House, Senate get separate bills to kill net neutrality - Ars Technica

Real argument about "network neutrality" is fascinating stuff, provocative and well worth anyone's time if they care about the Internet. Unfortunately, Congress isn't great at having intelligent arguments, and net neutrality is rapidly on its way to becoming the latest victim of the Sound Bite Wars.

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) have each introduced an anti-net neutrality bill into their respective chambers. McCain's is known as the "Internet Freedom Act of 2009," but Blackburn's is billed as (seriously) the "Real Stimulus Act of 2009" (PDF)...

Spammer ordered to pay Facebook $711 million - PC World

Facebook was awarded US$711 million in damages from a convicted spammer on Thursday, but the social networking site is hoping a separate criminal action will eventually send him to jail.

Sanford Wallace was sued by Facebook in February along with Adam Arzoomanian and Scott Shaw for allegedly obtaining the login credentials for accounts. The accounts were then used to send spam to those users' friends starting around November 2008...

The Internet at 40 – is it a human right?

On March 10, 1876, employing the world’s only telephone and uttering this uninspiring summons - “Mr Watson, come here, I need you” - Alexander Graham Bell ushered in a new era of communication and unwittingly invented electronic social networking.

Six years and 10 months earlier, to the day, at Promontory Point in Utah, a gold-spike was driven into the rail connecting the Central and Union Pacific Railroads, creating the world’s first transcontinental transport system...

Amtrak plans Wi-Fi, more security - Washington Business Journal:

Amtrak will move forward with plans to add Wi-Fi service, initially on Acela trains and eventually on other service. It will upgrade its reservations systems, including e-ticket options that will let passengers retrieve tickets on mobile devices. And it says it will improve food and drink choices on its trains...

Amazon introduces PayPhrase payment shortcut -- InformationWeek

In an effort to simplify e-commerce and increase the appeal of its online payment platform to merchants, Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) Payments, a subsidiary of Amazon.com, on Thursday announced the availability of PayPhrase, a way for online shoppers to authorize purchases without entering a username and password.

PayPhrase lets online shoppers complete the online checkout process using their Amazon preferred payment and shipping settings without sharing payment information across multiple Web sites...

California, Nevada and South Carolina approve Frontier acquisition of Verizon local wireline operations

BASKING RIDGE, N.J., Oct. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- State regulators in California, Nevada and South Carolina this week approved the acquisition of the local wireline operations of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) serving residential and small-business customers in all or parts of those states by Frontier Communications Corporation (NYSE: FTR).

These state regulatory approvals follow an Oct. 27 announcement by Frontier that its shareowners have approved the transaction, which will result in Frontier owning Verizon's wireline operations in all or parts of 14 states...

Connected Nation: Libaries key to rural broadband access - The Hill's Hillicon Valley

Connected Nation is trying to show the importance of anchor institutions to broadband expansion in rural areas. The organization, which has partnered with many states in for significant amounts of broadband stimulus money, conducted surveys in Tennessee and Ohio and filed the results with the FCC.

Some of the findings...

How safe is your online profile? | WBNS-10TV, Central Ohio's News Leader

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Law officials they have their hands full when it comes to popular social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Several members of our staff here at the Ohio News Network have accounts, so we took a close look at the dangers looming within all the fun...

Happy 40th birthday, Internet! - PC World

On October 29, 1969, the Internet came in not with a bang, but with a "lo."

Letter by letter, UCLA computer science professor Leonard Kleinrock sent a message from his school's host computer to another computer at Stanford Research Institute. Kleinrock was trying to write "login," starting up a remote time-sharing system, but the system crashed after two letters, and lo! The Internet was born with the first data message sent between two networked computers...

Broadband customers are more satisfied | Telecompetitor

Improvements in performance and reliability drove customer satisfaction with residential high-speed Internet service providers higher in 2009, according to J.D. Power’ and Associates’ 12th annual “Internet Service Provider Residential Customer Satisfaction Study.”

Overall satisfaction rose 22 index points on a five-factor, 1,000-point scale in 2009 from 2008’s tally. Customer satisfaction with performance and reliability averaged 687, a gain of 43 index points from 2008’s 644. A decrease in customers reporting service outages along with improved perceptions of connection speed contributed to the improvement...

Verizon gets J.D. Power nod for broadband access - FierceTelecom

Even if Verizon's broadband subscriber numbers were down slightly in the third quarter of 2009, it looks like its customers are happy with their service. J.D. Power's new "2009 Internet Service Provider Residential Customer Satisfaction Study" released this week revealed that Verizon's Fiber to the Premises (FTTP)-based FiOS and DSL service ranked high on overall customer satisfaction in the East.

This latest designation for Verizon's Internet services follows an announcement earlier this month that FiOS TV was also ranked highest in its primary East region on J.D. Power's "2009 Residential Television Service Provider Satisfaction Study," for the second year in a row. Verizon's Chairman and CEO Ivan Seidenberg, who said his attention is turning away from landline voice loss and on to how he can build bundles that incorporate wireless voice, data and video, should be smiling at these latest results...

Google's Eric Schmidt on what the Web will look like in 5 years

Google CEO Eric Schmidt envisions a radically changed internet five years from now: dominated by Chinese-language and social media content, delivered over super-fast bandwidth in real time. Figuring out how to rank real-time social content is "the great challenge of the age," Schmidt said in an interview in front of thousands of CIOs and IT Directors at last week's Gartner Symposium/ITxpo Orlando 2009.

Gartner is the largest and most respected analyst firm in the world and much of what Schmidt said in his 45 minute interview was directed specifically at business leaders, but we've excerpted 6 minutes that we believe is of interest to anyone who's touched by the web...

VZW: Droid won’t strain 3G network

Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ, NYSE:VOD) isn’t holding anything back in its launch of the new Motorola (NYSE:MOT) Droid, engaging in its biggest ever marketing campaign to sell the Android-powered smartphone. VZW is anticipating unprecedented device sales accompanied by a surge of new traffic from millions of new unlimited-data subscriptions, but Verizon officials today expressed confidence that its nationwide 3G network can handle the data tsunami heading its way.

“We’re encouraging it,” said Arvin Singh, VZW director of data sales for the Illinois-Wisconsin region. “We’re anticipating the Droid will be a blockbuster, but we’re not adding any new backhaul or new EV-DO carriers for the launch. We’re not anticipating the network will take a hit on this.”

Google’s free GPS for phones threatens Garmin and TomTom - NYTimes.com

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — GPS navigation devices were the latest must-have tech toys just two years ago, and shares of device makers like Garmin and TomTom were soaring.

That didn’t last long. In a turnabout that has been remarkably swift even for the fast-moving technology business, those companies have suffered as competition has pulled down prices — and as more people have turned to their cellphones for directions...

County schools flock to Facebook, Twitter, blogs to keep community informed - washingtonpost.com

When Landon School officials noticed that young alumni weren't visiting the school's Web site, they decided to go where the students were: Facebook.

The Bethesda private school's page of news and notes now has nearly 500 followers...

Los Angeles OKs plan to use Google online office services - USATODAY.com

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles City Council members tentatively approved a multimillion-dollar proposal Tuesday to tap Google for government e-mail and other Internet services, a boon for the Web giant as it seeks to wrest market share for office software from rival Microsoft.

The Council voted unanimously for the $7.2 million deal with contractor Computer Sciences Corp. to replace many city computer systems with the so-called Google Apps services...

JD Power: ISPs' satisfaction ratings rise - Telecom News Wire

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif. -- Overall customer satisfaction with residential high-speed Internet service providers has increased from 2008, primarily due to improvements in performance and reliability, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2009 Internet Service Provider Residential Customer Satisfaction StudySM released today.

Now in its 12th year, the study measures customer satisfaction with high-speed Internet service based on five factors: performance and reliability; cost of service; customer service; billing; and offerings and promotions...

Motorola Droid makes its debut - WSJ.com

Motorola Inc. and Verizon Wireless on Wednesday unveiled the Droid smart phone, which the companies plan to aggressively push as a challenger to Apple Inc.'s iPhone.

The Droid, which will go on sale for $199 starting Nov. 6, is the first device using Google Inc.'s Android software to run on Verizon Wireless' network. The major push from the biggest U.S. wireless carrier underscores the momentum of Google's Android platform, which has seen a number of phones launch in recent months...

Internet phone systems become the fraudster's tool - Business Center - PC World

Cybercriminals have found a new launching pad for their scams: the phone systems of small and medium-sized businesses across the U.S.

In recent weeks, they have hacked into dozens of telephone systems across the country, using them as a way to contact unsuspecting bank customers and trick them into divulging their bank account numbers and passwords...

Google Maps navigation analysis

As the video above explains, Google Maps navigation was built from the ground up to be internet connected meaning you can get the latest maps and business data automatically over the net without having to download new maps manually.

Google touts lots of features which they say most GPS units don't have such as voice recognition, the ability fix spelling errors and of course infinite points of interest. Other benefits touted include the ability to navigate via search meaning you can ask your device to navigate to a museum with a specific exhibit...

