Amazon Backs off Text-to-Speech Feature in Kindle
Amazon announced today it will let publishers decide whether they want the new Kindle e-book device to read their books aloud. — The text-to-speech feature allows Kindle owners to have books read to...
Facebook's “In-House Sociologist” Shares Stats on Users' Social Behavior
The famous Dunbar number, or “theoretical cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships”, is generally accepted to be about 150. However, in a recent ...
Amazon Kindle 3 Rumors Surface: Bigger, Better (Of Course)
The ink has barely dried on the new production Amazon Kindle 2 e-readers and now there's a hot rumor surfacing about the Kindle 3. Among the speculation is one interesting suggestion: The Kindle vers...
Hearst to launch a wireless e-reader
The publisher plans to introduce a large-format device this year based on electronic-ink technology. — NEW YORK (Fortune) — Against a backdrop of plummeting ad revenue for newspapers and magazines, ...
The New York Times Expected To Launch Local Blog Network On Monday (Confirmed)
If this post on a local blog about Brooklyn has it right, the NY Times will be debuting a neighborhood blog project next week on Monday. Here's the gist: … Still according to the blog …
Calacanis, Lindzon To Box For Charity
It's on: Mahalo CEO Jason Calacanis and Stocktwits/Wallstrip co-founder (and SAI investor) Howard Lindzon, who periodically spar on Twitter, will duke it out in real life. — The two will box for cha...
Cellular providers want Nokia to drop Skype from cell phones
Two cell service providers in the UK are supposedly up in arms over Nokia's inclusion of Skype software on its N97 handset, and are threatening not to carry the device unless the software is ditched.
Apple issues App Store-wide Emoji take-down order
Apple has issued an App Store-wide take-down of all Emoji-enabling iPhone applications. There may be a few reasons for this decision, ranging from the gray area of how developers are switching on Emo...
Why Are Book Publishers Making The Same Mistake The Record Labels Made With Apple?
from the we've-seen-this-movie-before,-and-it- doesn't-end-well dept — Back in 2005, we noted that Apple's dominance over the online music space, which upset the record labels tremendously …
BlackBerry 9630 is the Niagara, Verizon World Edition?
So... we've just got word from a really trusted source, dropping bombs all around on the BlackBerry “Niagara”. First off, the model number we're told is the BlackBerry 9630, not 8930 or 9030, or anyt...
DoCoMo halts BlackBerry Bold sales due to overheating
TOKYO (Reuters) - NTT DoCoMo Inc, Japan's biggest mobile phone operator, said on Friday it has halted sales of Research In Motion's BlackBerry Bold because the phone can overheat while the battery is ...
A Second Rogue Facebook Application in Just a Week?
In a second attack, extremely reminiscent of the one that took place this weekend, Facebook users have once again been victimized by cybercriminals. Reports started surfacing this afternoon of yet an...
Why the Japanese Hate the iPhone
Apple's iPhone has wowed most of the globe — but not Japan, where the handset is selling so poorly it's being offered for free. — What's wrong with the iPhone, from a Japanese perspective? Almost e...
ASUS Raises the Bar for Mobile Web Surfing and Multimedia Enjoyment with P835 WVGA PDA Phone
ASUS, a leading producer of innovative handhelds, today launched the P835, a PDA phone that delivers an Internet browsing and multimedia viewing experience without equal.
Microsoft's window on the future
For nearly 18 years, Rick Rashid has been the man with a unique window into Microsoft's future. — As the company's senior vice president of research, he is responsible for an important part of the s...
Massive Layoffs Hit The RIAA: Maybe Focus On Building Business Rather Than Suing Customers Next Time?
Details have been spilling out over the last few days that the RIAA has been making pretty massive cuts to staff. We already knew that EMI was cutting back on its support of the RIAA/IFPI …
Microsoft App-V Support for the Windows 7 Beta
Our MDOP customers have told us that they want to see Windows 7 Support for Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V) so that they can move ahead with their application testing for enterprise deplo...
