Top Items:
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Dear Clown Co.: Name This Thing Fast Before Its Too Late — For the last twenty-four hours we've been reporting a nearly non-stop stream of facts (and some speculation) about the new, unamed News Corp./NBC Universal joint venture to launch later this year. First the rumor, then the confirmation …
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Greg Sandoval / CNET News.com:
Microsoft temporarily closes video site — Microsoft is closing its video-sharing site, Soapbox, to new users for up to two months so it can create better safeguards against pirated content. — The software giant, which agreed earlier Thursday to distribute movies and TV shows for big media companies …
Richard Siklos / New York Times:
News Corp. and NBC in Web Deal — In a long-anticipated challenge to YouTube and other online video sites, two big media companies yesterday announced a new venture to showcase their own programming across the Internet's biggest Web sites, as well as a new jointly owned Web destination.
Anick Jesdanun / Associated Press:
Viacom Sued Over YouTube Parody Removal — NEW YORK (AP) — Activist groups sued Viacom Inc. on Thursday, claiming the parent of Comedy Central improperly asked the video-sharing site YouTube to remove a parody of the cable network's "The Colbert Report." — Viacom responded by saying it had no records of ever making such a request.
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Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:
DMCA takedown backlash: EFF sues Viacom over Colbert parody clip — Viacom's DMCA takedown notices continue to generate controversy. The media giant fired off more than 100,000 notices to YouTube earlier this year, but it appears to have caught numerous legitimate videos in the crossfire.
Walter S. Mossberg / Wall Street Journal:Congress Must Make Clear Copyright Laws To Protect Consumers
Brandon Badger / Google Maps API Official Blog:
KML and GeoRSS Support Added to the Google Maps API — Posted by Nigel Tao, Software Engineer, Google Maps Team — One of the things I love most about Google Maps and Google Earth is that it's easy for anyone to create and display new geographically referenced content.
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Matthew L. Wald / New York Times:
Chief Says F.C.C. Is Against Cellphone Use on Airliners — The Federal Communications Commission will give up on the idea of allowing cellphone use on airplanes, the chairman said on Thursday, because it is not clear whether the network on the ground can handle the calls.
BBC:
PlayStation 3 launched in Europe — Sony has launched its PlayStation 3 (PS3) console in Europe and Australia, hoping to retake its gaming crown. — The company trails Microsoft and Nintendo in sales of next generation consoles and the launch has been beset with problems in the last year.
Business Week:
Where Is Microsoft Search? — Its stumbles on the Web could open the door for rivals to come after its core business — Time has always seemed to be Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT ) ally. In the company lore, the software giant takes three cracks at a market before establishing supremacy.
David Young / Joyeur:
Joyent Slingshot [22] — Joyent Slingshot allows developers to deploy Rails applications that work the same online and offline (with synchronization) and with drag into and out of the application just like a standard desktop application. We have Joyent Connector and a select group …
Kotaku:
Xbox Crashes French PS3 Launch — At the PLAYSTATION 3 launch event in Paris, Microsoft found an opportunity to do a little guerilla marketing by sending French gamers queueing up for a PS3 a kind reminder via boat. You can check the video here, but don't forget to view the …
Podcasting News:
Podcasting Audience Up 18% Since Last Year — The audience for podcasts has grown 18% in the last year, according to an upcoming report from Edison Media Research. Awareness of podcasting has grown even more, jumping from 22% in 2006 to 37% in 2007. — At the Corporate Podcasting Summit …
Nick / Rough Type:
Are CIOs "dead weight"? — In my commentary on the latest Financial Times Digital Business podcast, I look at Chris Anderson's charge that chief information officers are turning into "dead weight." In case you missed it, Anderson had a provocative post on his blog late last month titled "Who Needs a CIO?"
Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:
Apple TV rocks — I bought an Apple TV tonight. — I've watched Ask a Ninja, Rocketboom, my show, and Ze Frank on it so far. — Works as advertised. Easy to setup. It rocks. — It makes me want to put out a high res version of my show. But, it's pretty watchable, even at the low resolution it is.
Alex Iskold / Read/WriteWeb:
Current Mashup and API Trends — Web 2.0 has brought us a flock of APIs and the wonderful new concept of a Web mashup. Thanks to apps like Google Maps, del.icio.us and Flickr, we have started to think a lot about remixing the web. In the figure below is a classic example of a mashup - a Twitter Map.
I, Cringely . The Pulpit | PBS:
When is a TV not a TV? — As I predicted here last week ("The $7 TV Network," it's in this week's links), Neokast was the hit of the Video on the Net conference in San Jose. The prospect of high-quality streaming (not downloading) with almost no bandwidth cost whatsoever and no YouTube ads …
