By Paul Thomasch
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Internet regulators on Thursday voted to relax rules on domain names like .com or .edu, which could pave the way for companies or individuals to create an array of new addresses for the Web.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or Icann, also approved measures that will allow top-level domain names to be written in scripts such as Arabic or Cyrillic.
Top-level domain names, or TLDs, refer to Internet name suffixes, such as the ubiquitous .com, .net and .org, among others. Currently, there are more than 200 TLDs, which also include the two-character country codes used by websites, such as Britain's .uk.
"This is a historic resolution," said Peter Dengate Thrush, chairman of Icann's board. "It's going to make a big difference to how the Internet looks and works."
Icann officials said some technical issues for the new system must still be worked out, but it could be reviewing the first applications for new TLDs as early as next spring. The application fee is expected to cost more than $100,000.
Under the new system, individuals, companies or groups could apply to have any string of letters established as a domain name. It could be a vanity name, for example -- .smith -- or a category name like .sports or .perfume. A company could also change its domain to reflect its brand, so Apple.com could become Apple.mac, for instance.
Straightforward applications will be approved quickly, officials said. A review process would be undertaken for controversial strings, such as those that infringe on existing trademarks, or appear to be too similar to existing TLDs, or raise moral objections.
Icann adopted the new rules after a meeting in Paris.
(Reporting by Paul Thomasch, editing by Maureen Bavdek)
http://www.enterpriseitplanet.com/breakingnews/article.php/3755746
Friday, 27 June 2008
10 Great Software Programs You Can Get Gratis
As we bring another season of The PC Guy column to a close -- I'll be off for the summer -- let's take a quick look at 10 cool and free software programs.
Paint.net 3.08
Coming out of left field in an already crowded category of Photoshop competitors, this beauty of a program is simply amazing. Features such as a gradient tool that blends images and colors in real time to generate stunning effects, a cloning tool that makes blemishes, obstructions and other unwanted elements disappear, red-eye removal, layer manipulation and a battery of slick filters make this one of the best graphics editors you're likely to find.
EssentialPIM 2.5 Think of Outlook, now supercharge it with colorful enhancements, improved functionality and easier access to components. That's EssentialPIM, a suite of utilities (minus e-mail) to help you organize your time, contacts and chores. Its Notes program is excellent and lets you include graphics and hyperlinks, and its classy color-coded Scheduler can be printed out for daily, weekly or monthly tasks. It's a wonderful all-in-one desktop office manager. IrfanView 4.0 Considered by many to be the premiere image-viewing program on the market, IrfanView is compact, fast and powerful. It works with a ton of image formats, does basic adjustments and lets you create cool slide shows on the fly.
OpenOffice.org 2.4.1 What would you say if you were offered a full-fledged word processor, an industrial-sized spreadsheet program, a powerful presentation utility, a strong graphics program and a professional-caliber database compiler, all comparable to the best Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) has to offer and it was all free, no strings attached? If you'd call it the best software offer in computing history, you'd be right. One catch: You may need to shell out some bucks for an extra hard drive, since OpenOffice.org requires 800 megabytes.
PDFCreator 8.1 PDF files, created by Adobe (Nasdaq: ADBE) in the '80s, remain the most popular, versatile text and graphics document format that can be accessed on any computer operating system. Now you can create and save your own at no cost with PDFCreator. You can merge multiple documents easily and encrypt them as well.
CDBurnerXP 4.0 Some professional CD/DVD burners offer handy extras, but if you just want the basics, to easily burn music or data to discs without the hassle, here's your utility. You can create your own audio discs with no gaps between songs, bootable discs and high-def discs in Blu-ray format.
7-Zip 4.57 Not the kind of utility you might get all excited about, but we all need compression programs to zip and unzip all sorts of files from all sorts of sources. 7-Zip handles plenty of formats, bundles files tightly and unzips them fast.
