features including subtitles and prohibition messages such as copyright and FBI warnings It also allows you to launch an external application whenever you insert or remove a disc or prevent 39 PC friendly 39 software from automatically launching when you insert a video DVD AnyDVD decrypts not just DVDs AnyDVD allows you also to play copy and rip protected Audio CDs nbsp
6 5 0 3 2008 12 29
New Blu ray More support for new version of the BD copy protection
6 5 0 2 2008 12 28
New Blu ray Added support for new version of the BD copy protection
New Blu ray Improved region code removal
Fix Bug introduced in 6 4 9 2 MyMovies could hang
Fix HD DVD amp Blu ray Bug introduced in 6 4 9 2 retrieving disc
nbsp information with DVD Profiler for HD DVD and Blu ray discs did not work
nbsp while AnyDVD was running
Some minor fixes and improvements
Updated languages
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