Internet & Media

Report: New York Times to charge online readers

Updated at 1:10 p.m. PST with comment from The New York Times.

The New York Times is reportedly getting ready to charge readers for access to the venerable newspaper's online content.

The newspaper is expected to announce in coming weeks that it will institute a metered pay plan in which readers would have access to a limited number of free articles before being invited to subscribe, according to a report in New York magazine that cited sources close to the newsroom.

The report also suggests that a content deal could be in the works for Apple's … Read more

Does the Fourth Amendment cover 'the cloud'?

One of the biggest issues facing individuals and corporations choosing to adopt public cloud computing (or any Internet service, for that matter) is the relative lack of clarity with respect to legal rights over data stored online. I've reported on this early legal landscape a couple of times, looking at decisions to relax expectations of privacy for e-mail stored online and the decision to allow the FBI to confiscate servers belonging to dozens of companies from a co-location facility whose owners were suspected of fraud.

However, while I've argued before that the government has yet to apply the … Read more

MySpace restores Imeem playlists

I criticized MySpace for burying Imeem when it bought the company last month, but it looks like MySpace is finally making good on its promise to let Imeem users transfer their music.

Imeem users began receiving e-mails on Friday explaining that they could now import their old Imeem playlists to MySpace, turning them into MySpace playlists. All they have to do is log in to MySpace, enter the e-mail address they used for Imeem into this form, and their playlists should automatically be transferred to the new service.

Unfortunately, I didn't save any of my music on Imeem in … Read more

AT&T rolls out unlimited text, voice, and data plans

AT&T on Friday joined Verizon in revamping its calling plans, announcing a series of new unlimited plans across all devices, especially high-end smartphones.

The new plans include:

Feature Phone customers now have the option of unlimited talk plans for $69.99 a month per person or $119.99 a month for a family plan with two lines included. The unlimited texting plans remain $20 a month for individuals or $30 a month for the Family Talk plan.

Quick Messaging Device customers may now choose unlimited talk for $69.99, and Family Talk customers may choose unlimited talk for $… Read more

Oh goody!!!!!! A punctuation mark for sarcasm

There were many people, quite a few in America, who were excited, delighted, even positively beaming when some clever cove created that smiley colon/parenthesis thing that is now the universal sign of a written smile.

:) That's the one. The one that is sometimes written as ":0" or ":-)" or, for a smiling wink, ";)." Or even, and this is far beyond my intellectual galaxy, "J". Does that signify "JOKINGYOUMORON!!!!!!!!"? I think that it does.

All these symbols have been such great successes in bringing people together and making them … Read more

If Real wanted to sell Rhapsody, who'd buy?

Billboard analyst Glenn Peoples predicts that RealNetworks will sell its 51 percent stake in music-streaming subscription service Rhapsody in 2010. My question: who'd buy it?

Rhapsody certainly appears to be a drag on RealNetworks' earnings. According to the company's financial filings for the third quarter of 2009, its music businesses--which include Rhapsody and sales of music through the RealPlayer store--posted an operating loss of $10 million. That's better than the $25 million operating loss in the same quarter of 2008, but the fundamentals aren't improving.

Subscriber numbers are down from about 800,000 at the beginning … Read more

Mobile donations to Haiti exceed all in 2009

Since tweets such as "Text HAITI to 90999 to donate $10 to @RedCross relief" went viral Wednesday, more than $8 million has been donated--about double the amount donated to all charities via text messaging throughout all of 2009, a Red Cross spokeswoman tells CNN.

The Red Cross has solicited text message-based giving campaigns in the past, but its biggest peak was when people raised $190,000 via the Text2HELP campaign in the wake of Hurricane Ike in 2008, according to the organization.

And while Red Cross reports that it has already received far more money via larger donations--about $… Read more

Conan to 'sell' the 'Tonight Show' on Craigslist

America has been gripped this week by the battle between two men, each with one portion of his head oversized: Conan O'Brien and Jay Leno.

The baiting and the bile have spilled over into the online world. The "I'm with Coco" Facebook group already has more than 157,000 fans and a lovely icon of O'Brien with which people are adorning their personal, but highly public, profiles.

Friday, I awoke to a Leno fightback. The Huffington Post reports that NBC executive Dick Ebersol described O'Brien as "an astounding failure." He also said … Read more

Amazon expands Kindle self-publishing worldwide

Authors worldwide can now self-publish Kindle versions of their books, Amazon.com said Friday.

Amazon also said that its Digital Text Platform will now support books written in German and French.

The self-publishing platform, which allows writers to upload electronic versions of their books to Amazon's e-book reader store, was previously limited to English and to authors based in the United States.

In an effort to expand global readership, Amazon said support for additional languages is expected to come over the next few months.

The Digital Text Platform enables writers to publish without the middleman (i.e. a book … Read more