EarthLink Q3 improves with fewer sub losses, stable churn

EarthLink Inc. posted third quarter numbers that would make any other provider shudder, but in fact the numbers indicate the struggling ISP is seeing signs of improvement – while revenue continued to free fall, subscriber losses did slow, and churn showed signs of leveling.

For the quarter, EarthLink lost another 13,000 broadband subscribers, up from 11,000 lost in the second quarter but a significant improvement from the 55,000 lost in the third quarter 2008. At the close of the quarter, EarthLink held on to 832,000 broadband customers...

Clearwire's imperial expansion

Clearwire is on tack to accomplish what it promised earlier this year in terms of its CLEAR 4G WiMAX network expansion plans by the end of 2009. The operator’s first mobile WiMAX market was launched in Portland last January, followed by Silicon Valley in April. Later this past summer, it expanded to Las Vegas and Atlanta, adding more than 4.5 million people to CLEAR’s coverage footprint. In September the company announced the addition of 10 new markets, including Boise, ID, Bellingham, WA, and eight markets throughout Texas: Abilene, Amarillo, Corpus Christi, Lubbock, Midland/Odessa, Killeen/Temple, Waco, and Wichita Falls, covering over 10 million people.

Earlier this month Clearwire rolled out its 4G network on Salem, Oregon and Milledgeville, Georgia; and in the forth quarter of 2009 the company is planning to roll out in additional cities including Charlotte, Greensboro and Raleigh, North Carolina; Austin, Dallas/Fort Worth and San Antonio, TX (November), and Chicago, Philadelphia, Seattle, Honolulu and Maui, Hawaii (December). By the end of 2009, Clearwire’s 4G network is expected to be available in more than 25 markets, covering over 30 million people...

Amazon's early holiday cheer - BusinessWeek

Booming sales of e-book readers and material to read on them brought early holiday cheer to online retailer Amazon.com (AMZN) in the third quarter. And judging from the company's better-than-expected forecast for the current quarter, robust sales will continue through yearend at Seattle-based Amazon.

On Oct. 22, Amazon said third-quarter net income surged 68%, to $199 million, while revenue jumped 28%, to $5.45 billion, compared with Wall Street's estimate of $5 billion. "This looks like holiday-season performance and they're doing it in the third quarter," says Jeff Lindsay, analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein. For the quarter that ends in December, Amazon forecast sales of $8.1 billion to $9.1 billion, compared with $8.19 billion expected by analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News...

School chooses Kindle; are libraries for the history 'books'? - USATODAY.com

The venerable boarding school west of Boston — the first in the USA to admit both boys and girls — last summer undertook another first: It began getting rid of most of the library's books. In their place: a fully digital collection.

Library watchers say it could be the first school library, public or private, to forsake ink and paper in favor of e-books. It also represents the first time a school has placed its students' intellectual lives so fully into the hands of a few online publishers and makers of electronic devices...

Change passwords: Cyber-gangs want keys to your e-mail - USATODAY.com

Phishers are back with a vengeance, armed with some alarming new trickery.

Those e-mail scammers who try to fool you into typing your user name and passwords at faked financial Web pages have been around in force since 2002. They remain active, though many Web users have gotten adept at spotting, and avoiding, ruses to get their financial account log-ons...

GSI Commerce buys online fashion discounter for $350 million - NYTimes.com

The idea of holding private sales of premium merchandise on the Web suddenly seems to be in vogue.

GSI Commerce, which manages the Web sites for major retailers like Toys “R” Us and Zales, announced on Tuesday that it was buying Retail Convergence, operator of the Web site Rue La La, in a deal valued at as much as $350 million...

L.A. City Council votes to outsource e-mail to Google -- latimes.com

Los Angeles became the largest city in the nation to move to Google Inc.'s vision of online computing as the City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to outsource e-mail to a Web-based system run by the Internet search giant.

Despite a flurry of lobbying by arch rival Microsoft Corp., the council agreed to shut down the city's in-house messaging system and transfer e-mail operations for its 30,000 employees to Google's nationwide network of servers...

States not protecting student privacy, study finds - washingtonpost.com

States often collect far more information about students than necessary and fail to take adequate steps to protect their privacy, a national study concludes. The dossiers go far beyond test scores, including Social Security numbers, poverty data, health information and disciplinary incidents.

The study from the Fordham University Center on Law and Information Policy, released Wednesday, casts light on data systems created at the urging of the federal government to track student progress. One finding: States often fail to spell out protocols for purging records after students graduate...

Telecommuters fearing swine flu may clog Web networks, GAO says - washingtonpost.com

As the spread of the H1N1 flu keeps more Americans away from work and school, a federal report warns that all those people logging on to the Web from home could overwhelm Internet networks.

The Government Accountability Office reported earlier this week that if the flu reaches a pandemic, a surge in telecommuting and children accessing video files and games at home could bog down local networks...

Citizens happier than ever with e-gov sites - InternetNews.com

A new survey measuring consumer satisfaction has found that government Web sites earned the highest marks since it began polling in that category six years ago.

In the third quarter of 2009, e-government sites notched a 75.2 on the 100-point American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), a survey matrix maintained by the researchers at the University of Michigan and used to measure how effectively government agencies and businesses in a variety of industries are meeting consumers' needs...

Facebook keeps profiles of people who have died, though removes some features -- chicagotribune.com

NEW YORK (AP) — Death doesn't erase the online footprints that people leave in life and Facebook won't either, though it will make some changes.

The five-year-old social network will "memorialize" profiles of the dead if their friends or family request it...

Harvard Medical School launches swine flu iPhone app - washingtonpost.com

As the threat of the swine flu (otherwise known as H1N1) pandemic become more serious and President Obama declares a national emergency over the rapidly spreading virus, Harvard Medical School is hoping to help educate people with its new iPhone app. The Swine Flu app, which is currently available on the app store, costs $1.99.

The Swine Flu Application includes videos, animations and text that allow you to learn the basics about swine flu, how to reduce the risk to you and your family, and how to prepare your business for the pandemic. The app also features real-time updates and news from Harvard Med School about H1N1...

New ideas for old information

We are barely a generation past the day when a stack of ledgers and cabinets of contracts and correspondence best represented the paper trail of a corporate history.

The business information record of today looks much different than it did 20 years ago, but is no less bulky. The fruit of the Information Age is also a creaking attic of accumulation full of diverse records created by more people and systems than ever. From microfiche to punch cards to tape drives to hard disks to solid state, we have counted on technology to outpace our need to retain everything, even as those resources inevitably become strained and call for new solutions...

Contingent inks multi-million dollar WAN contract with Bob Evans

Following a national rollout for Wendy’s restaurants, Contingent Network Services announced Tuesday that it has secured a multi-million dollar contract to deploy its EverWorX managed wide area network service at more than 500 Bob Evans locations across the country.

According to company officials, a virtual private broadband network installation to link all Bob Evans restaurants was completed this summer. Bob Evans initiated the deployment to enable the installation of so-called “more robust” store-based Web applications, remote network monitoring and customer high-speed Internet access across its 569 North American locations...

Sheltering Arms helps patients connect with families despite H1N1 restrictions

Richmond, Virginia (October 26, 2009) – This season’s H1N1 influenza outbreak has led area hospitals to take drastic, yet proactive, measures to keep patients safe. Sheltering Arms, in turn, has come up with a creative solution that will allow them to continue to have the benefit of visitation with family members.

About a dozen hospitals in the Richmond-Petersburg area, including Sheltering Arms two inpatient facilities, have coordinated efforts in the interest of patient and health care provider safety to restrict visiting policies at their hospitals. This means that with few exceptions, children under the age of 18 and visitors of any age with any symptoms of influenza-like illness will not be permitted in patient care areas. Knowing that the care and support of loved ones are catalysts in helping patients in their recovery process, Sheltering Arms has made web-cams available at both of their area hospitals...

The media death spiral - Megan McArdle

The circulation figures for the top 25 dailies in the US are out, and they're horrifying. The median decline is well into the teens; only the Wall Street Journal gained (very slightly).

I think we're witnessing the end of the newspaper business, full stop, not the end of the newspaper business as we know it. The economics just aren't there. At some point, industries enter a death spiral: too few consumers raises their average costs, meaning they eventually have to pass price increases onto their customers. That drives more customers away. Rinse and repeat . . .

Facebook becoming big friend of small businesses -- latimes.com

Reporting from San Francisco - Charles Nelson, president of Sprinkles Cupcakes, the Beverly Hills baker to the stars, doesn't have a Facebook profile. Nelson, who works seven days a week, has no time for chatting online with Facebook friends.

But Nelson is logged on to Facebook all the time. That's because more than 70,000 people have declared themselves fans of Sprinkles’ Facebook page, which has its own "vanity URL" at www.facebook.com /sprinkles...

H1N1 flu tracked by e-prescription data -- E-Health -- InformationWeek

Rhode Island is the first state in the U.S. to begin tracking swine flu outbreaks using e-prescription data.

State public health officials are electronically monitoring possible H1NI outbreaks based on e-prescription data from pharmacies that dispense Tamiflu and three other antiviral drugs used to treat seasonal flu and swine flu...