Stickies 6.5 There are programs that mimic Post-it notes everywhere, but this one is my favorite. Create your own colorful notes, align them to the side of your desktop or let them stand free-form, attach them to specific Web pages where they'll remain when you revisit a week later, or assign them to a specific file or folder. They can be timed to pop up as reminders, and each can even play its own assigned song or sound to alert you to an event.
WordWeb 5.1 Remember those big things you used to store on your desk and thumb through when you needed to spell or define a word? I think they were called "dictionaries." WordWeb is one of the best digital versions of a dictionary and thesaurus I've seen. It has a massive database, and it could not be easier to use.
Simply install, go to any printed word on your document or Web site and press control-right click, and Word Press will instantly display definitions and synonyms, and also provide immediate access to online Wikipedia and Wiktionary references to the word as well.
ooVoo 1.6.1
There are several free Internet-based telephony programs available, but ooVoo is easily the slickest-looking one, and it performs beautifully. Have your friends download a copy, and make unlimited-length calls to them for free, anywhere, anytime. Try out the free video phone call feature as well. In fact, if you're a college student going away soon, why not place a video phone call to your worried parents, assure them you're OK, and then hit them up for a few extra bucks for that hard drive you'll need for OpenOffice.org?
© 2008 The Record, Bergen County, NJ. All rights reserved.© 2008 ECT News Network. All rights reserved.
http://www.linuxinsider.com/rsstory/63527.html
Paint.net 3.08
Coming out of left field in an already crowded category of Photoshop competitors, this beauty of a program is simply amazing. Features such as a gradient tool that blends images and colors in real time to generate stunning effects, a cloning tool that makes blemishes, obstructions and other unwanted elements disappear, red-eye removal, layer manipulation and a battery of slick filters make this one of the best graphics editors you're likely to find.
EssentialPIM 2.5 Think of Outlook, now supercharge it with colorful enhancements, improved functionality and easier access to components. That's EssentialPIM, a suite of utilities (minus e-mail) to help you organize your time, contacts and chores. Its Notes program is excellent and lets you include graphics and hyperlinks, and its classy color-coded Scheduler can be printed out for daily, weekly or monthly tasks. It's a wonderful all-in-one desktop office manager. IrfanView 4.0 Considered by many to be the premiere image-viewing program on the market, IrfanView is compact, fast and powerful. It works with a ton of image formats, does basic adjustments and lets you create cool slide shows on the fly.
OpenOffice.org 2.4.1 What would you say if you were offered a full-fledged word processor, an industrial-sized spreadsheet program, a powerful presentation utility, a strong graphics program and a professional-caliber database compiler, all comparable to the best Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) has to offer and it was all free, no strings attached? If you'd call it the best software offer in computing history, you'd be right. One catch: You may need to shell out some bucks for an extra hard drive, since OpenOffice.org requires 800 megabytes.
PDFCreator 8.1 PDF files, created by Adobe (Nasdaq: ADBE) in the '80s, remain the most popular, versatile text and graphics document format that can be accessed on any computer operating system. Now you can create and save your own at no cost with PDFCreator. You can merge multiple documents easily and encrypt them as well.
CDBurnerXP 4.0 Some professional CD/DVD burners offer handy extras, but if you just want the basics, to easily burn music or data to discs without the hassle, here's your utility. You can create your own audio discs with no gaps between songs, bootable discs and high-def discs in Blu-ray format.
7-Zip 4.57 Not the kind of utility you might get all excited about, but we all need compression programs to zip and unzip all sorts of files from all sorts of sources. 7-Zip handles plenty of formats, bundles files tightly and unzips them fast.
Stickies 6.5 There are programs that mimic Post-it notes everywhere, but this one is my favorite. Create your own colorful notes, align them to the side of your desktop or let them stand free-form, attach them to specific Web pages where they'll remain when you revisit a week later, or assign them to a specific file or folder. They can be timed to pop up as reminders, and each can even play its own assigned song or sound to alert you to an event.
