michael

New York City, the nation's largest city and its true media capital, is telling citizens that "piracy doesn't work" as part of a new publicly funded antipiracy ad campaign.

The message to New Yorkers is that downloading music and movies without paying for them "kills jobs" in the city. The ads will appear at bus shelters, movie theaters, on the Web and on the video screens found in taxicabs, according to Katherine Oliver, commissioner of media and entertainment for the city of New York.

The costs of running the campaign are minimal because the … Read more

Warning: brand-new Apple products were harmed in the making of the 12LVE photography exhibit.

As in run over by a train, shot up with bullets, and burned with a blowtorch. Michael Tompert, a San Francisco-area digital-imaging and CGI artist, purchased the gadgets with the express intent of destroying them, then photographing them. His aim was to make a provocative yet humorous (if costly) statement on consumers' attachment to their shiny new electronic toys. Especially wildly popular ones of the Apple variety.

12LVE includes 12 giant high-resolution digital photos of mangled Apple products, including an iPhone 3G, an iPhone 4, an iPad, MacBook Airs, and iPod Nanos, photographed by Tompert's friend Paul Fairchild.

The colorful and surprisingly striking prints are currently on display at the WhiteSpace Gallery, located inside the hat store Brim in Palo Alto, Calif., not far from Apple's headquarters in Cupertino. … Read more

What's in a Vblock? It's a cloudy mix onto which a very experienced CEO is shedding more light.

Michael Capellas, the former chief executive of Compaq, MCI, and First Data, and current CEO of Virtual Computing Environment (VCE) Coalition, updated industry analysts with VCE progress as of early December 2010, slightly more than a year after Cisco Systems and EMC announced the VCE joint venture, which integrates servers and networking gear from Cisco, storage and management software from EMC, and the VSphere virtual operating system of VMware into Vblocks.

While the VCE Coalition is a privately held entity … Read more

The 404 is away on vacation, but that doesn't mean you won't get your fix during the break! We're starting off with one of our favorite movies of all time: Back to the Future! Russ Frushtick from MTV's Multiplayer blog

We'll stump each other with trivia from the DVD extras, discuss some mistakes in the movie, our favorite moments, our first time watching it, and why we collectively hate the third film. Also, be sure to check out the slide … Read more

Today's parents are trying another form of punishment for their misbehaving kids: no Internet.

A new report from the folks at the USC Annenberg Center for the Digital Future found that three in five American households restrict their kids' access to TV as punishment, a figure that's been virtually the same the past 10 years.

But in a sign of our digital age, restricting access to the Internet has become much more common, with 57 percent of the households surveyed employing that as a form of punishment for their kids under 18.

A majority (69 percent) of the … Read more

Editors' note: This is a guest column. See Jorge Bauermeister's bio below.

For those heavily engaged in the Internet regulation battle that has been raging over the past year, the next two weeks will be a nail-biting period. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski recently announced what seems to be a sensible compromise on the issue of Net neutrality, which will work to govern how the Internet pipes are managed.

Genachowski's proposal appears to meet all interested parties in the middle by ensuring the continuation of an open Internet and also providing an environment that enables the growth of the Internet and communications sector to continue at a rapid pace. Continued growth, naturally, is essential to enabling new technologies and services to meet consumer demand and needs.

But instead of plaudits, the chairman is stuck in a tug-of-war between the long-standing proponents of Net neutrality and those skeptical of new regulations and any unintended consequences they may cause. Splits in the commission, which will vote yea or nay this month, mirror the outside fight.

I have been a supporter of light-touch approaches to any sort of Internet regulation, often citing the negative fallout that could result from heavier rules--particularly the approach of reclassifying Internet services under the Title II framework that has governed telephone services since the 1934 Telecommunications Act. Luckily, the Title II approach appears to have been taken off the table, given the recent announcement of the chairman's framework, which maintains rules under the current Title I approach.

Why compromise is good--and where extreme policy goes wrong As for those who want tough neutrality rules on wireless broadband, I'd advise one to be careful what you wish for. The smartphone revolution has created dramatic new demand for wireless capacity, which is already bumping up against the limits of current technology.

Wireless networks simply can't handle as much data as wired networks and, therefore, the wireless infrastructure and management of mobile networks require a different approach than wired and fixed broadband. We are just at the beginning of a high-growth wireless revolution. Overregulation will stunt its growth, and Genachowski's plan takes into account that reality, leaving room for continued growth while also doing enough to ensure consumer protections on mobile networks. … Read more

So much for the PlayStation Move's sales lead over the Kinect.

Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter released a note yesterday saying Microsoft has sold more units of its motion-control device, Kinect, than Sony has sold PlayStation Move units, even though the Move launched weeks earlier.

"The higher-priced Kinect controller appears to have overtaken the Move controller in the sales races, with sales about even notwithstanding Move's six-week head start in the marketplace," Pachter wrote in a research note to clients.

Pachter came to that conclusion by analyzing information offered up recently by both Sony and Microsoft.

Earlier … Read more

If you haven't already gotten one of these, then sorry, you're not on the list of select people receiving this limited-edition "Dominate Another Day" iPad.

"Dominate Another Day" is a viral marketing campaign on YouTube (video below) that seeks to promote basketball legend Michael Jordan's brand. Packaged in a metal briefcase with the iconic Air Jordan logo, the iPad's back has been laser engraved with images from the video.

Unfortunately, this unique iPad isn't for sale, at least not until someone puts it up on eBay. For now, you can just feast your eyes on the images. … Read more

We're back after a full weekend of turkey-binging and shopping guilt with a brand-new Digital City podcast. Bonnie Cha bravely guest-hosts, joining Julie and Scott for some shopping wish-list picks while Dan and Joe remain in holiday seclusion.

We marvel at a recent Nielsen survey claiming that iPads are the top holiday pick for kids aged 6-12. Is this really an appropriate kid gift?

Scott debates whether he has enough energy to try EA's NFL Training Camp fitness game, and whether an NFL game called "Training Camp" that's released in November suffers from awkward marketing.

Plus, new MacBook Pro rumors, a strange sequined glove pack-in for Ubisoft's Michael Jackson game, and a close-up look at the Samsung QX410, one of the best all-around laptop values of the year, and a recent four-star reviewed product. Enjoy!

… Read more