FCC head warns of "spectrum gap" made by iPhone | Electronista

FCC chairman Julius Genachowski in a talk published today warned that mobile data is facing a "spectrum gap" that could significantly damage Internet access on cellphones.

He considers the iPhone a leader in a wave of devices that are straining 3G networks enough to create severe accessibility problems and that the FCC is considering "more creative" steps to solve the problem. Among these steps may include exploiting unlicensed spectrum or even allowing second licenses that have two companies share the same frequency...

Report: Consumers want ‘real-time’ on-demand content

Consumers’ appetites for real-time on-demand content have increased dramatically, according to a new report.

Sandvine commissioned the report, and it’s based on information from more than 20 cable and DSL service providers with a total of 24 million subscribers spanning five regions worldwide, including North America, Europe, the Caribbean and Latin America, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East and Africa. This is the sixth report in an ongoing series of broadband phenomena and Internet traffic analysis that Sandvine has published since 2002...

U.N. urges broadband for developing countries - InternetNews.com

Developing countries risk missing out on the benefits of information technology because of their lack of broadband infrastructure, a U.N. agency said.

Lack of broadband Internet access deprives countries of the possibility of building up offshoring industries, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said in a report late on Thursday...

Comcast tests alerts on 'botnet' invasions -- chicagotribune.com

PHILADELPHIA - -- Comcast Corp. wants to enlist its customers in a fight against a huge problem for Internet providers -- the armies of infected personal computers, known as "botnets," that suck up bandwidth by sending spam and facilitating cybercrime.

The country's largest provider of high-speed Internet to homes started testing a service this month in Denver in which Comcast sends customers a pop-up message in their Web browsers if their computers seem to have been co-opted by a botnet. One botnet can involve tens of thousands of zombie computers...

Most reliable wireless network just got better in Youngstown, Ohio

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio, Oct. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Verizon Wireless today announced it has completed the integration of its network with that of Alltel in Mahoning and Trumbull counties and most of Columbiana County to provide customers with clearer reception, fewer dropped calls and more coverage, including stronger in-building coverage.

Verizon Wireless' voice and high-speed 3G data network combined with that of Alltel creates the largest wireless network footprint in the United States. The integration in this area enables more customers to use their wireless phones concurrently to make calls; send and receive email and text, picture and video messages; access the Internet; view high-quality videos; and download music, games and ringtones, on the nation's most reliable wireless network. Coverage areas directly affected by the network integration include Youngstown, Austintown, Boardman, Howland Corners, Niles and Warren, Ohio...

Are retailers going too far tracking our Web habits? - USATODAY.com

Sherry Natoli is followed everywhere she goes while shopping online, but she doesn't mind at all.

Natoli, who owns a seashell business in Tampa, does all but her grocery shopping on the Internet and even opts in whenever she's asked whether she's willing to have her online movements tracked by websites...

White House opens its website programming to public - USATODAY.com

WASHINGTON — A programming overhaul of the White House's website has set the tech world abuzz. For low-techies, it's a snooze — you won't notice a thing.

The online-savvy administration on Saturday switched to open-source code for www.whitehouse.gov — meaning the programming language is written in public view, available for public use and able for people to edit...

AT&T: Smartphone trumps laptop connections - Dayton Business Journal:

AT&T Inc. has achieved a new milestone in its wireless segment. The Dallas-based telecommunications company reported Friday that the company had the most Wi-Fi connections made on its network in a single quarter. AT&T said the new connections record shows more consumers are using smartphones and Wi-Fi enabled devices.

AT&T (NYSE: T), which has 1,500 employees in Dayton, said customers made 25.4 million connections on its Wi-Fi network in the third quarter, which is more than the 20 million connections made in all of 2008, AT&T said. The connection record brings total AT&T Wi-Fi connections to more than 51 million since the beginning of 2009...

Netflix movie streaming comes to PlayStation 3 - PC World

Starting November, you will be able to stream Netflix movies and TV shows on to your PlayStation 3 (PS3) game console. The deal, announced on Monday, will put Sony's console in line with Microsoft's Xbox 360, which had this functionality for over a year now.

Netflix's movie and TV shows catalogue will be available to stream over the Internet (Wi-Fi or Ethernet connection) to Sony PS3 users from November. If you have a Netflix $8.99/month subscription and a PlayStation 3, you will be able to use the Netflix "Watch Instantly" service on your console...

How victims encourage cybercrime - Business Center - PC World

The relative anonymity of Internet users is the key issue in managing cybercrime, according Eugene Kaspersky, founder of Russian security firm Kaspersky.

"To design a safer e-world, we need better Internet regulation, such as Internet passports for individuals, accreditation for businesses, and temporary storage of necessary requests, while there is also a need for what I term an Internet-Interpol which will see more international police collaboration on cybercrime," said Kaspersky, during the launch of an education programme in Malaysia...

Newspaper circulation drop accelerates April-Sept

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Circulation at newspapers shrank at an accelerated pace in the past six months, driven in part by stiff price increases imposed by publishers scrambling to offset rapidly eroding advertising sales.

Average daily circulation at 379 U.S. newspapers plunged 10.6 percent in the April-September period from the same six-month stretch last year, according to figures released Monday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations...

Broadband providers: Give the cities a helping hand - FierceTelecom

To expand broadband opportunities, cities and towns are going to need assistance from local service providers, argued Chicago's CIO Hardik Bhatt during the Friday morning keynote speech at the SUPERCOMM trade show. In order to do that, schools, for example, will need far more than a paltry T1 (1.5 Mbps) of access.

Bhatt said a local effort to enhance technical training and education via the creation of a school centered on IT and telecom was stifled when organizers found the only connections they could get were two T1 connections. "We wanted our students to be able to have interaction with students in other countries," Bhatt said during the SUPERCOMM speech. "Are we going to be able to do that with a 3 Megabit connection? I don't think so. We need every high school, every elementary school in the city to have 100 Megabit per second connections..."

Verizon Q3 '09: FiOS leads the wireline way - FierceTelecom

FiOS was the star of its wireline portfolio. During the third quarter, the telco reported that it added 198,000 new FiOS Internet customers and 191,000 net new FiOS TV customers, bringing it to a total of 3.3 million total FiOS Internet and 2.7 FiOS TV customers.

Overall broadband connections at the end of Q3 '09 were 9.2 million, an 8.5 percent year-over-year increase. Verizon's broadband gains fell shy of Stifel Nicolaus financial analyst Chris King's expectation of 250,000 for the quarter...

FairPoint files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection - FierceTelecom

While not much of a surprise to anyone watching the telecom industry, FairPoint Communications made it official today that it has filed for Chapter 11 reorganization under in the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.

Under the restructuring plan it has reached with "supporting lenders" that hold more than 50 percent of the ILEC's outstanding debt, FairPoint said it will reduce its debt by $1.7 billion. Still, FairPoint is far from being out of the woods. For one, the Restructuring Plan, which FairPoint says it will file right away, requires Court approval. In the meantime, it will be business as usual for FairPoint and its subsidiaries throughout the Chapter 11 process as it waits for the Court to confirm its Restructuring Plan...

Wharton’s Web site boosts its brand, and brings in cash | Article | Homepage articles

The Wharton business school's interactive site offers free podcasts, videos and social networking — and brings in revenue

While he’s not exactly cheering on the economic crisis, Mukul Pandya sure is flush with first-rate content as a result of it. Knowledge@Wharton, the online journal for the Wharton School of Business, has never been more relevant, says Pandya, editor-in-chief of the site...

Facebook tweaks home page based on feedback - USATODAY.com

NEW YORK — Worried about missing a birth announcement, or details on what your portly uncle had for lunch?

Facebook is tweaking its home page yet again in hopes of making it easier to find information. Among the latest changes is a list of items you might have missed during those rare moments spent away from the online hangout...

Knowledge is the power behind popular eHow website - USATODAY.com

SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Demand Media CEO Richard Rosenblatt is the answer man.

His eHow.com, a unit of privately held Demand, attracts some 50 million users worldwide each month who are looking for quick solutions to questions ranging from how to make a great margarita to how to format a computer hard drive...

New Web startups may turn publishing industry on its ear | The Columbus Dispatch

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Rick Rieser was halfway through his daily jog this summer when the idea for Percy, The Perfectly Imperfect Chicken popped into his brain.

Today, the 52-year-old Orient man is a first-time author preparing for a busy schedule of readings in the Midwest, toting boxes of the children's book that was published with stunning speed via a small Silicon Valley startup called FastPencil. A creative process that often takes years -- and typically fails to come to fruition -- was accomplished in a few months, without a single rejection...

Microchips can link lost pets, owners | The Columbus Dispatch

Cats that land in an animal shelter are 20 times more likely to be returned to their owners if they have an implanted microchip, a new study has found.

That's good news not just for the felines but also for the shelters that take them in and the owners who love them, said Ohio State University's Linda Lord, who led the national study...

Advertising - Newspapers may face ad difficulties on Web sites, too - NYTimes.com

It was a good day for newspaper Web sites when Mercedes-Benz USA introduced its updated E-Class cars this summer. Mercedes bought out the ad space on the home pages of The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, and had those sites create special 3-D ads for them, at an estimated cost of $100,000 a site.