WordWeb 5.1 Remember those big things you used to store on your desk and thumb through when you needed to spell or define a word? I think they were called "dictionaries." WordWeb is one of the best digital versions of a dictionary and thesaurus I've seen. It has a massive database, and it could not be easier to use.
Simply install, go to any printed word on your document or Web site and press control-right click, and Word Press will instantly display definitions and synonyms, and also provide immediate access to online Wikipedia and Wiktionary references to the word as well.
ooVoo 1.6.1
There are several free Internet-based telephony programs available, but ooVoo is easily the slickest-looking one, and it performs beautifully. Have your friends download a copy, and make unlimited-length calls to them for free, anywhere, anytime. Try out the free video phone call feature as well. In fact, if you're a college student going away soon, why not place a video phone call to your worried parents, assure them you're OK, and then hit them up for a few extra bucks for that hard drive you'll need for OpenOffice.org?
© 2008 The Record, Bergen County, NJ. All rights reserved.© 2008 ECT News Network. All rights reserved.
http://www.linuxinsider.com/rsstory/63527.html
Ubuntu: More Bugs Than Mozilla, OpenOffice, KDE Combined
Mark Shuttleworth, leader of Ubuntu distribution organization Canonical, writes that his flavor of Linux receives many more reports of software bugs than other open source efforts - - for a variety of reasons, not all because the Ubuntu community's work is faulty.
The numbers he presents, though, are interesting:
"In the month of April 2008, I found the following bug counts for large FLOSS projects:
Upstreams (bug reports):
Mozilla 5,334
OpenOffice 1,076
Gnome 5,364
KDE 1,335
Total: 13,109
Distributions:
Ubuntu 13,064
Debian 5,103
"With hindsight, April was possibly a bad choice, because it was an Ubuntu release month so there's usually a small spike in the number of bugs filed. It would be interesting to see the stats for other distributions, and projects, over a full year. But the general picture is clear - within our family of distributions, Ubuntu carries the brunt of the load w.r.t. bug tracking, triage and patch management - not only for our users, but for a broad cross-section of the open source stack."
Shuttleworth's big request: A single, cross-distribution tool that can track bug reports and bug fixes across the board, and across the stack, so that the work of improving open source software becomes more efficient.
http://www.crn.com/software/208801277?cid=ChannelWebCompleteFeed
The numbers he presents, though, are interesting:
"In the month of April 2008, I found the following bug counts for large FLOSS projects:
Upstreams (bug reports):
Mozilla 5,334
OpenOffice 1,076
Gnome 5,364
KDE 1,335
Total: 13,109
Distributions:
Ubuntu 13,064
Debian 5,103
"With hindsight, April was possibly a bad choice, because it was an Ubuntu release month so there's usually a small spike in the number of bugs filed. It would be interesting to see the stats for other distributions, and projects, over a full year. But the general picture is clear - within our family of distributions, Ubuntu carries the brunt of the load w.r.t. bug tracking, triage and patch management - not only for our users, but for a broad cross-section of the open source stack."
Shuttleworth's big request: A single, cross-distribution tool that can track bug reports and bug fixes across the board, and across the stack, so that the work of improving open source software becomes more efficient.
http://www.crn.com/software/208801277?cid=ChannelWebCompleteFeed
Thursday, 26 June 2008
Red Hat CEO: Oracle/BEA Deal is Helping Us
Red Hat reports revenue growth as CEO takes pot shots at Oracle.
June 25, 2008By Sean Michael Kerner: More stories by this author:
Business continues to be good at open source vendor Red Hat despite the economic slowdown in the U.S. Part of the good times at Red Hat are the result of new product introductions that are helping to grow revenues and part comes from the actions of others, in particular Oracle.
During Red Hat's first quarter fiscal 2009 conference call, Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst outlined his company's financial performance and credited the Oracle acquisition of BEA as being a driver for Red Hat's revenue growth.
