Technology News

Mobile TV Tries to Break Into Prime Time

Source: All About Jazz
February 11, 2010

On Super Bowl Sunday, about 116 million viewers watched commercials touting Budweiser, Doritos and Coke as well as spots promoting Flo TV, a service that promises to let you watch TV wherever you are.

It was a high-profile promotion for mobile TV, which despite years of innovation has failed to catch on outside of a few niches. A mobile TV service from Qualcomm, Flo offers channels such as ESPN, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central for a monthly fee. You can watch ...

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Twitter Inc. Has Gone to the Dogs

Source: Michael Ricci
February 11, 2010

Mattel taps into social media craze with Puppy Tweets. The high-tech toy will post one of 500 canned tweets to a dog's Twitter page after it's triggered by a sound and motion sensor worn on the animal's collar.

Dog owners are provided with a USB receiver that they connect to their computer. They then download the toy's software online and create a Twitter account for their dog. When the dog moves or barks, a signal is sent from its Puppy ...

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Myspace Chief Executive Resigns

Source: Michael Ricci
February 11, 2010

Owen Van Natta's unexpected exit comes as the social networking website tries to reinvent itself. In the latest blow to what was once the jewel of News Corp.'s digital empire, MySpace Chief Executive Owen Van Natta unexpectedly exited Wednesday after less than 10 months on the job. Van Natta's departure comes as the media conglomerate struggles to reshape MySpace, a former giant in social networking that has been overtaken by Facebook and confronts new challengers such as Twitter. MySpace's rapid ...

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RealNetworks to Spin off Rhapsody

Source: PC Magazine
February 10, 2010

RealNetworks said Tuesday that it intends to spin off its Rhapsody music service into a separate company at the end of the first quarter. The deal was struck in conjunction with MTV Networks, a division of Viacom, DMS Holdco, a subsidiary of Viacom, and Rhapsody, according to an 8-K filing filed Tuesday with the SEC. Real owns 51 percent of Rhapsody, with Viacom owning 49 percent; after the spinoff, both companies will own an equal number of shares, but not ...

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9 Things You Wish Google Would Announce

Source: PC Magazine
February 10, 2010

Update: Google announced a new social application called Buzz. How did it match up to your wish list? Check out our in-depth breakdown of the product to find out. Virtually everyone expects Google to announce something to do with social networking today, when the company holds a press conference at 1 PM ET. Maybe it's some Twitter-like functionality inside of Gmail. But Google isn't telling, and the result is all guesswork. What if everyone is wrong? Here are a bunch ...

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Google Doesn't Want to be an ISP It Wants to Be a Rabble-Rouser

Source: Michael Ricci
February 10, 2010

Google rocked my world today when it unveiled its experimental fiber network, complete with speeds of 1 gigabit per second to the home.

Already the Google-as-ISP meme has pervaded the technology world, but I dont think Google is in this to be a traditional ISP. Rather, it wants to build out a fiber-to-the-home network to show the U.S. the future of communications a far more frightening prospect for existing ISPs, and one that has big implications for entrepreneurs and consumers. ...

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Google Plans to Offer Broadband Service

Source: Michael Ricci
February 10, 2010

Google is getting into the broadband business, taking on the cable and telephone companies in an effort to make speedy Internet access available to more people. The Internet giant announced on its blog Wednesday that it planned to deploy a fiber-optic network to at least 50,000 homes and as many as 500,000. The network will deliver faster Internet speed at a competitive price, the company said. It will build and test broadband networks in one or a small number of ...

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Google Looks to Get Faster

Source: All About Jazz
February 10, 2010

Google plans to build experimental, ultra-fast Internet networks in a handful of communities around the country. The search company said Wednesday that its fiber-optic broadband networks will deliver speeds of 1 gigabit per second to as many as 500,000 Americans. Google Inc. says those systems will be more than 100 times faster than the networks that most Americans have access to today. In a blog post, the company said the networks will let consumers download a high-definition, full-length feature film ...

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