The days after were not as good. While Mercedes was happy with the newspaper sites’ performance, it shifted money to cheaper, more tightly aimed ads bought through networks, which bundle ad space from many Web sites...

Twitter serves up ideas from its users - NYTimes.com

SAN FRANCISCO — Companies big and small monitor Twitter to find out what their customers like and what they want changed. Twitter does the same.

It started two years ago as a bare-bones service, offering little more than the ability to post 140-character messages. Then, it outsourced its idea generation to its users. The company watches how people use the service and which ideas catch on. Then its engineers turn the ideas into new features...

Phishing gang dominates online devilment - PC World

A single group of attackers accounted for a quarter of all phishing in the first half of this year, according to a new study.

Called Avalanche, the gang started work late last year and has been increasing its activity since, according to a report by the Anti-Phishing Working Group. "This criminal operation is one of the most sophisticated and damaging on the Internet and targets vulnerable or non-responsive registrars and registries," the report says...

Online men's pants company follows business model that's shown success | The Columbus Dispatch

NEW YORK -- Brian Spaly's quest for the perfect pair of pants led him and former roommate Andy Dunn to start a Web-only clothing company that wants to sell men's trousers that fit -- without the need for fitting rooms.

Business is good for their company, Bonobos Inc., though it's too early to tell whether the startup can achieve the heights of another online apparel store with a remarkably similar beginning...

Losing out after winning an online auction - NYTimes.com

I’VE ventured into the world of online auctions only about a half-dozen times, so I’m pretty much an amateur. But it has been mostly a successful experience: I felt the thrill of outbidding and winning, and my items arrived on time and in good shape.

I had a few problems — a desk I won never arrived and my inquiring e-mail messages were never answered. But since I had paid by credit card, I challenged the payment and lost no money in the end...

More US WiMax launches planned for '09 - Telecom News Analysis

Clearwire LLC (Nasdaq: CLWR) and Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) are to launch their mobile WiMax services into a number of new U.S. markets before the end of 2009, with the bulk of them expected to support white-label offerings from cable partners Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) and Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE: TWC).

Here's how it's to break down...

FCC: Spectrum shortage will be a 'crisis' - Telecom News Analysis

CHICAGO -- Supercomm 2009 -- Forget about wiring rural America. Blair Levin, the man spearheading the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) 's program to boost broadband adoption nationwide, says the biggest crisis facing the U.S. is a lack of available wireless spectrum.

"This is probably the single most important problem facing this sector and this country," Levin told Supercomm attendees this week...

News Corp. exec: Hulu to charge access fees

(AP) – Hulu, the free online video site where television shows and movies can be watched in their entirety, will start charging fees at some point, one of its owners said.

Hulu has struggled to make money despite its popularity as an ad-supported site. News Corp., which co-owns the site with NBC Universal, Walt Disney Co. and Providence Equity Partners, said it hasn't decided what form the subscription model would take...

Best Buy to sell kid-tracking GPS - Dayton Business Journal:

Best Buy Co. Inc. will sell a GPS device that parents can use to track their child’s location.

The Richfield, Minn.-based electronics retailer is marketing the product, called Little Buddy, under its in-house brand, Insignia. The gadget is priced at $99 and is sized to fit “easily into a backpack, lunchbox or other receptacle,” according to Best Buy’s (NYSE: BBY) Web site...

Yahoo: Online advertising has stabilized - BusinessWeek

While no match for the resurgent third quarter reported by Google a few days earlier, Yahoo's (YHOO) results and its forecast for current-quarter sales beat analysts' expectations and gave further evidence that this year's swoon in Internet advertising may be ending.

Investors were pleased with the results, boosting Yahoo's shares almost 6% in extended trading after the market close. "It was a clean 'beat' quarter," says Sandeep Aggarwal, an analyst at financial services firm Collins Stewart (CLST.L). "You see signs of stabilization, which is very positive..."

What happens in an FCC rulemaking proceeding? - PC World

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Thursday voted to approve a notice of proposed rulemaking on new net neutrality regulations. (See: FCC Moves Toward Net Neutrality for more). So what does all this mean, exactly?

A notice of proposed rulemaking -- or NPRM, in FCC-speak -- is the first step in a long process for the agency to adopt new rules. In the start of a rulemaking process, the FCC lays out a list of proposed rules, or changes to existing rules, and it asks for comments about those proposals...

WiMax coming to Chicago next month - Business Center - PC World

WiMax will finally go on sale next month in Chicago, a city that was to have been one of the first places where the high-speed wireless service was offered in the U.S.

Chicago was on the cutting edge of Sprint Nextel's original push for WiMax in 2007, along with the Baltimore-Washington, D.C., area. A network in the city had undergone trials by mid-2008. But upheaval in the company and some technical issues, such as providing enough backhaul to wired networks, intervened. A new WiMax strategy brought Sprint together with wireless broadband provider Clearwire, several cable operators and other companies, a group that could provide the billions of dollars needed to build a national network. But Sprint announced only on Thursday that it would begin selling services on a WiMax network in Chicago next month, alongside its Clearwire joint venture and Comcast...

Mozilla releases raindrop, a prototype messaging tool - PC World

Mozilla has launched a software project designed to let people better manage the ever more voluminous stream of messages coming from sources such as Twitter and Facebook into their e-mail.

Raindrop is not another e-mail client, however, said Bryan Clark, the design lead for Mozilla messaging. Mozilla describes it as a "mini Web server" that is installed on a PC and collects conversations and messages from a variety of sources and then intelligently sorts them...

New Tools for Old Traumas: Using 21st Century technologies to combat human rights atrocities

Steady increases in technological sophistication over the past 10 to 20 years have helped millions of people come a bit closer to realizing social and economic rights such as the rights to food, clothing, housing, and medical care. These technological advances are also having a major impact on the struggle for civil and political rights.

The rapid expansion of computing and Internet capacities, for example, has increased information flows, making them more sophisticated, faster, and cheaper than ever before. That in turn has allowed governments, activists, and citizens to gather unprecedented amounts of information about human rights violations and disseminate it widely—and instantly—around the globe. Cell phones with photo capabilities convey images of human rights violations at a moment’s notice. Internet social networking tools enable activists to connect with one another and with sympathetic audiences to build worldwide networks for change...

Facebook groups better for businesses | Social Media PR Blog

It went unnoticed for a lot of people because Facebook groups are not used as widely as they used to be, but Facebook earlier this week unveiled a redesign of those groups. The screen shot below is of the former Fight SMA Facebook Group, which I’ve been working for some time to transition to a Fan Page.

fightsma-facebook-thumbThe first thing you’ll notice (click the image for a larger view) is that the look and layout are now much more in line with Fan Pages and individual profiles. One obvious unique addition is organization information in the left sidebar, above information about group members...

Developing countries must boost broadband: U.N. - washingtonpost.com

GENEVA (Reuters) - Developing countries risk missing out on the benefits of information technology because of their lack of broadband infrastructure, a U.N. agency said.

Lack of broadband Internet access deprives countries of the possibility of building up offshoring industries, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said in a report late on Thursday...

China expands cyberspying in U.S., report says - WSJ.com

WASHINGTON -- The Chinese government is ratcheting up its cyberspying operations against the U.S., a congressional advisory panel found, citing an example of a carefully orchestrated campaign against one U.S. company that appears to have been sponsored by Beijing.

The unnamed company was just one of several successfully penetrated by a campaign of cyberespionage, according to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission report to be released Thursday. Chinese espionage operations are "straining the U.S. capacity to respond," the report concludes...

Census sets up new interactive website - USATODAY.com

The Census Bureau is well-known for asking questions. Now it will answer them, too.

The agency's new 2010census.gov website went up this week and, when it is officially launched Monday will give people a chance to do the questioning.

The heavily interactive site, part of the government's $326 million marketing push to promote the 2010 Census, is more whimsical than most government online portals. It's colorful. It has sound, videos, blogs and even a trivia quiz...

Amazon plans Kindle for PC

Amazon.com is putting out a free application that lets people read Kindle electronic books on their Windows personal computers. Microsoft demonstrated the new Kindle for PC app at the Windows 7 launch in New York City. It's the latest move by Amazon to extend its vast store of electronic books, magazines and newspapers to other devices beyond its Kindle readers.

Amazon's move with PCs could potentially open up a large new customer base for its e-books: people who own desktops and laptops but don't own or intend to buy a Kindle. The Kindle for PC app gives access to Amazon's collection of 350,000 e-books and 850 English and international newspapers. Amazon charges $9.99 for most new release books and New York Times bestsellers...

PeopleMaps finds new and 'hidden' connections - InternetNews.com

Hoping to make a connection with the hiring director at a company or trying to break through to the purchasing manager to pitch a product? A personal connection always helps in these matters and a new service unveiled this week by 7 Degrees aims to facilitate just that.

PeopleMaps is available in both free and professional editions. The service lets users automatically search their personal contacts from Outlook, LinkedIn, Facebook, Gmail and Yahoo, while simultaneously searching a massive social graph 7 Degrees has collected from a variety of Internet and premium data sources. The PeopleMaps "graph engine" then instantly analyzes all of this data to uncover "connection paths" to any person or company...