Red Hat's first quarter fiscal 2009 ended on May 31. Revenues at the Linux vendor for the first quarter of fiscal 2009 hit $156.6 million, which represents an increase of 32 percent over its first quarter fiscal 2008 performance.
On the net income side of the books Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) reported $17.3 million or 8 cents per share which is an improvement of 7 percent over the $16.2 million reported for the first fiscal quarter 2008.
"The Oracle/BEA acquisition has led to some dislocation," Whitehurst said on a conference call. "I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with the way the acquisition happened but as you move to fewer players in the space clearly there are going to be people bumping into each other and people will look around and this is certainly proving to be to our benefit."
Oracle successfully won its bid to acquire middleware vendor BEA in January. Red Hat's JBoss middleware division competes against BEA for enterprise deployments. Oracle also competes against Red Hat on the Linux platform with Oracle selling its own flavor of Red Hat Linux called Oracle Unbreakable Linux.
Whitehurst noted that overall the JBoss business is growing well and new products such as the JBoss SOA platform, which was released earlier this year already part of six figure sales deals.
Red Hat also released the JBoss Operations Network (JON) and
Additionally, Red Hat revealed during the quarter that the New York Stock Exchange is using RHEL, though Whitehurst did not materially break out the specific impact that the NYSE deal had on Red Hat's financial performance.
Overall Red Hat's CEO sees his company moving on the right track and isn't afraid of the larger macro-economic issues that are currently affecting the US economy.
"Government and telco verticals are very strong for us," Whitehurst said. "Our customers read the papers like everyone else so folks are nervous but that said the pipeline is strong, especially for JBoss."
http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3755446/Red+Hat+CEO+OracleBEA+Deal+is+Helping+Us.htm
June 25, 2008By Sean Michael Kerner: More stories by this author:
Business continues to be good at open source vendor Red Hat despite the economic slowdown in the U.S. Part of the good times at Red Hat are the result of new product introductions that are helping to grow revenues and part comes from the actions of others, in particular Oracle.
During Red Hat's first quarter fiscal 2009 conference call, Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst outlined his company's financial performance and credited the Oracle acquisition of BEA as being a driver for Red Hat's revenue growth.
Red Hat's first quarter fiscal 2009 ended on May 31. Revenues at the Linux vendor for the first quarter of fiscal 2009 hit $156.6 million, which represents an increase of 32 percent over its first quarter fiscal 2008 performance.
On the net income side of the books Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) reported $17.3 million or 8 cents per share which is an improvement of 7 percent over the $16.2 million reported for the first fiscal quarter 2008.
"The Oracle/BEA acquisition has led to some dislocation," Whitehurst said on a conference call. "I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with the way the acquisition happened but as you move to fewer players in the space clearly there are going to be people bumping into each other and people will look around and this is certainly proving to be to our benefit."
Oracle successfully won its bid to acquire middleware vendor BEA in January. Red Hat's JBoss middleware division competes against BEA for enterprise deployments. Oracle also competes against Red Hat on the Linux platform with Oracle selling its own flavor of Red Hat Linux called Oracle Unbreakable Linux.
Whitehurst noted that overall the JBoss business is growing well and new products such as the JBoss SOA platform, which was released earlier this year already part of six figure sales deals.
Red Hat also released the JBoss Operations Network (JON) and
Additionally, Red Hat revealed during the quarter that the New York Stock Exchange is using RHEL, though Whitehurst did not materially break out the specific impact that the NYSE deal had on Red Hat's financial performance.
Overall Red Hat's CEO sees his company moving on the right track and isn't afraid of the larger macro-economic issues that are currently affecting the US economy.
"Government and telco verticals are very strong for us," Whitehurst said. "Our customers read the papers like everyone else so folks are nervous but that said the pipeline is strong, especially for JBoss."
http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3755446/Red+Hat+CEO+OracleBEA+Deal+is+Helping+Us.htm
Wednesday, 25 June 2008
Microsoft Won't Budge On Windows XP Dirt Nap
If you were hoping Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT) would issue a dramatic last minute, Hollywood-style stay of execution for Windows XP, then you've been watching too many movies.
