Update: Ten Million Songs, Sitting In The Download Queue…

By | November 24, 2011
 In case you didn’t think there was a future in paying for music downloads, Apple have announced that music fans have purchased and downloaded over ten million songs from the iTunes Music Store since its launch just over four months ago, averaging over 500,000 songs per week. The ten millionth song, “Complicated” by Avril Lavigne, was purchased and downloaded at 11:34 p.m. (PDT) on September 3. Seems only yesterday I was writing about the one millionth download. Heck, it probably was only yesterday.

News: Spam The Website

By | November 24, 2011
 You know that spam has hit the big time when it gets its own website. Well, a corner of one: PCWorld.com yesterday released Spam Watch, a new section of its web site dedicated to the latest news, tips and tools in the war against online junk mail. PC World Spam Watch also features “Spam Slayer,” an exclusive weekly column, the Top 5 Anti-Spam Downloads with the hottest freeware and shareware to help stop spam, and the latest information on legislation opposing unwanted e-mail.

News: A Positive Spin For RFID

By | November 24, 2011
 In case you haven’t had enough of RFID tagstiny devices to track everything from car tires to clothing — here’s a long, positive piece from CNET. RFID, they say, “is changing how retail businesses work and could generate billions of dollars in revenue for software makers.”

 

RFID tags could also create “huge savings for retail operations that currently use a variety of more labor-intensive means to track inventory. RFID also promises to deliver more accurate and detailed information. And as Wal-Mart and other retail giants buy into the RFID concept, software makers and other high-tech companies are salivating over the billion-dollar-plus prospects of this new market.” Interesting, but I think we could see a bit more skepticism.

News: Have Phone, Will Report

By | November 24, 2011
 Interesting posting by the excellent Steve Outing about the rise of photo-phones as news tools: Göteborgs-Posten, Scandinavia’s second-largest morning newspaper, today published on its website its first news photo taken by a mobile phone. After a collision between a tram and a truck in central Göteborg, reporter Ralph Källström reached the scene and filed a brief report to the news desk. Then he used his mobile phone to snap some pictures, picking the best and e-mailing it (via the phone) to the news desk, which added it to the web version of the story. His pictures turned out to be more dramatic than the official photographer who arrived later and filed much later. While in the print edition the photographer’s photos will be used, on the website they’re sticking with the reporter’s photo-phone shots.
 
That’s a great example, Steve concludes, of why news organizations should be replacing all reporters’ mobile phones with photo phones. I agree, but I bet the unions will have something to say.

News: Three Hours Of Gaming A Night. Is It Enough?

By | November 24, 2011
 From the Give The People What They Want Dept, a survey by Gamer.tv, a provider of online gaming, “as well as compelling and entertaining TV video games programmes”, said it had surveyed more than 1,000 young men and women in the UK and found that “respondents played an average of three hours of computer games a night and over 60 per cent were too mentally and physically exhausted for sex when they finally reached their beds”.
 
In response to this, Gamer.tv says it has launched Gamer.tv Plus!, a premium online computer games content service aimed at casual gamers, both in and out of bed, offering exclusive editorial content, streaming videos, top-end browser games and access to a thriving casual gaming community through forums and chat rooms. “The fact that there is a trend of casual gaming becoming more popular than casual sex surprised us at first,” commented Chris Bergstresser, CEO, Gamer.tv. “Still, if that’s what the great British public wants then more power to them! Gamer.tv Plus! will cater for all their gaming needs.”