How an amateur historian rescued D.C.'s Wikipedia page - washingtonpost.com

The historian largely responsible for summing up Washington, D.C., for millions of Wikipedia readers digs for facts from his tiny bedroom in Dupont Circle. He sits on a chair borrowed from his four-piece dinette set at a desk he bought from Target, footnoting away on an old Dell computer. He is 24 years old. Sometimes he makes his bed.

His name is Adam Lewis -- a fact sure to surprise his closest friends and even his parents, who are unaware that, for a year or so, Lewis has been staying up late to rescue the District's Wikipedia page from vandals and mediocrity. Having grown up in the area, Lewis felt an obligation to do the work but not to brag about it...

ISPs: Broadband a 'great American success story' - InternetNews.com

The United States does not have the highest broadband penetration rate or the highest speeds in the world, but telecom and cable execs still think that Americans have a lot to be proud of.

Speaking at the Supercomm conference in Chicago, Cox Communications President Patrick Esser challenged the audience to imagine their lives without broadband and everything it enables. In his view, broadband adoption has changed the lives of millions of Americans...

Cisco: Avg. broadband sub generates 11.5GB/month - Telecom News Wire

Today Cisco announced new findings from the Cisco® Visual Networking Index (VNI) Usage research effort that confirms service provider networks are carrying a significant amount of visual networking traffic, with more than one-third of the average global broadband connection supporting video, social networking and collaboration applications each month...

Google croons a tune with song sales - USATODAY.com

Google is about to give beleaguered record companies a potentially powerful boost by offering people who search for information about musicians the tools to listen to songs — and buy them.

The new capabilities will be unveiled next week as part of a service tentatively called Google OneBox, according to five executives who have been briefed on the matter but declined to be identified because they are not authorized to disclose the information...

Web 2.0 Summit: Facebook bets on wisdom of friends -- InformationWeek

Following Microsoft's announcement at the Web 2.0 Summit on Wednesday morning that its Bing search engine will begin indexing Facebook and Twitter data, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg confirmed the deal without clarifying when Facebook updates will appear in Bing.

"We're working with Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) to give them a feed of our data that's open to the public," Sandberg said...

Retailers are learning to love Smartphones - BusinessWeek

People are using their smartphones for more than just making calls, sending e-mails, or watching YouTube (GOOG) videos. The fastest-growing cell-phone activity is shopping directly from a handset, reports market researcher Gartner (IT). Retailers from Amazon (AMZN) to CVS (CVS) to Sears (SHLD) have recently launched "m-commerce" sites or software applications that allow shoppers to browse and buy books, medicine, or even lawn mowers from their iPhones and BlackBerrys.

"It's in-and-out, surgical-style shopping behavior" influenced by the recessionary need to focus on necessities, says Thomas Emmons, head of the mobile innovation group at Sears...

New Google music service launch imminent - washingtonpost.com

Google will soon launch a music service, we've heard from multiple sources, and the company has spent the last several weeks securing content for the launch of the service from the major music labels. One source has referred to the new service as Google Audio.

We're still gathering details, but our understanding is the service will be very different to the Google China music download service that they launched in 2008. That service, which is only available in China, allows users to search for music and download it for free...

HP, Amazon team up on rare book revival - InternetNews.com

Print is dead? Don't tell that to HP. The printer giant is announcing two deals today that aim to revive out-of-print books and help users create custom magazines.

HP said its HP BookPrep will make more than 500,000 rare and hard-to-find books available for sale through new collaborations with e-commerce giant Amazon and the University of Michigan. BookPrep is a cloud computing service designed to facilitate the on-demand printing of books in any quantity, from one to 100, or even thousands...

B&N's Nook is a Kindle Killer: 5 reasons why - Business Center - PC World

Barnes & Noble's new Nook e-reader is the e-reader that competitors must now beat. So long Kindle 2, it was nice knowing you, but a better reader has come along. And just in time for the holidays, too.

If Amazon doesn't have a new model up its sleeve, it will be a Merry Christmas at B&N and a sack of coal for Amazon. Here's why...

Nonprofit overhaul assists families of ill children - washingtonpost.com

In recent years, Ronald McDonald House Charities of Memphis has experienced its share of technological growing pains.

The business staff of ten serves the families of children receiving medical treatment for cancer and other serious illnesses by providing a home away from home while the children receive treatment at the local St. Jude's Children's Hospital...

Marketers salivating over smartphone potential - USATODAY.com

SAN FRANCISCO — Jeff Smith is a diligent social-networking user, but he doesn't own a PC.

"I prefer a cellphone and a service for a cellphone," says Smith, 40, a postal worker in Detroit who served as an Army Ranger in Desert Storm and Somalia...

Internet advertising appears to begin its comeback - USATODAY.com

SAN FRANCISCO — After bogging down in the recession, Internet advertising is regaining the momentum that has made it the decade's most disruptive marketing machine.

The signs of an online revival are emerging even while advertising in print and broadcasts remain in a slump that has triggered mass layoffs, pay cuts and other upheaval...

Opposition mounts to Verizon-Frontier deal: Employee unions express concern consumers will get a raw deal

Opposition to the sale of Verizon’s landline business to Frontier Communications in 13 states continues to increase, particularly in Ohio and West Virginia, where several employee unions have argued the deal represents a win for Wall Street and company executives, but a raw deal for millions of consumers.

The Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, who also warned state regulators in New England about the consequences of approving the sale of Verizon’s operations in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont to FairPoint Communications, continue to warn consumers and state officials that a similar deal between Verizon and Frontier Communications could spell major problems for telephone customers. They call on state officials to reject the deal and force Verizon to invest some of their substantial profits earned in these communities into providing better service instead of dumping customers overboard...

E-book fans are proving to be enthusiastic readers - NYTimes.com

The publishing industry has been under a dark cloud recently.

Sales are down this year, despite prominent books by Dan Brown and Edward M. Kennedy. Wal-Mart and Amazon are locked in a war for e-commerce dominance, creating new worries among publishers and authors about dwindling profits...

AT&T brings 3G mobile broadband network to Hillsboro, Wilmington, Greenfield and Rocky Fork state park

Web 2.0 summit: Web squared emerges -- InformationWeek

The Web 2.0 Summit opened in San Francisco on Tuesday afternoon amid talk of destruction and rebirth.

The destruction -- the financial crisis that tested companies and individuals around the globe over the past year -- appears to be waning...

Web 2.0 Summit: Comcast dismisses cord cutters -- InformationWeek

At the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco on Tuesday, Comcast (NSDQ: CMCSA) CEO Brian Roberts denied panel moderator John Battelle's assertion that Internet users are eager to move to cut the pricey cable cord and move to a more affordable Internet on-demand model.

"So far, the data does not suggest that people en masse want to do that," Roberts said...

Barnes & Noble expected to launch e-book reader called 'nook' to compete with Amazon's Kindle -- chicagotribune.com

NEW YORK (AP) — Barnes & Noble Inc. Inc. is expected to unveil an electronic-book reader Tuesday to compete with Amazon.com's Kindle in the still-small arena where some see bookselling's future.

A wireless reader on Barnes & Noble's Web site called the "nook" is available for "pre-order" for $259 — the same as the recently reduced Kindle. Less than 5 inches wide and 8 inches tall and weighing 11.2 ounces, the nook is the size and weight of a paperback book, according to the Web site...

Video medicine catches on with hospitals - WSJ.com

In August, Tim Buirge suffered a stroke, leaving him unable to speak or move the right side of his face. That's when he went on TV.

At the local hospital in McCandless, Pa., where Mr. Buirge sought treatment, the 58-year-old lay in bed as a stroke specialist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, 15 miles away, watched him on a giant TV, courtesy of a video camera in Mr. Buirge's room. The diagnosis was critical, since for most stroke patients, a clot-dissolving drug received shortly after arriving at a hospital can reduce the effects of stroke and limit permanent disabilities. But the risk is that for some patients with a certain type of stroke, such a drug can actually increase bleeding in the brain and boost the chance of death...

The most important tech product is the Kindle, not the iPhone - InternetNews.com

Over the weekend, I conducted an informal poll with friends and colleagues, asking them which tech product is the most important. I explained to them that "important" could be classified as having the most profound impact on people, and perhaps, society as a whole.

The answers that came my way ranged from the iPod to HDTVs to the Xbox 360. But it was the iPhone that garnered the most votes. And it was the Kindle that failed to receive a single mention...

P&G looking for bathroom bloggers - Dayton Business Journal:

Procter & Gamble Co. is looking for five people who will, in return for $10,000, spend five weeks in a Charmin-branded, Manhattan bathroom and blog about the experience.

The five “Charmin Embassadors” will work in the Charmin Restrooms in Times Square from Nov. 23 to Dec. 31. Job requirements include interacting with hundreds of thousands of bathroom guests, maintaining their own blogs and content on Charmin-branded Web sites and popular social media sites, and sharing family-friendly video from the restroom space and surrounding areas...