In a thank you letter sent to customers Monday, Bill Veghte, senior vice president of Microsoft's Online Services and Windows Business Group, reiterated Microsoft's June 30 end-of-life date for XP and said Microsoft plans to continue supporting XP with security updates and other critical updates until April 2014.
The letter contains no new information, but instead reprises the main talking points to which Microsoft has stuck since customers and partners began complaining about Vista's shortcomings: Namely, that unhappy Vista customers will still be able to use XP, and that the market's perception of Vista is quite different from the reality.
Veghte emphasized that XP-hungry customers will still be able to buy PCs with XP from system builders until January 31, 2009, or by exercising the downgrade rights Microsoft offers with OEM versions of Vista Business or Vista Ultimate and to volume licensing customers.
Microsoft will also continue to sell XP Home and XP Starter versions with low cost notebooks and PCs (also known as Netbooks and Nettops) until June 30, 2010, according to Veghte.
Describing Vista as "a very ambitious release", Veghte said the security enhancements Microsoft added to the OS have paid major dividends. For example, in 2007 Vista had half as many critical vulnerabilities as XP SP2 had during the same period, and PCs running Vista are 60 percent less likely to be infected by malware than machines running XP SP2, said Veghte.
Veghte acknowledged that the architectural changes Microsoft had to make with Vista to achieve these security improvements led to compatibility issues with existing hardware and applications, but said these issues have for the most part been resolved.
The good news, according to Veghte, is that Windows 7, the successor to Vista that's due either in late 2009 or early 2010, uses the same core architecture as Vista, which means customers won't have to suffer through another painful migration.
"Our goal is to ensure the migration process from Windows Vista to Windows 7 is straightforward," Veghte said in the letter.
http://www.crn.com/software/208800567?cid=ChannelWebCompleteFeed
In a thank you letter sent to customers Monday, Bill Veghte, senior vice president of Microsoft's Online Services and Windows Business Group, reiterated Microsoft's June 30 end-of-life date for XP and said Microsoft plans to continue supporting XP with security updates and other critical updates until April 2014.
The letter contains no new information, but instead reprises the main talking points to which Microsoft has stuck since customers and partners began complaining about Vista's shortcomings: Namely, that unhappy Vista customers will still be able to use XP, and that the market's perception of Vista is quite different from the reality.
Veghte emphasized that XP-hungry customers will still be able to buy PCs with XP from system builders until January 31, 2009, or by exercising the downgrade rights Microsoft offers with OEM versions of Vista Business or Vista Ultimate and to volume licensing customers.
Microsoft will also continue to sell XP Home and XP Starter versions with low cost notebooks and PCs (also known as Netbooks and Nettops) until June 30, 2010, according to Veghte.
Describing Vista as "a very ambitious release", Veghte said the security enhancements Microsoft added to the OS have paid major dividends. For example, in 2007 Vista had half as many critical vulnerabilities as XP SP2 had during the same period, and PCs running Vista are 60 percent less likely to be infected by malware than machines running XP SP2, said Veghte.
Veghte acknowledged that the architectural changes Microsoft had to make with Vista to achieve these security improvements led to compatibility issues with existing hardware and applications, but said these issues have for the most part been resolved.
The good news, according to Veghte, is that Windows 7, the successor to Vista that's due either in late 2009 or early 2010, uses the same core architecture as Vista, which means customers won't have to suffer through another painful migration.
"Our goal is to ensure the migration process from Windows Vista to Windows 7 is straightforward," Veghte said in the letter.
http://www.crn.com/software/208800567?cid=ChannelWebCompleteFeed
Metal Gear Solid 4 Creates Sensation In Japan
Japan went mad for Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, and the sales figures went to proved it: after its June 12 debut, the game took over the number one spot in terms of software, by reaching over 450,000 units sold.
