Internet & Media

Michael Jackson's death roils Wikipedia

As news organizations reported Michael Jackson's hospitalization on Thursday afternoon, Wikipedia editors were wrestling with the problem of whether to allow an unverified report of the singer's death to appear on the online encyclopedia.

The entertainment site TMZ.com reported at 2:20 p.m. PDT that: "We're told when paramedics arrived Jackson had no pulse and they never got a pulse back."

Some Wikipedians repeatedly deleted references to Jackson's alleged demise, saying in separate comments that "This is not yet verified," "He's not dead," "Premature edits," … Read more

How a kids video start-up stays afloat

Totlol developer Ron Ilan had enough.

It had been just over a year since he launched his site of community-vetted YouTube videos--where kids can watch Elmo, cutesy animal videos, or "Big Comfy Couch" without the accidental off-color search mishap. And, despite its popularity, he couldn't find a way to make it sustainable or survivable without adverse impacts.

So, earlier this month, at two in the morning, he wrote a long explanatory note to Totlol's users that ended with, "I'm closing Totlol down. Life goes on." Then he went to sleep.

"I woke … Read more

Sirius XM must raise prices to pay music royalties

Satellite radio provider Sirius XM is preparing to raise prices.

The Copyright Royalty Board has raised music royalty fees and Sirius will pass those costs on to customers starting next month.

In a letter to subscribers, Sirius CEO Joe Zarella said "Beginning on July 29, 2009, a 'U.S. Music Royalty Fee' of $1.98 per month for primary subscriptions and $.97 per month for multi-receiver subscriptions will be effective" the next time they renew their subscription.

Royalty rates have risen steadily since 2007 when the CRB established performance royalty rates for satellite radio. The rate jumped from … Read more

Social networks for the movie buff

Connecting with other movie fans and discussing films you select from Netflix can be fun. Although sites like IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes have become important parts of the online experience for movie buffs, they aren't exactly the forums for engaging movie chat and social networking that the sites in this roundup are. Below are some of the best I've found.

Movie social networks

Filmcrave Filmcrave lets you create lists of all the movies you love, rate films, and discuss those ratings with friends in the site's forums. You can also find other members who might have similar movie tastes by comparing their reviews to yours. Filmcrave is designed well but doesn't stand out from the competition.

Flixster Once you sign up for Flixster, you'll immediately be asked to find friends who are already on the service. It takes only a few seconds, so it's worth trying.

When complete, you can take a test that will help determine how compatible your movie tastes are with your friends'. You can check out movies, tell others what your favorite films are, use widgets that let you add voice comments to Flixster, and more.

The site even has a chat function, so you can instant-message with others while reading up on films. And unlike the other services in this roundup, Flixster is available for mobile phones, including the iPhone and BlackBerry. It also has applications on MySpace and Facebook. It's everywhere for good reason--it's the best movie social network on the Web.… Read more

Yahoo shareholders content to wait and see

Yahoo's first annual shareholder meeting with Carol Bartz as CEO was largely uneventful, as she promised to turn Yahoo around by focusing on content and organization.

The actual business of the meeting was brief: all 12 nominees up for reelection to the board of directors were approved, three company-sponsored proposals were approved, and a shareholder "say on pay" proposal was rejected. Bartz spent most of the meeting talking about the work she has been doing to get Yahoo back on track, emphasizing that Yahoo has a strategy; it just needs to "execute"--business-speak for "… Read more

MPAA says Real's patent attempt saps RealDVD argument

The film industry fired another legal broadside at RealNetworks and RealDVD.

The Motion Picture Association of America has accused Real of misleading the court about the company's attempts to circumvent ARccOS and RipGuard and about whether the technologies are true copy-protection measures.

Real wrote in patent applications filed with the Patent and Trademark Office in 2007 and 2008 that the two software were indeed copy protections, despite arguing the opposite in court, the MPAA alleged in a document filed with the court on Wednesday. The patent applications were published by the patent office two weeks ago.

The MPAA has taken Real to court … Read more

Will more competition finally mean better TV?

Instead of a bloody price war between cable operators and phone companies in the TV market, battle lines are now being drawn over who has the most compelling new features.

Digital video recorders, on-demand services, and more recently Web sites such as Hulu.com have taught people that they don't have to be beholden to a TV schedule. But the TV industry is about to be shaken up even more as phone companies and cable operators, which are all vying for your viewing eyeballs, add new features to their services to lure customers.

So what's it mean for … Read more

Bing + RealPlayer SP = an iPhone full of ripped videos

RealNetworks began public beta-testing version 12 of its venerable RealPlayer today. Like the last version, the free RealPlayer SP (which stands for "social and portable") lets you rip streaming Flash videos from the Web to your hard drive. What's new: you can also transcode them into appropriate formats for playback on portable devices. If you're using an iPod or iPhone, the RealPlayer will even generously insert the transcoded version directly into your iTunes library.

CNET's John Falcone has already done a rundown of the RealPlayer SP beta, but I was intrigued enough to try it … Read more

Boxee comes to Windows, inks MLB deal

Boxee, the open-source software platform that combines Internet media with personal content, announced a slew of updates Tuesday.

Most notably, the company announced that it has made Boxee publicly available to Windows users.

The public alpha version of Boxee for Windows will work with Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. Users will also be able to run it on Windows Media Center, making it possible to bring Boxee to HDTVs through Microsoft's platform. A beta release of the software should be made available later this year.

MLB comes to Boxee Boxee has also inked a deal with Major … Read more