Confessions of a Facebook Social Climber
You too can become important. To start, all you need is one celebrity friend. — I recently became friends with Charlie Sheen — but not exactly. It's a little complicated. You see, I've spent the ...
Seattle PC builder beats Microsoft with free Windows 7 upgrade offer
Launches free Vista-to-Windows 7 upgrade program to tempt hesitant buyers — Computerworld) A Seattle-area PC seller will offer free Windows 7 upgrades to customers who buy new Vista-powered machines...
iVerse brings comic books to iPhone, Android
There's no question that comic books and magazines will eventually have a portable platform suited to them, just as the iPod took nearly four years to reach a saturation level as the de facto portable...
Finding our own little worlds has never been easier
What an author won't do for a book. — In 2004, San Jose State University associate professor Andy Wood decided to embark upon an experiment: He would fly from San Jose to New York, rent a car and dr...
Perfect Online Video Advertising Model: Choose Your Advertiser
Many companies and visionaries have pontificated about the future of video ads and different techniques for monetizing online videos. A big part of this is driven by the fact that while YouTube is a ...
‘Face of Facebook’ defends his site's policies
CEO of red-hot social network says that users control their own information — The face of Facebook, the burgeoning social networking site, was supposedly in damage-control mode, but you wouldn't hav...
Egypt: Land of Pyramids, the Sphinx...and Outsourcing?
India's tech boom has inspired other developing nations to promote themselves as outsourcing destinations. The latest to try to cash in: Egypt. — Egypt seems like an unlikely place for Western comp...
Will the Future of the Web Be More Like the Present?
When I was a kid one of my favorite parts of Disney World was Tomorrowland's Carousel of Progress. It was steeped in 1950's futurism: Why, of course! Every family will have their own electric paint ...
Epicenter Q&A: Google's Vint Cerf on Recession, Recovery and Innovation in Hard Times
On assignment for Wired.com, Sam Gustin is exploring the economic meltdown's impact on Silicon Valley, and the prospects of innovating our way out of the current financial debacle.
CEO's $500,000 Salary Burns Startup Into Fire Sale
8020 Media hoped to revolutionize the magazine business. Instead, it has circled down the drain, ending up in the hands of shadowy investors after a new CEO with a Condé Nast résumé looted the startu...
How FriendFeed uses MySQL to store schema-less data
Background — We use MySQL for storing all of the data in FriendFeed. Our database has grown a lot as our user base has grown. We now store over 250 million entries and a bunch of other data, from ...
Why Are Book Publishers Making The Same Mistake The Record Labels Made With Apple?
from the we've-seen-this-movie-before,-and-it- doesn't-end-well dept — Back in 2005, we noted that Apple's dominance over the online music space, which upset the record labels tremendously …
Pirate Bay Witness' Wife Overwhelmed With Flowers
Professor and media researcher Roger Wallis appeared as an expert witness at the Pirate Bay trial yesterday. He was questioned on the link between the decline of album sales and filesharing. Wallis ...
Sony CEO Takes Over Company's Presidency
TOKYO — Sony Corp. said Friday that Howard Stringer, its chief executive officer, would replace Ryoji Chubachi as president in a move to give the CEO a freer hand in restructuring the struggling elect...
Asustek to launch Eee PC Shell ultra-thin netbook in April, says paper
Asustek Computer plans to launch its second ultra-thin netbook with a 10.1-inch panel, the Eee PC Shell, in April this year. The netbook will have a higher specification than the Eee PC S101, will be...
How Much Would You Pay to Read Newsday.com?
Zilch. That's the snap consensus from the Web pundits, who are baffled by Cablevision's plan to start charging for access to the online version of Newsday, the Long Island daily it overpaid for last ...
Want to waive copyright? Creative Commons has a tool for you
The Creative Commons has launched an official tool to guide content creators through the process of publishing their works under the highly permissive CC0 license, which enables them to waive all righ...