But the game did much more than that: it also gave a little push to console sales: PlayStation 3 went up from 10,000 the week before the official release of the game, to over 75,000 units sold after that.
As PS3 managed to boost its sales thanks to an exclusive deal with Konami, the Xbox 360, whose sales continue to keep a low profile in Japan, stayed way behind in term of sales.
Perhaps Konami’s choice to release Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots for PS3, which has had some problems with sales, always behind Nintendo’s Wii and Xbox, wasn’t a fortunate one. However, for Japan, it went well.
Game fans and PS3 users have been tempted to buy with the $600 offer of the Metal Gear Solid 4 bundle, which came with a Dual Shock controller in several color versions. Another limited special edition of the game, called the MSG4 Premium Pack, became available for $480.
Sony has been craving for Metal Gear Solid 4’s release, as it hoped for improved sales of its gaming machine.
Thanks to its graphics, popularity and demand, MGS4 topped charts in Japan and boosted hardware sales. There is one more thing however: how well will it do in the Unites States?
The game is definitely a monster hit in Japan, as it managed to break all sales records for the country in just one week. And Sony couldn’t be happier to have closed an exclusive deal with Konami.
The action video game has been a much discussed subject over the past days, as people started wondering whether a Metal Gear Solid 5 is to be expected. The answer: this is not the end of the storyline, why shouldn’t there be a MGS5?
http://www.efluxmedia.com/news_Metal_Gear_Solid_4_Creates_Sensation_In_Japan_19363.html
But the game did much more than that: it also gave a little push to console sales: PlayStation 3 went up from 10,000 the week before the official release of the game, to over 75,000 units sold after that.
As PS3 managed to boost its sales thanks to an exclusive deal with Konami, the Xbox 360, whose sales continue to keep a low profile in Japan, stayed way behind in term of sales.
Perhaps Konami’s choice to release Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots for PS3, which has had some problems with sales, always behind Nintendo’s Wii and Xbox, wasn’t a fortunate one. However, for Japan, it went well.
Game fans and PS3 users have been tempted to buy with the $600 offer of the Metal Gear Solid 4 bundle, which came with a Dual Shock controller in several color versions. Another limited special edition of the game, called the MSG4 Premium Pack, became available for $480.
Sony has been craving for Metal Gear Solid 4’s release, as it hoped for improved sales of its gaming machine.
Thanks to its graphics, popularity and demand, MGS4 topped charts in Japan and boosted hardware sales. There is one more thing however: how well will it do in the Unites States?
The game is definitely a monster hit in Japan, as it managed to break all sales records for the country in just one week. And Sony couldn’t be happier to have closed an exclusive deal with Konami.
The action video game has been a much discussed subject over the past days, as people started wondering whether a Metal Gear Solid 5 is to be expected. The answer: this is not the end of the storyline, why shouldn’t there be a MGS5?
http://www.efluxmedia.com/news_Metal_Gear_Solid_4_Creates_Sensation_In_Japan_19363.html
Tuesday, 24 June 2008
ASUS Backs Down on Anti-Linux PricingJun 24, 2008, 13 :30 UTC (0 Talkback[s]) (444 reads)(Other stories by Angus Kidman)
"Asus has quietly ditched its ludicrous policy of charging AU$50 [US$48/€31] more for the Linux-based Eee PC 901 than the XP one.
"As APC reported back in May, in most parts of the world the Linux and Windows XP versions of the Eee PC 900 have been selling for the same price (the Linux version offered 20GB of storage compared to the XP model's 12GB). In Australia, however, the XP 900 was launched at AU$599 [US$571/€367], while the Linux model was $649 [US$619/€398]..."
For the complete story click below
http://apcmag.com/asus_backs_down_on_antilinux_eee_pc_pricing.htm
"Asus has quietly ditched its ludicrous policy of charging AU$50 [US$48/€31] more for the Linux-based Eee PC 901 than the XP one.
