Archive for November, 2007
Adobe and Yahoo on Wednesday inked a deal to put ads in a place they’ve never been before — PDF files. Ads for Adobe PDF Powered by Yahoo is a service that lets online publishers include contextual ads beside PDF-based content. The program is currently in beta.Publications and publishers already committed to participating in the beta program include Infoworld, Wired, Pearson’s Education, Meredith Corporation, and Reed Elsevier.
“This partnership with Adobe creates a previously untapped opportunity for advertisers to connect with qualified audiences, while opening new revenue streams for publishers, and helping deliver additional relevant content to consumers,” Todd Teresi, senior vice president of the Yahoo Publisher Network, said in a statement.
Click here to read the rest of this story on NewsFactor.
November 30th, 2007
The Business Software Alliance announced another crackdown on software piracy last week. The BSA said that as part of an effort to deter California businesses from using unlicensed software, two California-based companies will pay the software piracy watchdog more than $175,000 to settle claims that they had unlicensed software on their computers.The companies agreed to delete all unlicensed copies of software, acquire any necessary replacement licenses, and commit to implementing stronger software license management practices.
“Since 2004, California settlement dollars have increased by a total of 32 percent,” Jenny Blank, senior director of legal affairs for the BSA, said in a statement. “We are concerned about these increases and hope to continue to raise awareness about the many risks associated with software piracy in order to deter businesses from using unlicensed software.”
Click here to read the rest of this story on NewsFactor.
November 29th, 2007
Windows Vista is being relegated to the doghouse again this week for being slower than XP, and security 
experts are warning that Vista might face more serious malware in the upcoming year.New tests show that Windows XP, coupled with the forthcoming Service Pack 3, performs twice as well as Vista with SP1. Devil Mountain Software discovered that a preview version of SP3 for Windows XP offered a 10 percent performance boost. The software development firm said that performance gains with SP1 for Vista were negligible.
However, slower speed is one issue, security is another. Considering the probability that more businesses will begin migrating to Vista in 2008, security analysts say that the security of Microsoft ’s latest operating system might be a larger problem than performance.
Click here to read the rest of this story on NewsFactor.
November 29th, 2007
In a move that may have serious implications for the U.S. wireless industry, Verizon Wireless announced plans to provide customers the option to use any wireless device, software, or application on its nationwide wireless network — even if the company doesn’t sell it.However, analysts are warning consumers not to get caught up in the hype. The details are few and the promise is big. Still, it does appear that the U.S. wireless industry is taking steps to replicate European business models, where mobile users can sign up for just about any wireless carrier with just about any unlocked phone. The bottom line for many: Verizon still won’t support the iPhone, at least not any time soon.
“The iPhone uses a technology totally incompatible with Verizon, so you are not going to be able to take your iPhone to Verizon — no matter what,” said Michael Gartenberg, a wireless analyst at Jupiter Research. “It’s too soon to tell what types of devices Verizon is going to support and who is going to make open devices for its network. It is a tantalizing announcement, but we’ll have to wait for all the details.”
Click here to read the rest of this story on NewsFactor.
November 29th, 2007
Move over AMD. Sony and Toshiba have bumped you off the top-10 list — and Intel remains king of the chipmakers. According to iSuppli’s preliminary 2007 global semiconductor market share estimate, Intel is the top of the heap. Intel’s chip revenue is expected to rise 7.7 percent in 2007 to reach $33.97 billion, up from $31.5 billion in 2006.Intel exceeded the overall semiconductor industry growth rate of 4.1 percent in 2007 and massively outperformed its PC microprocessor rival AMD, whose sales are expected to decline by 22.7 percent for the year.
“Throughout most of the year, Intel successfully defended much of the market share that it won from AMD in the first quarter in the PC microprocessor segment due to the success of its lines of dual- and quad-core chips,” Dale Ford, vice president of market intelligence for iSuppli, said in a statement. “This represents a major reversal of fortune compared to 2006, when AMD had the advantage with its popular dual-core microprocessors, allowing it to gain share from Intel.”
Click here to read the rest of this story on CIO Today.
November 29th, 2007
On Wednesday, Google released the second iteration of its Google Maps for mobile phones, a mobile mapping and local search application that sports several new bells and whistles. The new version features Google’s “My Location” technology, which uses cell tower information to provide users with their approximate location to help them determine where they are and what’s around them.The most common source of location information to date — GPS technology — is supported on fewer than 15 percent of the mobile phones sold in 2007. With Google’s My Location technology, users who don’t have GPS-enabled mobile phones still can have Google Maps position their location on the map.
According to Google, the My Location technology will complement GPS-enabled devices by delivering a location estimate more quickly than GPS can and providing coverage inside buildings where GPS signals can be unreliable. Google promises its technique doesn’t drain phone batteries as quickly as GPS does.
Click here to read the rest of this story on NewsFactor.
November 29th, 2007
This holiday shopping season promises a musical showdown between virtual guitar loving video game players as Electronic Arts’ Rock Band aims at Activision’s Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.Developed by Neversoft, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock is on store shelves now for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 for $99.99 and the Wii and PS2 for $89.99. Rock Band, meanwhile, was developed by Harmonix, the company MTV bought last year for $175 million. The game hit the store shelves on November 20 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 systems.
“We are excited to unleash some of the most beloved rock songs of all time for consumers to customize their Rock Band game experience — for an amazing price,” said Paul DeGooyer, senior vice president of MTV Games. Most of the songs are selling for $1.99, and include classics from The Police, Metallica, and Foreigner. The actual game sells for about $60, or $160 for the entire system.
November 26th, 2007
Previous Posts
