A magazine accused of publishing a blogger's story without permission has seen a dramatic rise in the number of its Facebook friends, although they're not all that friendly.
The tale of writer Monica Gaudio hit the Web on Wednesday after she reported that her story, "A Tale of Two Tarts," was apparently lifted and published by the print magazine Cooks Source with her byline, but without her knowledge or any compensation. After tracking down the editor at the magazine, Gaudio asked for an apology on Facebook and in the magazine, as well as a $130 donation … Read more
Hulu is slowing ramping up the availability of its Hulu Plus platform.
Current owners of the 2010 models of Sony Bravia HDTVs started getting access to Hulu Plus yesterday. And next week, the company plans to make Hulu Plus available to PlayStation 3 owners who have a free PlayStation Network account.
Hulu Plus has been available on Sony's console since July. However, the service was only made available to select PlayStation Plus subscribers. With next week's launch, any PlayStation 3 owner (in the U.S.) will have access to the service.
Going forward, Hulu plans to expand the … Read more
As the Internet and TV converge in living rooms, lots of folks, including the New York Times, have been drooling over the idea of smartphones as next-gen remotes. On the surface, this seems like a cool idea. After all, smart mobile devices have touch screens, keyboards, and all sorts of other bells and whistles that should equal an enhanced, enjoyable smart-TV experience.
Once you scratch the surface, however, you soon realize what a terrible and impractical idea an app-enabled smartphone remote really is.
It's kind of like wanting to see Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees in the same film. At first it sounds great: two horror-movie icons in one great slasher epic. What's not to love about that? But once the movie shows up, you realize that Freddy and Jason are cool and all, but they probably shouldn't be forced into a shared (and regrettable) experience.
Here, then, are nine reasons your smart device is a lousy TV remote.
9. It's still a phone A phone that changes the channel on my television. I admit, that is cool. But what happens if someone calls me during my smartphone-as-smart-remote-dress-up-party? A big bucket of terrible, that's what happens.
Do I miss the call? Do I pause the TV? Do I take the call and leave the program temporarily remote-less? As much as I hate my cable remote, it never interrupts my show with a call from a telemarketer.
8. Battery life Using your phone as a remote eats up your battery faster than Homer Simpson can eat a doughnut. Mmmmmm, doughnuts. Even the New York Times points out "the toll [remote control apps] took on [a phone's] battery."
7. A phone is a personal device The phone is first and foremost a device built for one person. Sure, in the bad old days, you had to call into a switchboard and have an operator connect your call, but these days the smartphone is a bicycle built for one. … Read more
Facebook's frequent home page design changes are known to get momentary griping from users who say it's ugly, difficult to use, or hides their favorite features, but this is a new one: scores of ticked-off members go so far as to claim it's detrimental to their health.
That's what happened after Facebook on Wednesday made an unannounced tweak to its home page design, shrinking the font size that appears on users' "news feeds" of their friends' activity across the site. Facebook, in a statement, said it's "constantly testing new ways to make … Read more
Intuit's Web-hosting service for small businesses remained inaccessible for several hours today--possibly due to a denial-of-service attack, a customer service representative told CNET.
The Web hosting service, at www.websites.intuit.com, had been out at least two hours and would hopefully be back up by the end of the business day, the customer service rep said. Asked if it could be the result of a DOS attack, she said: "It's looking like an attack."
Intuit spokespeople could not immediately confirm what the phone rep said but said the sites were back up. However, checks by … Read more
Propelled by demand for high-speed Internet in China, worldwide broadband subscriptions should show a healthy jump for the third quarter, says research firm iSuppli.
The number of new broadband subscribers in the quarter is expected to rise by 5.8 percent to reach 16.5 million, according to figures released yesterday by iSuppli. That's a rally from the second quarter when the number of new subscribers actually dropped by 6.6 percent to 15.6 million. It also means the third-quarter numbers are catching up with the 16.7 million new subscribers captured in the first quarter of the … Read more
Time Warner Cable saw bigger profits on increased revenue during the third quarter of 2010 even as it lost TV subscribers.
The second largest cable operator in the U.S. reported a 34 percent jump in profits for the three-month period. Earnings increased to $360 million, or $1 a share, up from $268 million, or 76 cents a share, during the same quarter a year earlier.
Revenue increased 5.2 percent to $4.73 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had predicted earnings of 89 cents on $4.72 billion in revenue.
Just like cable giant Comcast, Time Warner Cable … Read more
Jammie Thomas-Rasset, the Minnesota woman who has been fighting the recording industry over 24 songs she illegally downloaded and shared online four years ago, has lost another round in court.
A jury in Minneapolis decided today that she was liable for $1.5 million in copyright infringement damages to Capitol Records, or $62,500 for each song she illegally shared in April 2006.
The Recording Industry Association of America--the trade group that represents the four major music labels--applauded the verdict.
"We are again thankful to the jury for its service in this matter and that they recognized the severity … Read more
That didn't work. So Facebook started to get into the location game, too. It launched Facebook Places, its own geolocation service. And today, Facebook went ahead and launched a big new suite of mobile features that includes, notably, enhancements to Facebook Places that let businesses easily automate "deals" for when users check in. On the surface, given Facebook's scale, this looks like it could spell difficult times ahead for Foursquare.
Apple's letter to music labels about the company's adoption of 90-second song samples sounded brash and uncompromising, reminiscent of how the company once seemed to negotiate with the music industry.
Apple wrote in e-mails to an undisclosed number of music industry executives--made public on Tuesday--that it would soon offer longer samples for songs that are at least two-and-a-half minutes in length. For shorter songs, iTunes would continue to offer 30-second previews, the company wrote. CNET broke the news in August that Apple planned to offer longer samples.
What raised eyebrows about Apple's note was that … Read more
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