"As APC reported back in May, in most parts of the world the Linux and Windows XP versions of the Eee PC 900 have been selling for the same price (the Linux version offered 20GB of storage compared to the XP model's 12GB). In Australia, however, the XP 900 was launched at AU$599 [US$571/€367], while the Linux model was $649 [US$619/€398]..."
For the complete story click below
http://apcmag.com/asus_backs_down_on_antilinux_eee_pc_pricing.htm
ABC Strikes Video Deal With Veoh
ABC wants a piece of the World Wide Web audience, and decided to put aside its conservative attitude for a change. The company closed a deal with video-site Veoh.com, to will feature full-length episodes of the TV network’s most popular shows.
Although the financial terms have not been disclosed, and a press release from ABC is still to be expected, one thing is for sure: Veoh.com will feature prime time shows, meant to raise their audience from the 28 million viewers to date to many millions more.
ABC opted this year for a second video deal (after last year’s deal with AOL) to promote its programs on other websites than its own.
“Lost,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Grey’s Anatomy” or “Ugly Betty” fans will be able to watch their favorite shows on Veoh.com, which is somewhat similar to the popular YouTube.
Veoh will also feature ABC offerings and commercials, under the agreement with the television network.
In addition to that, the independent video site will also play short clips and highlight from ESPN programs.
As Matt Murphy, senior vice president ESPN Media Networks, told The New York Times, it’s imperative for the company to constantly re-evaluate their business and look for new partnerships and business models.
ABC started the online audience-oriented strategy last year, when they closed a deal with AOL for the distribution of its primetime shows. It looks like its own website viewers aren’t enough these days.
Dmitri Shapiro, Veoh founder and chief innovation officer, said as quoted by the NYT that networks are currently rushing in to strike similar deals, after they realized that most of their viewership happens outside of their own sites.
CBS Interactive is no stranger to such deals either, after it announced earlier this month an agreement with Yahoo for the distribution of its shows online.
It seems that these days, having an online strategy pays off, and television networks have begun to realize that aiming at more than their own website audience is the key to a successful business.
http://www.efluxmedia.com/news_ABC_Strikes_Video_Deal_With_Veoh_19345.html
ABC wants a piece of the World Wide Web audience, and decided to put aside its conservative attitude for a change. The company closed a deal with video-site Veoh.com, to will feature full-length episodes of the TV network’s most popular shows.
Although the financial terms have not been disclosed, and a press release from ABC is still to be expected, one thing is for sure: Veoh.com will feature prime time shows, meant to raise their audience from the 28 million viewers to date to many millions more.
ABC opted this year for a second video deal (after last year’s deal with AOL) to promote its programs on other websites than its own.
“Lost,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Grey’s Anatomy” or “Ugly Betty” fans will be able to watch their favorite shows on Veoh.com, which is somewhat similar to the popular YouTube.
Veoh will also feature ABC offerings and commercials, under the agreement with the television network.
In addition to that, the independent video site will also play short clips and highlight from ESPN programs.
As Matt Murphy, senior vice president ESPN Media Networks, told The New York Times, it’s imperative for the company to constantly re-evaluate their business and look for new partnerships and business models.
ABC started the online audience-oriented strategy last year, when they closed a deal with AOL for the distribution of its primetime shows. It looks like its own website viewers aren’t enough these days.
Dmitri Shapiro, Veoh founder and chief innovation officer, said as quoted by the NYT that networks are currently rushing in to strike similar deals, after they realized that most of their viewership happens outside of their own sites.
CBS Interactive is no stranger to such deals either, after it announced earlier this month an agreement with Yahoo for the distribution of its shows online.
It seems that these days, having an online strategy pays off, and television networks have begun to realize that aiming at more than their own website audience is the key to a successful business.
http://www.efluxmedia.com/news_ABC_Strikes_Video_Deal_With_Veoh_19345.html
Visa taps into Facebook following
Facebook is popular, but struggles to succeed commercially
Visa, the world's largest credit card network, is paying Facebook $2m (£1m) to advertise its small business service on the popular social networking site.
