GLENN’S SHOWNOTES
Coming soon to a TV near you – Technology – BrisbaneTimes – brisbanetimes.com.au
Coming soon to a TV near you
Television sets capable of directly accessing news, weather details, stock quotes and, eventually, on-demand video content from the internet will start hitting the Australian market as early as this year.
The content will run as “widgets” alongside regular TV shows and poses a significant threat to established free-to-air and pay TV broadcasters, which already see the internet as a way for viewers to bypass their networks.
Samsung said it was aiming to start offering the internet-enabled television sets locally by the end of this year or in the first quarter of next year at the latest.
Google digitises old papers – Technology – BrisbaneTimes – brisbanetimes.com.au
Google digitises old papers
SAN FRANCISCO – Google announced today it is working with a growing number of newspapers to “bring history online” by digitising archives of articles ranging from lunar landings to local obituaries.
partners include the Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph, which has been publishing for more than 244 years and is considered the oldest newspaper in North America.
People can find old articles by searching Google’s online News Archives. As the index grows, articles will be woven into results of general searches using Google.com, according to Soni.
“Not only will you be able to search these newspapers, you’ll also be able to browse through them exactly as they were printed — photographs, headlines, articles, advertisements and all,” Soni wrote.
‘Digital-only’ TV in Wilmington, N. Carolina – CNN.com
‘Digital-only’ TV in Wilmington, N. Carolina
With the flick of an eight-foot switch at midday Monday, Wilmington, North Carolina, became the first television market in the United States to switch to digital-only broadcasting.
The rest of the nation’s full-power television stations won’t be converting until February 17, 2009, a date set by Congress.
Viewers who receive programming through an antenna and do not own newer-model digital TV sets by the time of the changeover must buy a converter box. The government is providing two $40 coupons per household to help defray the cost.
iPod invented by furniture salesman – Technology – BrisbaneTimes
Apple has admitted it did not invent the iPod, which was in fact the brainchild of a British man who patented his prototype 30 years ago.
Kane Kramer, now 52, took out a worldwide patent in 1979 for a media player that looked similar to the iPod but could store only 3.5 minutes of music. He dubbed it the IXI and planned to expand its capacity as technology advanced.
However, after running out of funds in 1988 Kramer was unable to put forward the £60,000 needed to renew the patent so his idea fell into the public domain.
Episode 104 2 years
COD 4 – 12 mb Download before playing.
Burnout Paradise – 384 mb Download before playing. Over 3 hours waiting for it to update. WHAT THE????? Turns out it was an update for the Game Downloaded from the net.
Spore – Took It Back, got to repetitive and monotonous in the land based evolution stage, not my kind of game.
iTunes 8 – Whatever
Headphone on Headset hits gravity problems.
Connecting Laptops to Mobile Phones to access internet via 3g. Costs and availability and easiness of connection.
Mobile Phone Syndrome, thinking your leg is vibrating from a phone call when your phone is not on you.
The Spider Bots predicting the future Via the internet. 911 a big one.
New face for book – Technology – BrisbaneTimes – brisbanetimes.com.au
New face for book
SAN FRANCISCO, California – Today’s full launch of the new-look Facebook has left many of the social networking website’s 100 million users fuming.
The California firm said the new site has a faster, more streamlined and spam-resistant format but many devotees are in a state of rebellion.
Facebook rolled out the revamped profile pages in May, having learned from past experience how touchy Facebook members can be about tinkering with their cherished online community’s website.
Nearly 30 million of Facebook’s more than 100 million users switched to the new format before today, when the website began forcing the holdouts to adopt the new design.
Forums devoted to savaging the new Facebook format have surfaced on the website and have thousands of members.
“Life is about change,” Nikki Gerwel of Canada wrote in a ‘Who hates the new Facebook format’ forum. “But I like good change, not crappy change … the changes are horrible.”
Blah power: comic stars smell success on the net – Technology – BrisbaneTimes
Blah power: comic stars smell success on the net
Forget perfume, underwear and cosmetics, today’s A-list celebrities are moonlighting as technology entrepreneurs.
Hot on the heels of MC Hammer and Will Ferrell, Ashton Kutcher has launched an internet start-up, BlahGirls.com, which features animated clips of three South Park-style girls – Tiffany, Brittney and Krystle – riffing on pop culture.
Kutcher launched the site at the Silicon Valley technology start-up conference, TechCrunch50, this week. It has already signed its first advertiser – Vitamin Water.
Kutcher told The Los Angeles Times that his inspiration came from the lively backseat conversations of his three stepdaughters, which he overheard as he drove them to school.
Is it time to say sayonara to the CD? – Articles – MP3 Players – Digital Life
Is it time to say sayonara to the CD?
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September 11, 2008
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Are downloads sounding the death knell of the CD? Darren Levin reports.
In a world where music is consumed in so many technologically savvy ways – from mobile phones to MP3 players, iTunes to internet radio – the process of aiming a laser beam on a shiny disc seems archaic.
But the CD is still the overwhelming music format of choice for most Australians – even if there are strong indications that its days are numbered.
