"Apple could grab 9% Marketshare"

From Digg

Needham & Co analyst Charles Wolf believes Apple is in position to achieve a massive growth in its market share - with consumers very ready to make the switch. Wolf's survey showed that if Apple was to make it easy for Macs to run Windows applications the number of students who would buy an Apple computer would double...

Published on Digg at 5:35 PM PermaLink

Woz Raises $150 Million For, Well, Nobody Knows

From Techdirt

Looking to capitalize on the Apple halo effect, three former company executives, including co-founder Steve Wozniak, took their new company, Acquicor Technology, public yesterday in an IPO raising $150 million. The money they raised is purely based on their reputation, as Acquicor Technology, is officially designated as a "blank-check" company (no, really, it's in their filings), meaning they don't do anything yet and can do whatever they want with investor money...

Published on Techdirt at 5:31 PM PermaLink

AdWords As Political Weapon

From Searchblog

The Drum Major Institute, a local public policy group in New York, recently released a report grading New York state legislators' voting records with regard to middle class issues. Pretty traditional stuff, save for the way the group has decided to market it. For the next 30 days, if you Google any one of the state legislator's names, you will see a paid ad which shows that legislator's grade...

Published on Searchblog at 12:57 PM PermaLink

Low Demand for HD-DVD Technology

From Thomas Hawk’s Digital Connection

A blurry picture for HD-DVD as launch nears - Yahoo! News: "But so far it appears that those will be the only players on the market, at least for the time being. In the nearly three months since Toshiba announced its players, not a single other consumer electronics manufacturer has chimed in.

Moreover, sources report that only 10,000 Toshiba players are being shipped to retailers initially, a number that indicates low sales expectations...

Published on Thomas Hawk’s Digital Connection at 12:55 PM PermaLink

Band De-Charted for Being Too Well-Liked

From Techdirt

The popularity of downloading music is affecting an industry institution: the hit chart. In the past, it was easy enough to to tabulate sales, but file-trading, ringtone sales, and other means by which people listen to music render these lists less informative. Recently, a UK band was disqualified from the charts when it was discovered that overzealous fans
were buying multiple copies of the same song...

Published on Techdirt at 12:42 PM PermaLink

AOL Launches Classic TV Showcase

From Lost Remote

Called In2TV, the new service (still in beta) offers up full streams of old shows like Growing Pains, Falcon Crest, Eight is Enough and Wonder Woman. The content is free and supported by big-name advertisers from Intel and Kraft. (I watched a few minutes of Alice and it's a slick presentation.) Earlier this month, AOL said it was planning to a launch a video store to complement In2TV.

Published on Lost Remote at 9:08 AM PermaLink

Is Xero the Second Coming of Gizmondo?

From Techdirt

About a month ago, there was some buzz in the blogworld that there was yet another MVNO (a mobile operator that uses someone else's network) about to hit the scene, called Xero, with $300 million in funding. This seemed bizarre ... there's a bit more info coming out today concerning the folks behind Xero, and it may be cause for a bit more skepticism ...

Published on Techdirt at 9:05 AM PermaLink

TiVo's Trip to Capitol Hill

From Thomas Hawk’s Digital Connection

By Davis Freeberg Tom Rogers Discusses TiVo's Latest Kidzone Update

TiVo sent Tom Rogers all the way to Capitol Hill today in order to announce their first update to their Kidzone program. At the press event, TiVo announced that they would be including programs that meet the FCC's Education and Informational (E/I) criteria as well as an additonal partnership with the Parents Choice Foundation...

Published on Thomas Hawk’s Digital Connection at 8:59 AM PermaLink

Social Network Backlash (Humor)

From TechCrunch

I think a lot of people must have gotten one too many Linked-in requests recently, because tonight I came across two “anti-social networks” (although one is just a joke): Isolatr and Snubster...

Bryant Choung’s Snubster is an actual, live service. It helps you notify people, and the world, that you are pissed off at someone...

Published on TechCrunch at 8:54 AM PermaLink

Brinksmanship in 802.11n

From Wi-Fi Networking News

A game is being played with announcements from Task Group N: Yes, there is unity. Of a sort. In an interview last week, Atheros's chief technology officer said the Draft 1.0 accepted by Task Group (which will eventually produce the 802.11n next-generation standard to move Wi-Fi forward) was essentially complete with small details to work out. He said there was a very small risk that major changes would be required...

Published on Wi-Fi Networking News at 8:51 AM PermaLink

Skype Instant Messages from Your Mobile

From GigaOM

EQO, a Vancouver-based start-up, is about to start offering a software client that would allow you to IM people on your Skype-list from your mobile phones. This is a free service and will work on many of the popular phones. EQO (pronounced echo) offers a J2MEE which can also act as mobile phone extension for your Skype ID. Of course you would need SkypeIn and SkypeOut for that...

Published on GigaOM at 8:48 AM PermaLink

Evoting whistleblower needs help

From BoingBoing

Mark Frauenfelder: Cindy Cohn says: "Oakland Tribune article about Stephen Heller, a courageous whistleblower who publicized some internal documents from electronic voting machine vendor Diebold. He's been charged with three felonies in Los Angeles Superior Court, for felony access to computerdata, commercial burglary and receiving stolen property, and has pled not guilty. Heller was a temporary wordprocessor at Diebold's law firm, Jones Day.

"My quote from the story: 'This is a guy who the people of California should be thanking and yet he's facing litigation titled 'People vs. Heller.'...

Published on BoingBoing at 8:41 AM PermaLink

Social engineering prank makes athlete choke

From BoingBoing

Mark Frauenfelder: Bruce Shneier has a great story about some people at California Berkeley who created a fake co-ed named Victoria to chat online with Gabe Pruitt, USC's starting guard.

On Saturday, at the game, when Pruitt was introduced in the starting lineup, the chants began: "Victoria, Victoria." One of the fans held up a sign with her phone number.

The look on Pruitt's face when he turned to the bench after the first Victoria chant was priceless. The expression was unlike anything ever seen in collegiate or pro sports. Never did a chant by the opposing crowd have such an impact on a visiting player. Pruitt was in total shock...

Published on BoingBoing at 8:40 AM PermaLink