The company is giving $100 (£51) advertising credits to the first 20,000 US start-ups that download its service via Facebook.
Visa's online service is designed to help small firms run their businesses more efficiently.
The company aims to tap into Facebook's global audience of 80 million people.
About 80,000 small businesses already have profiles on Facebook and thousands of Internet programmes have been developed specifically for the social networking site.
But the majority of these applications are based on social activities, such as gaming, listening to music and picture-sharing, rather than commerce.
The problem for Facebook, and its advertisers, is that few programmes generate any revenue.
Visa and Facebook say they think small companies that receive the advertising credits will then use the social networking site to market their services and products online in the future.
"That's certainly what we are hoping for," said Dan Rose, vice-president of product development at Facebook.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7471038.stm
Facebook is popular, but struggles to succeed commercially
Visa, the world's largest credit card network, is paying Facebook $2m (£1m) to advertise its small business service on the popular social networking site.
The company is giving $100 (£51) advertising credits to the first 20,000 US start-ups that download its service via Facebook.
Visa's online service is designed to help small firms run their businesses more efficiently.
The company aims to tap into Facebook's global audience of 80 million people.
About 80,000 small businesses already have profiles on Facebook and thousands of Internet programmes have been developed specifically for the social networking site.
But the majority of these applications are based on social activities, such as gaming, listening to music and picture-sharing, rather than commerce.
The problem for Facebook, and its advertisers, is that few programmes generate any revenue.
Visa and Facebook say they think small companies that receive the advertising credits will then use the social networking site to market their services and products online in the future.
"That's certainly what we are hoping for," said Dan Rose, vice-president of product development at Facebook.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7471038.stm
Sunday, 22 June 2008
Asus Eee Box to Debut in UK... Minus Linux
Jun 20, 2008, 19 :30 UTC (1 Talkback[s]) (1820 reads)(Other stories by Tony Smith)
"Asus will bring the Eee Box desktop to the UK in August. However, the company confirmed to Register Hardware that machine will initially only ship with Windows XP Home Edition.
"The compact desktop contains not Intel's desktop-oriented Atom 230 processor, as anticipated, but the less power-hungry notebook version, the N270, Asus revealed. Both CPUs are clocked at 1.6GHz and contain 512KB of L2 cache. But the N270 consumes 2.5W of power, while the 230 has a 4.5W TDP..."
read more, click below
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/06/19/eee_box_uk_date/
Jun 20, 2008, 19 :30 UTC (1 Talkback[s]) (1820 reads)(Other stories by Tony Smith)
"Asus will bring the Eee Box desktop to the UK in August. However, the company confirmed to Register Hardware that machine will initially only ship with Windows XP Home Edition.
"The compact desktop contains not Intel's desktop-oriented Atom 230 processor, as anticipated, but the less power-hungry notebook version, the N270, Asus revealed. Both CPUs are clocked at 1.6GHz and contain 512KB of L2 cache. But the N270 consumes 2.5W of power, while the 230 has a 4.5W TDP..."
read more, click below
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/06/19/eee_box_uk_date/
Technology
Bits: EBay Tries to Buy a Little More Love from Sellers
By Saul Hansell
Published: June 20, 2008
EBay is offering better fraud protection to buyers and sellers and cutting seller fees to help restore the value it provides to customers. More fee cuts may be ahead.
to read more, click below
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/20/ebay-tries-to-buy-a-little-more-love/
Bits: EBay Tries to Buy a Little More Love from Sellers
By Saul Hansell
Published: June 20, 2008
EBay is offering better fraud protection to buyers and sellers and cutting seller fees to help restore the value it provides to customers. More fee cuts may be ahead.
to read more, click below
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/20/ebay-tries-to-buy-a-little-more-love/
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