It’s Black Friday, and that means it’s time to shop until your arms fall off and your head aches. Or you could stay home with your folks and update their Web browser. Party time.
A Belgian internet service provider has successfully won its battle against government demand to block illegal filesharing. The verdict comes from Europe’s highest court and will have at least some effect on most ISPs across the continent.
The FBI and Department of Homeland Security say they have no evidence that an online attack caused an Illinois water pump to fail. They contradicted a previous state report leaked to a security firm owner.
Snark and not a little. For years, Apple milked its underdog status, tweaking Microsoft with its popular “I’m a Mac” commercials. Now, comeuppance is coming from not an underdog, but it’s primary competitor both in the marketplace and courtroom. Ready to wince? Ready to laugh? Step inside.
We’re watching you. And you. Oh, and you. And don’t think you’re out of our line of vision as you stand leaning against that wall, either.
Spotify has hit a new milestone in its aim to turn users into subscribers, with 2.5 million people now paying to use the service.
Google has either dropped or refocused several of its experimental projects in what it’s calling a late spring clean. There are a variety of reasons, most of which ultimately come down to the ideas simply not working out.
And, one suspects, still counting. Although Hewlett-Packard has killed the TouchPad, the fate of webOS remains unclear and that will probably drive up the final tally even higher. As this failed experiment sputters to an unnatural conclusion, questions remain about what comes next.
Facebook claims that its helped reduce the famed “six degrees of separation” between any two people to an average of just 4.74. That sounds great as long as you ignore the 89 percent or so of the world that isn’t on Facebook.
I rather like the direction Spotify is currently headed in. That is, creating a global service for people to discover and listen to music without turning to piracy. But Spotify looks set to change course.
My favorite music streaming service is saying that listeners will start hearing political ads, including (one presumes) attack ads. Moreover, because Pandora knows your ZIP code and will share that, politicians and worse will be targeting their messages right down to the Congressional district level. Ugh.
If you wondered how Amazon could sell a reasonably decent tablet computer for two hundred bucks and still make a profit, the answer is that it doesn’t. A breakdown of the Kindle Fire’s components gives the clearest insight yet that the company is taking a financial hit on sales but hoping to make its money back through media content.
All you Star Trek fans rejoice, Stephen Hawking has said that we had better head for the stars in order to save humanity. Unfortunately in this current financial climate that just might be a little iffy.
It’s been repeated ad naseum that Spotify isn’t iTunes. No one knows that better than the independent labels that increasingly dominate the creation and distribution of music. That said, pay forever music isn’t paying the bills for indies and provides little if any long term value for users.
Liquid Robotics has sent four of its unique unmanned maritime vehicle (UMV) Wave Gliders on trips across the Pacific Ocean. Two Wave Gliders will be going to Japan and the other two to Australia. Along the way they will collect over two and a quarter million discrete data points from the following onboard sensors:
Well done, STHoldings, well done. You’ve just withdrawn from the future in order to try and hold onto the past. Good work.
There’s exciting and depressing news from the world of gaming — Activision Blizzard sold more than three quarters of a billion dollars of a single game and buyers played 7 million hours just on the Xbox on the title’s first day. Won’t be getting that time back any time soon.
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