AirTran expands mobile Web services - Dayton Business Journal:

AirTran Airways is expanding its mobile device options for customers to help manage their air travel.

The expanded mobile Web services will allow flyers to book flights and change or cancel travel plans using their mobile devices, according to an AirTran release. The new services complement existing ones offered by AirTran, including being able to view flight status and check in for flights...

Privacy still dogs electronic health records - InternetNews.com

Beginning with the February economic stimulus package, the Obama administration has made it clear that the digitization of medical records is a high priority.

But converting people's most sensitive personal information into the digital format inevitably brings privacy concerns in tow, and a new study has called attention to just how significant the challenge may be...

Windstream extends 'Lifetime Price Guarantee' to business customers - FierceTelecom

Windstream is giving its business customers the same price and service commitment its providing for its residential customers with its 'Lifetime Price Guarantee' voice/data offering.

Unlike typical service provider lower-priced bundled packages that typically end after a set period (typically six months to a year), Windstream's 'Lifetime Price Guarantee' offering will give business customers up to 12 Mbps of Internet service and unlimited nationwide calling with 10 features for an unchanging price...

Facebook users show two faces to the world | Article | Homepage articles

Why some people create separate pages for their personal and professional lives

Call it a self-induced, modern-day schizophrenia, but people are starting to split their personalities between separate Facebook pages in the latest movement to live online without having your entire life there.

So, if you’re friends with Judy Stewart, you might be friends with Judy Stewart. On the other hand, you might not...

Tips detail safeguards to combat ID theft | The Columbus Dispatch

More than 8,000 Ohioans last year became the victims of identity theft, a crime that's still sweeping the nation.

"It's the fastest-growing crime in the United States, and 10 million people in the United States were affected last year," said Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray...

OnDC speaker Andrew McLaughlin, Deputy US CTO | Paul Allen (the lesser)

He’s been on the job now for 3 1/2 months. He moved here from San Francisco. I’ll talk about the theory of what we are trying to do in the White House now, why it’s hard, and then take a look at the president’s innovation agenda, and what you can do if you choose.

Our strategy is rooted in Moore’s law. Explosion in computing power, storage, connections. Moore predicted that the number of transistors on a chip would double about every 18-24 months. The terabyte of memory you have now would have cost you a couple million dollars in the late 90s and taken up the size of a refrigerator...

Are service provider netbook bundles a good deal? - PC World

You can get a deeply discounted netbook from either AT&T or Verizon, as long as you're willing to sign up for a two-year data plan; but no matter which service provider's netbook deal you choose, the price will be about the same. We saw similar price parity when we conducted our cost-of-ownership study of popular smartphones.

We discovered the similarity in bottom-line prices after examining the two-year costs of ownership of various (subsidized) netbooks sold by Verizon and AT&T (Sprint and T-Mobile don't yet offer such deals). The wireless broadband carriers began selling netbooks only this year, and they have adopted a pricing model similar to the one they use for selling cell phones and smartphones...

560,000 BWA/WiMAX subscribers added in Q2 2009

MONTREAL, Canada, October 20th, 2009 – Approximately 560,000 BWA/WiMAX subscribers were added in Q2 2009, according to the latest quarterly report published by Maravedis as part of its leading 4GCounts subscription service (www.4gcounts.com)

The average BWA/WiMAX subscriber growth rate in Q2 2009 was 16.5% over Q1 2009, and there was a 74% year-over-year growth rate since Q2 2008. “Global service revenue growth is going up as WiMAX operators experience increase in subscriber growth, and the gradual appreciation of most currencies against the US dollar,” noted Maravedis CEO and Founder, Adlane Fellah...

U2's Pasadena concert to stream on YouTube -- latimes.com

Not one of the 95,000 or so people descending upon Pasadena this Sunday for U2's gig at the Rose Bowl? The band has thought of you too. Or, perhaps more accurately, you will benefit from the filming of the concert for an upcoming DVD release.

In an e-mail blast sent out to fans Monday, U2 announced that it would stream Sunday night's concert on YouTube...

Spring Design e-reader offers Web browsing -- e-readers -- InformationWeek

Spring Design on Monday introduced a dual-screen e-book reader that tries to beat market-leading devices from Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) and Sony (NYSE: SNE) by including full Web browsing on a color screen, in addition to the typical black-and-white electronic paper display.

Called the Alex, the device makes the use of an e-reader more versatile by linking the Web to content on the six-inch E-Ink display, Spring Design said. For example, a publisher could include a hyperlink that would take the reader to a Web page that would be displayed on the device's 3.5-inch LCD display...

Google, Virgin America offer free in-flight Wi-Fi -- InformationWeek

At a time when air travelers face fees for just about everything, Google and Virgin America are bucking the trend.

The two companies on Monday said they had partnered to bring free Wi-Fi Internet connectivity to Virgin America flights between November 10, 2009 and January 15, 2010...

Giving rural America a competitive edge

When 28-year-old Derek Gleim graduated as a computer programmer four years ago, he hardly expected he would craft a career as an IT professional in his hometown of Menasha, Wis. "I wanted to live with my parents in Menasha, where life is simple and inexpensive," he said. "But I was sure that to get that big break I had to move out to a city that's more urban; Menasha is a small, rural town."

He was pleasantly surprised when he landed a project manager job at Rural America Onshore Sourcing, a Louisville, Ky.-based IT company that provides business process outsourcing services using professionals who telecommute from rural areas...

Dual-screen, Android e-reader 'Alex' on tap - InternetNews.com

The e-reader market just got more competitive as Spring Design unwrapped details of an Android-powered, dual-screen device coming this year.

Called Alex, the wireless device will allow readers to browse the Internet and access content over Wi-Fi and 3G, EVDO/CDMA and GSM connectivity, according to the Fremont, Calif.-based company...

Can Verizon's Motorola 'Droid' live up to the hype? - PC World

Verizon cranked up its hype machine this weekend, preparing the launch of the Droid, Motorola's Android-powered competitor to the iPhone. But will it be good enough to trump the iPhone?

Verizon's Droid is not a surprise by far. The Droid is actually the Google Android-powered Motorola Sholes, which we first heard of in July (see leaked pics and specifications). Only this time, Verizon is ready to show off its flagship smartphone, which is set to go head to head with the iPhone when it launches next month...

Plastic Logic to launch Que e-reader in January - PC World

Plastic Logic appears ready to deliver on its promise to ship its anticipated Que e-reader the firm announced nearly one year ago. A shipping model of the Que, Plastic Logic says, will be shown off on January 7 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The company says the Que is the first "proReader" designed with business professionals in mind, but it's going up to have some stiff competition against a full roster of e-readers including what may be the first Google Android-based e-reader...

Internet heavyweights push Net Neutrality - Business Center - PC World

A group of top Internet execs, including the CEOs of Google, Amazon, Twitter, Facebook, and eBay have sent a letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski in support of net neutrality.

"America's leadership in the technology space has been due, in large part, to the open Internet," said the letter, dated Monday...

Ericsson courts online publishers with mobile payments - Business Center - PC World

Ericsson will soon launch a platform designed to let consumers buy online content such as news stories with the charge billed to their mobile phone rather than other payment methods, such as a credit card.

The platform, called Web PIN Opt-in and due to launch on Oct. 26, is designed to make it easier for consumers to buy online content, said Peter Garside, the U.K. and Ireland director for Ericsson's Internet Payment Exchange (IPX) division...

States weigh campaign rules for the Internet age - USATODAY.com

MADISON, Wis. — To promote his recent campaign for mayor of St. Petersburg, Fla., Scott Wagman bought an ad that popped up online when anyone ran a Google search for his opponents' names.

He was hardly the first to employ the tactic, which didn't stop a rival campaign from complaining the ad did not have a "paid for by" disclaimer. The Florida Elections Commission ordered Wagman to remove it and pay a $250 fine, even though the required disclaimer was longer than the 68 characters allowed in the text of the ad, which wasn't "paid for" until someone clicked on it...

Verizon goes for the 'quad play' jugular - FierceTelecom

Verizon Communications' CEO Ivan Seidenberg may not be worried about landline loss anymore, but the launch of its "quad play" wireless/wireline bundle shows that the service provider is going to do everything it can to retain and attract new customers from defecting to cable.

Available in its Northeast or Mid-Atlantic regions to either FiOS FTTP or DSL customers--subscribers will have their choice of signing on for a full bread "quad-play" offering that includes wireless, TV (FiOS TV and DIRECTV), Internet and home phone services. Verizon, not surprisingly, claims big savings of $59 to $179 per year, depending on what bundle subscribers order...

Sky’s the limit: Flexibility, savings drive growth of cloud computing - The Business Journal of the Greater Triad Area:

These days, it’s more important than ever to have your business’ information on hand, no matter where you are. The ability to pull up a client’s record while at the airport, at lunch or at an off-site appointment can potentially make or break a deal.

At the same time, companies are trying to scale back technology costs while improving their software capabilities...