According to the latest figures from the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), CD sales account for more than 95% of the market. But ARIA says those figures are declining as digital downloads become the music industry’s saving grace.
Is it time to say sayonara to the CD? – Articles – MP3 Players – Digital Life
Is it time to say sayonara to the CD?
- Normal font
- Large font
September 11, 2008
Page 1 of 4 | Single page
Are downloads sounding the death knell of the CD? Darren Levin reports.
In a world where music is consumed in so many technologically savvy ways – from mobile phones to MP3 players, iTunes to internet radio – the process of aiming a laser beam on a shiny disc seems archaic.
But the CD is still the overwhelming music format of choice for most Australians – even if there are strong indications that its days are numbered.
iPod invented by furniture salesman – Technology – BrisbaneTimes
iPod invented by furniture salesman
Apple has admitted it did not invent the iPod, which was in fact the brainchild of a British man who patented his prototype 30 years ago.
Kane Kramer, now 52, took out a worldwide patent in 1979 for a media player that looked similar to the iPod but could store only 3.5 minutes of music. He dubbed it the IXI and planned to expand its capacity as technology advanced.
Actor Ashton Kutcher launches gossip website for girls – Breaking News – Technology – Breaking News
Actor Ashton Kutcher launches gossip website for girls
September 11, 2008 – 11:35AM
In what could have been a sequel to one of his own smash television shows, Ashton Kutcher played celebrity-geek this week as he launched an irreverent gossip website for girls.
Katalyst Media partners Kutcher and Jason Goldberg made a pilgrimage from Hollywood to debut the Blah Girls at a TechCrunch50 gathering of promising technology startup firms in northern California.
The interactive online cartoon program launched at www.blahgirls.com features three young female characters that dish the dirt on celebrities and pop culture in unabashed girl talk.
An online social networking component of the program aimed at teenage girls lets viewers chime in with comments and exchange emails with Blah Girls whose responses are personalized with artificial intelligence software.
Aussie Idol in mobile trial | Australian IT
Aussie Idol in mobile trial
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Simon Canning | September 11, 2008
AUSTRALIAN Idol will be delivered free to mobiles for the first time in an experiment by producer Fremantle Media and Vodafone to gauge the viability of advertising-supported free-to-air content on phones.
As the flagship Network Ten show entered its knockout phase with the selection of the 12 finalists this week, the deal with Vodafone marked a split with long-time sponsors Telstra.
Previously Telstra made Idol content available on mobiles through a subscription service, but it is believed that relations between Telstra, Ten and Fremantle Media became strained over the course of the last series.
But Vodafone’s general manager of mobile advertising, Dave Green, said he believed the time was right for the content to be delivered with the support of advertisers, rather than forcing consumers to subscribe for mobile access to the content.
Vodafone is also taking the unusual step of making the content available across all phone carriers, spurning the walled garden method of content provision often used by mobile carriers to drive subscriptions. But Vodafone customers accessing the Idol site will not be subjected to data charges, as customers of other carriers will be.
Mr Green said he believed advertising would become an important part of subsidising content on phones into the future. Until recently Vodafone has sold advertising in its own mobile “walled garden”, Vodafone Live.
“This (the Idol site) is brand new from a portal perspective,” Mr Green told Media.
Under the deal Vodafone will give visitors to the Australian Idol mSite (mobile site) access to episode recaps, on-demand performances from the top 100, blogs, news and in-depth profiles of the top 12 finalists.
Mr Green believes Idol fans will flock to the new free mobile site, but said Vodafone was also using the move as a marketing tool to tempt advertisers to embrace mobile advertising. He said the Idol brand appealed directly to Vodafone’s youth demographic.
Uni students say no to podcasts | Australian IT
Uni students say no to podcasts
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Bernard Lane | September 10, 2008
A STUDENT petition at the University of Western Sydney is demanding cuts in fees to match cuts in face-to-face teaching time as the university extends the virtual classroom.
Podcasting is a technology that’s supposed to download a good news story: Cyber uni plugs into gen Y!
But Tammy Lawlor, 21, a first-year arts student, is not impressed with the new podcast era at the University of Western Sydney.
“The isolated learning experience is not satisfying for me,” Ms Lawlor said. Nor for many other UWS students, judging by the signatures on her petition.
Ms Lawlor said that students learned only in the first week of semester that six of the 13 lectures in one key unit, Texts and Traditions, would come as podcasts. In other units there is a rotating timetable of face-to-face lectures and podcasts.
Responding to Lawlor’s campaign, one student emailed: “As a third-year student I’ve seen my time in class and lectures diminish. I’m just catching the beginning of podcast lectures and I’ll be glad not to pay for it any longer, as I’ll be graduating this year.”
Arts dean Wayne McKenna said he believed Texts and Traditions was the only unit in which podcasts replaced face-to-face lecturers.
“(But) I suspect it could well be the shape of things to come,” Professor McKenna said.
Tax reform to drive innovation | Australian IT
Tax reform to drive innovation
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Lenore Taylor | September 10, 2008
SOME companies will more than double their tax benefit for spending on research and development under a policy revamp being considered by the Rudd Government to reverse the decline in business spending on the breakthroughs that will keep the Australian economy competitive.
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