Technology News

Skype to Launch for iPhone, Blackberry

Source: PC Magazine
April 1, 2009

Skype, the Internet telephone unit of eBay Inc, is planning to launch its service for iPhone users on Tuesday and for BlackBerry in May as part of its effort to expand beyond desktop computers. Skype has been pushing to make its service work on the most popular advanced phones with an aim to expending its more than 400 million users who were mostly lured by the promise of cheap and sometimes free calls made using its computer application. Skype Chief ...

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Jazzwax Mindblowers (Vol. 5)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
April 1, 2009

If you're new to this blog, you should know that at the tail end of each quarter I provide a roundup of my favorite quotes from JazzWax interviews posted over the past three months. Between January and March 2009, I interviewed Jimmy Cobb, Sandie Shaw, Buddy De Franco, David Soyer, Helen Merrill, Phil Woods, Hal McKusick, Billy Joel, Chico Hamilton, Carol Sloane and Simone, Nina Simone's daughter. If you're looking for Volumes 1-4 in this series, you'll find them by ...

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The Pirate Party Makes a Bid for the European Parliament

Source: All About Jazz
March 30, 2009

Activist Christian Engstrm looks more like a engineer than a buccaneer. But in June he'll be one of 20 candidates running for seats in the European Parliament under the skull-and-crossbones flag of the Swedish Pirate Party.

“If politicians want to prevent ordinary citizens from sharing files, they will constantly have to expand their ability to monitor," Engstrm said in a telephone interview. “It's necessary to reform the copyright legislation to ensure that citizens' right to privacy is respected."

Founded by ...

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Google Launches Free, Legal Music Downloads in China

Source: All About Jazz
March 30, 2009

BEIJING Google on Monday launched free downloads of licensed songs in China, while sharing advertising revenue with major music labels in a market rife with online piracy.

Lee Kai-Fu, president of Google in greater China, said one reason Google lagged in the mainland search market was because it did not offer music downloads, the missing piece to its strategy in a market where it trails leader Baidu.com.

“We are offering free, high quality and legal downloads," Lee told reporters. “We ...

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Giant Internet Worm Set to Change Tactics April 1

Source: All About Jazz
March 30, 2009

The fast-moving Conficker computer worm, a scourge of the Internet that has infected at least 3 million PCs, is set to spring to life in a new way on Wednesday April Fools' Day.

That's when many of the poisoned machines will get more aggressive about “phoning home" to the worm's creators over the Internet. When that happens, the bad guys behind the worm will be able to trigger the program to send spam, spread more infections, clog networks with traffic, ...

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MPAA Negotiates with ISPs to Disconnect or Penalize Copyright Offenders

Source: All About Jazz
March 29, 2009

Hollywood studios are negotiating with broadband providers to take action against customers caught downloading movies repeatedly.

Penalties range from redirecting infringers' browsers to an anti-piracy message and disconnecting them entirely, a movie industry source familiar with the talks said Friday.

The revelation came as the Recording Industry Association of America is talking with the same ISPs to get them to adopt a “three-strikes" plan and cut internet access to repeat infringers of music copyright. The RIAA proposal aims to make ...

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Will Labels Use or Abuse iTunes Variable Pricing?

Source: HypeBot
March 28, 2009

Following months of lobbying by the major labels, the iTunes store will add variable pricing on April 7th. Tracks will be priced at $.69, $.99 and $1.29. There”s been no official word as to which downloads will be sold as various price points, but presumably some older catalog will be reduced in price; while some hit product will be cost 30% more than before.

But will the major labels use this opportunity to lower overall prices or ...

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Why Are We Still Debating Free?

Source: HypeBot
March 28, 2009

On Friday morning I dashed off a Daily DIY “Understanding The Value Of Free“ which urged indie artists to remember the power of sometimes giving their music away and included a year old clip of Wired's Chris Andersen whose book on “Free" comes out in July. Almost instantly, a flurry of comments began that keep on coming. Why are we still debating free? I invite you to join the debate, but I'm ...

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