Time Warner to begin reselling Clearwire service Dec. 1 - FierceBroadbandWireless

Time Warner Cable announced plans to begin reselling Clearwire's mobile WiMAX service in three cities in North Carolina beginning Dec. 1. The cities, which were previously announced, are Charlotte, Greensboro and Raleigh. The company also plans to launch the service in Dallas this year and in Hawaii in early 2010.

The service, called Road Runner Mobile, will start at $40 per month for customers who already have at least one of the MSO's other services. Prices for different bundles will range up to $80 per month. The plans break down into three categories...

NASA invites Twitterers to next shuttle launch - USATODAY.com

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — NASA is inviting its Twitter followers to the next space shuttle launch. The shuttle Atlantis was moved to the launch pad Wednesday for its planned liftoff on Nov. 12. The shuttle will deliver more goods to the International Space Station.

For the first time ever, NASA is holding a liftoff Tweetup. The first 100 NASA Twitter followers who sign up will get a tour of Kennedy Space Center and a front-row seat for Atlantis' launch. Registration opens Friday...

For online bargains, working together yields deals - USATODAY.com

SAN FRANCISCO — From karaoke to kickball, some things just don't work without a group of people. A start-up wants to add one more to that list: Online bargain hunting.

Groupon, whose name combines "group" and "coupon," offers daily deals on products and services, such as tailored shirts, meals at restaurants and paintball games. There is a catch: A certain number of people in a given city must sign up for the deal to go through...

Amazon Fresh delivery — will it go national? - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle):

Amazon.com’s steady expansion of its Amazon Fresh grocery delivery service in Seattle is raising the question of whether the e-commerce giant will ever go national with the business.

By doing so, Amazon.com Inc. would position itself to grab a piece of the multibillion-dollar U.S. grocery industry. But there are dangers. The landscape is littered with dot-com era delivery companies (some of which Amazon invested in) that crashed and burned. And the grocery business is known for its razor-thin profit margins...

Facebook hits 300 million users. What's next for social networking? - washingtonpost.com

Five years from now, will Internet historians signpost the Facebook movie, due out in 2010, as the beginning of the site's end?

"West Wing" writer Aaron Sorkin is writing and producing the flick, called "The Social Network," about Facebook's birth. Jesse Eisenberg will play founder Mark Zuckerberg, and Justin Timberlake is cast as Sean Parker, the first company president...

Online health sites tap into social networking - washingtonpost.com

In fall 2007, during her 12th week of pregnancy, Garance Genicot and her husband, Shub Debgupta, received worrisome news from the doctor: A preliminary test showed there was a strong possibility that she would deliver a baby with Down syndrome.

What now? Thus began their search to get answers, with little idea of where to turn. Genicot would eventually have a healthy baby girl. But the process they went through inspired Debgupta to start a business aimed at helping other expectant parents make better decisions about health issues...

More schools experimenting with digital textbooks - washingtonpost.com

AGOURA HILLS, CALIF. -- The dread of high school algebra is lost here amid the blue glow of computer screens and the clickety-clack of keyboards.

A fanfare plays from a speaker as a student passes a chapter test. Nearby, a classmate watches a video lecture on ratios. Another works out an equation in her notebook before clicking on a multiple-choice answer on her screen...

KaChing lets investors see and mirror experts’ trades - NYTimes.com

SAN FRANCISCO — The trouble with mutual funds is that investors can feel as though they have put their money in a black box. The 90 million Americans with money in funds know little about fees, what securities their money is invested in and who is in charge.

Daniel Carroll, who started investing when he was 15, thinks he has a way to let average investors learn about investing while experts manage the money. In 2008, he started KaChing, a Web site where 400,000 amateur and professional investors manage virtual portfolios. Others have logged on to see what the investors on the site are doing and make the same trades in their own real portfolios...

In Trafigura case, The Guardian and Twitter untie gag order - NYTimes.com

TWITTER has been credited with helping to organize political protests and shine a light on abuses around the world. At the same time, the ubiquitous service has been criticized for disrespecting the sanctity of once-private halls of deliberation — whether a criminal jury’s chambers or an N.B.A. locker room.

In the rarest of cases, apparently, Twitter can do both. That is the view of the editor of The Guardian in London, Alan Rusbridger, who, after prevailing in a legal fight over the publication of secret documents, wrote that “the Twittersphere blew away conventional efforts to buy silence,” as a headline on his column put it...

Foursquare, a social network site, puts users face to face - NYTimes.com

Twitter and Facebook ask users to answer the question: What are you doing right now? But for many urbanites in their 20s and 30s, two other questions are just as important: Where are you, and can I come join you?

For them, a fast-growing social networking service called Foursquare is becoming the tool of choice. A combination of friend-finder, city guide and competitive bar game, Foursquare lets users “check in” with a cellphone at a bar, restaurant or art gallery. That alerts their friends to their current location so they can drop by and say hello...

Calling America's bluff on Internet gambling -- latimes.com

No issue brings out America's talent for self-deception like gambling. To persuade ourselves that we can keep this particular sin under control, we sequestered casinos in isolated places like Las Vegas and Atlantic City reachable only by superhighways, and isolated them on riverboats where not a single card could be dealt or slot lever pulled until the vessel left the dock.

In Mississippi, the law used to say you couldn't have a casino unless it floated on water. After Hurricane Katrina forcibly relocated a few of these sin barges onto land, the Legislature, reading the disaster as a sign from God, revised the law to let them stay put. (The riverboat states, similarly, eventually allowed their floating casinos to remain dockside...)

Unknown 'superpower' hosts dominate Internet traffic, study says - Business Center - PC World

Something extraordinary is happening to the Internet. According to one of the largest analyses of traffic yet undertaken, what the world calls "the Internet" is rapidly turniinternet

According to Arbor Networks, which gathered the data for its 2009 Atlas Observatory Report, scheduled for release next week, the implications of this will be profound...

Mom embraces her CrackBerry - PC World

BlackBerry smartphones and businesspeople go together like, well, office-printers and toner. But BlackBerrys and soccer moms?

Author Kathy Buckworth says BlackBerry devices and busy mothers are a match made in homemaker-heaven, and she's sharing lessons learned from her experience using a BlackBerry over the past year to enhance her and her children's lives in the new book "The BlackBerry Diaries: Adventures in Modern Motherhood..."

WiMax struggles for broadband share - Business Center - PC World

In the mobile operators' race to capture the still largely untapped WiMax market, global analyst firm Ovum said the catch is turning out to be a competition for the niche instead of mass markets, due largely to price and coverage issues the technology must overcome.

Because WiMax struggled to gain a foothold in the mature markets of Europe, North America and Asia, Ovum expected it to gain ground in the emerging markets. This, however, didn't turn out to be the case, for the confluence of several factors including cost, coverage, vendor support, and service provider choices limited WiMax to a niche market...

Stimulus legacy less tangible than WPA | The Columbus Dispatch

Among dozens of jokes The American Weekly compiled in 1939 about the Works Progress Administration was this gem: "I hear your brother was trying to get into the WPA," said one man to another. "What's he doing now?" "Nothing," was the reply. "He got the job."

Oft-derided as a wasteful "boondoggle" by critics of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the WPA is enjoying a recovery act of sorts 70 years later, particularly in the context of today's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act...

The Smart21 communities of 2010

In Dublin, the average resident is between 35 and 45 years of age and eighty percent have a university degree. Home to Fortune 500 companies including Wendy’s, Ashland, and Cardinal Health, Dublin (a 2008 and 2009 Smart21) is determined to maintain its edge in a hyper-competitive global economy. A strategic planning exercise led Dublin to install underground conduits to encourage fiber-optic deployment. This became DubLink, a public-private fiber network for business, government and schools, which spurred aggressive roll-out of e-government services from digital filing of taxes to government video channels...

TV stations start broadcasting to mobile gadgets - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

As if you are not barraged with video choices from your cable system, YouTube, iTunes, Hulu, NetFlix, and Ye’ Olde Video Store in the neighborhood, here comes yet another way to veg out: programs beamed over the air from your local TV station right to your cellphone.

A group called the Open Mobile Video Coalition announced Thursday the completion of a standard that will let TV stations use a sliver of the new frequencies that Congress gave them for high-definition broadcasts for broadcasts to wireless devices...

Pixable wants to get photo albums off the Web - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

These days, most photo albums you flip through are on the Web. Pixable, a new start-up based in New York, is hoping to change that.

The company offers a service that allows users to create photo books from their pictures on the Web. After selecting images from Flickr, Picasa, Facebook accounts or a PC, the final product is assembled by a third-party production company and shipped to the user...

Top iPhone healthcare apps -- InformationWeek

The latest equipment for improving healthcare isn't a multimillion-dollar computer system. It's an inexpensive gadget that many of us have in our pockets: smartphones.

Applications that run on iPhones and other smartphones give healthcare providers and patients information and capabilities they need where and when they need them. The phones and apps are inexpensive and becoming ubiquitous. They provide doctors information and data, and give patients tools they need to take better care of themselves...

Google Trike goes where car can't - Business Center - PC World

Street View on Google Maps allows drivers to see their directions step-by-step, or virtual sightseers to view the hustle and bustle of Times Square from the comfort of their computer chair, but many of the world's most interesting places aren't accessible through the online mapping application.