Downturn could be Microsoft's bonding moment
REDMOND, Wash.—It takes a lot to get different parts of Microsoft to really work together. But the current economic turmoil might just be the thing to do it. — At least that's the working theory fo...
Gazelle: The browser that thinks like an OS
A new browser prototype from Microsoft Research offers a glimpse at the next stage of computing's evolution — Without question, Web-based applications are one of the most important developments in m...
Nokia Comes With Music phones confirmed for US this year
Following the reasonably successful UK debut of its unique Comes With Music subscription plan for cell phones, Nokia is now bringing the innovative model to other countries. Comes With Music offers a...
NYT Gets Hyperlocal; Community Sites Planned For NY, NJ Neighborhoods
On Monday, the NYTimes.com will announce plans for hyperlocal sites throughout New York and New Jersey. The new online channel is called The Local and will blend citizen journalism and staff reports,...
The Shakeout Begins! Video Startups in Play
It didn't take long after the credit crunch last fall for waves of layoffs to hit online video startups. But surely all those tweaks and cuts didn't successfully revive every single company's fate. ...
TripAdvisor adds flight, fare search
TripAdvisor LLC went live last night with a search engine that will pull together flight and fare data from multiple airlines and online travel agencies, a move that will put the Newton website in com...
Google: Stalled Data Centers Will Be Built
Google (GOOG) isn't abandoning the data center projects where it has slowed or halted construction due to the slowing economy, the company said this week. In a presentation at the Goldman Sachs Techn...
How To Kill The Music Industry
According to Per Sundin, CEO of Universal Music, the decline in music revenues in the past 8 years can be fully attributed to (read: blamed on) illegal file sharing. If this were actually true, many ...
Phorm unleashes legal attack on critics
Beware the wounded beast — Free whitepaper - Utilizing IT to put data to work — News articles based on a survey indicating public opposition to Phorm's web snooping and advertising system have bee...
Cell Phones: Demand Is Even Worse Than You Think
How bad is the market for cell phones? Really bad. Worse than really bad. — RBC Capital's Mark Sue this morning cut his Q1 forecast for global handset unit demand to 230 million, from 248 million,...
Massive Layoffs Hit The RIAA: Maybe Focus On Building Business Rather Than Suing Customers Next Time?
Details have been spilling out over the last few days that the RIAA has been making pretty massive cuts to staff. We already knew that EMI was cutting back on its support of the RIAA/IFPI …
Judge orders defendant to decrypt PGP-protected laptop
A federal judge has ordered a criminal defendant to decrypt his hard drive by typing in his PGP passphrase so prosecutors can view the unencrypted files, a ruling that raises serious concerns about se...
Hearst to Begin Charging for Digital News
Hearst Corp. said its newspapers plan to hold back at least some content from their free Web sites, launching the publisher onto the vanguard of print media companies to begin charging for their digit...
Facebook Pages Redesign Coming
Facebook launched Facebook Ads in November 2007 to give brands and businesses a way to create a presence on Facebook and interact with users. Starting next week, says a source with knowledge of the n...
‘Face of Facebook’ defends his site's policies
CEO of red-hot social network says that users control their own information — The face of Facebook, the burgeoning social networking site, was supposedly in damage-control mode, but you wouldn't hav...
Yahoo's Bartz Shows Who's Boss
Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz unveils a streamlined management structure for the Web portal, including the departure of CFO Blake Jorgensen — Just six weeks after taking over as chief executive of Yahoo! (Y...
You shouldn't have to sell your souljust to download some music
The activities that are restricted by download licence agreements range from the ridiculous to the dubious — Here's the world's shortest, fairest, and simplest licence agreement: “Don't violate copy...
Android narrowly trails iPhone in open source app race
A new report from Black Duck Software finds that while Google's Android platform is flying under the radar for most mainstream smart phone users, developers are certainly answering the search giant's ...