Google is working to change that with the Google Trike, a pedal-powered vehicle capable of traveling and photographing where cars can't...

Columbus State students earn OU degrees online | The Columbus Dispatch

Shane Osborne will get his degree from Ohio University, but he never has had to leave Columbus State Community College to earn it.

A year-old partnership allows Columbus State students to build their associate degree into a bachelor's from Ohio University -- all from the comfort of their home school...

N.B.A. takes multimedia rule book online - NYTimes.com

The N.B.A. rule book defines a second-degree flagrant foul as “unnecessary and excessive contact,” and leaves the painful details to the imagination. It is much easier to grasp after watching Shaquille O’Neal clobber Rodney Stuckey in midair. Four times. From four different angles. In slow motion.

That, more or less, is the premise behind the latest feature on the league’s Web site. The video rule book (at nba.com/videorulebook), which launches Friday, brings to life more than 100 rules — from traveling to charging to illegal screens — by using video clips from N.B.A. games...

For virtual racers, a league of their own - NYTimes.com

HOW does it feel to go flat out into a turn at Indy with all four tires fighting for grip, or to drift out of the narrow groove at Darlington into an unforgiving swath of slick asphalt? What’s it like to pick your way through the traffic at Daytona with nerves rubbed raw and Dale Earnhardt Jr. inches off your rear bumper?

In the world of virtual racing, aspiring champions — few of whom have ever been behind the wheel of a real racecar — are coming closer than ever to finding out. They’re doing it from their dens and living rooms, using simulation software developed by companies like iRacing.com, a subscription-based online racing service that started last year...

Twitter lists roll out to the public - PC World

When many users start out on Twitter, they follow a boatload of people and build a presence with their tweets. Soon, however, the list of people followed becomes so enormous it's nearly impossible to sort through all the blurbs.

In comes the solution, Twitter's newest feature: Lists. Introduced earlier this month, Twitter Lists does precisely what its name implies: allows users to organize people into manageable lists and even broadcast these groups to friends. For instance, you can start a list of your college buddies, your high school sweethearts, and co-workers (not that anyone tweets at work)...

Amazon rolls out same-day shipping - Business Center - PC World

Last-minute shoppers and instant gratification junkies rejoice! Amazon.com announced that it is going to start offering same-day shipping just in time for the upcoming holiday shopping season.

The service, dubbed Local Express Delivery, will only be offered in select markets though--so if you live in San Francisco you can put away the confetti. You'll still be using the traditional shipping methods. Sorry...

Why small business digs social networks - InternetNews.com

Small businesses don't always have time to futz with the latest technology, but a new survey indicates a good many of them in the U.S. have jumped aggressively on the social network bandwagon.

About 45 percent of 2,000 U.S. small businesses surveyed last month said they have a presence or profiles on Facebook and Twitter to promote their businesses...

Social media is Ford's marketing fiesta - InternetNews.com

LAS VEGAS—Ford Motor said "no thanks" to the federal bailout money, but it's not passing on an opportunity to build its brand and sales through highly-orchestrated social media campaigns on Twitter, corporate blogs and its half dozen different Facebook pages.

During a keynote address here at the BlogWorld & New Media Expo Thursday, Scott Monty, Ford's digital multimedia communications manager, explained that Ford (NYSE: F) has made significant investments in social media campaigns primarily to help change the perception that it's a slow, unresponsive Old World company, unwilling or unable to connect with today's consumers...

Florida is biggest loser in phone tax distribution

TAMPA - When cellular and home phone customers in the United States open their bills each month, they see about a dozen taxes and fees at the bottom.

Some fees support 911 networks or phone service for those with hearing loss. Others, including network access and subscriber line charges, boost an average bill by at least $17 a month...

Universal's Neil: Original videos, word of mouth key for online promotion | PBS

Movie marketers are poised to see a significant boost to their online marketing budgets, according to eMarketer, which predicts studios will spend $2.7 billion by 2013 in online advertising. That's more than double the $1.2 billion spent this year.

Digital LA, a networking organization for online entertainment, marketing, advertising and tech professionals in Los Angeles, hosted a "Movie Marketing: Online, Social, Mobile" panel on September 29 that featured several studio executives. In attendance were Doug Neil, senior vice president of digital marketing at Universal Pictures; Damon Berger, director of digital marketing for 20th Century Fox; Mark Levien, executive director of domestic digital marketing for 20th Century Fox; and Kate Neligan, director of on-demand and digital marketing at Lionsgate...

Broadband Internet as a right

Whether you agree with this as a right or not, it's an interesting development in Finland. It also highlights the problem previously raised here about how the US is lagging behind the rest of the world. How can the US be such a world leader in technology yet allow Americans to fall behind like this? It's time to start pushing the industry towards the modern world. They asked for and received exclusive, competition-squashing privileges by Washington...

Consumer groups: Tell the truth on cell phone, Internet bills

What angers a cell phone or home Internet user more than just about anything else? Being lied to.

But that's just how many consumers feel about the billing practices of their cell phone and home Internet service providers, according to consumer and public interest groups in comments filed Wednesday to the Federal Communications Commission. Among other things, the groups have called for the agency to create a format across industries for service providers to clearly explain pricing schemes.They say the disclosures should prohibit wireless, cable television and Internet service providers from advertising base rates that don't include surcharges and fees that ultimately show up in the bill...

Marathon runners can tweet on their feet | The Columbus Dispatch

Runners have another high-tech tool they can use as they're putting the miles behind them in the 30th annual Nationwide Better Health Columbus Marathon on Sunday.

This year, a computer chip embedded in runners' numbers will tweet their whereabouts and times when they cross five sensors along the route. That means friends and family members can follow runners by phone, Twitter accounts and Facebook pages...

Free apps turn your iPhone into a multipurpose tool - USATODAY.com

The numbers are astounding. Apple has sold 50 million iPhones. More than 2 billion applications have been downloaded from Apple's App Store. At last count, there were more than 85,000 apps available.

Apps are little programs that add fun and features to the iPhone. They're available for just about anything. The following are free apps no self-respecting iPhone owner should be without. To find them, open iTunes, or the App Store app on your iPhone, and search using the name of the app...

Older workers get computer help in job-training program - Business First of Columbus:

Recessions typically send many back to school for new job skills, but those skills have been tough for some seasoned workers to acquire in the latest downturn.

Career counselors say workers in their late 50s and early 60s are experiencing big difficulties getting back into the work force because they lack basic computer skills demanded by employers...

Google plans online book store next year - Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:

Google Inc. said on Thursday that it will launch an online store for electronic books in the first half of next year.

The Mountain View Internet search giant (NASDAQ:GOOG) said it will initially list about half a million books from publishers it has deals with...

Google books highest quarterly profit ever - washingtonpost.com

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 15 -- Google shifted into a higher gear in the third quarter and began to leave the recession behind as the 11-year-old Internet search leader recorded its highest profit ever.

The results released Thursday are the strongest indication yet that the Internet advertising market is bouncing back from its worst funk since the dot-com bust at the start of the decade...

Paris Fashion Week goes online - BusinessWeek

Bad-boy British designer Alexander McQueen's Oct. 6 runway show was the talk of Paris Fashion Week—and you didn't have to be a magazine editor, high-powered buyer, or Hollywood celebrity to get a front-row seat.

A video of the event, featuring a dramatic, aquatic-themed multimedia display and models in reptile-patterned clothing and shoes resembling crab claws, was streamed live via McQueen's Web site. Tens of thousands of fans logged on—so many that the site repeatedly crashed during the show...

Verizon Wireless enrolls at Valemont U - BusinessWeek

MTV viewers who tuned into the season openers of The Hills and The City on Sept. 29 got an unexpected glimpse of another series making its debut that night. Before The Hills got under way and just after The City ended an hour later—during what would ordinarily be a commercial break—Viacom's (VIA) MTV snuck in the first episode of Valemont, a teen murder mystery set on the campus of a prestigious university of the same name, sponsored by Verizon Wireless.

What's unique about Valemont is that it's destined not for TV, but the Web. Producers will air a small number of episodes on TV but continue the series online. In the past, most Web series have remained confined to the Web, often to support TV programming. But in a turnabout for scripted online series, Valemont is getting prime-time billing on a popular TV show before attempting to gain traction online. "We want to use on-air to promote the Web," not the other way around, says Valemont creator Brent Friedman, who's also the brains behind such other Web series as Afterworld and Gemini Division...

Search ad spending improves--and boosts Google shares - BusinessWeek

Hit by the economy early this year, search advertising looks to be on the mend. For the second quarter in a row, two search marketing firms say U.S. spending on text ads on Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft’s Bing improved—or at least got less bad. The results bode well in particular for runaway search ad leader Google, which reports its third-quarter earnings on Thursday.

Analysts have been saying for months that as the economy improves, search advertising is likely to return most quickly among all other forms of advertising. It’s seen as the most measurable, and it’s also easy for marketers to increase spending literally overnight because it’s largely self-service, requiring no advance commitment. But Web companies from Yahoo to countless startups also hope that an uptick in search ads eventually will open up wallets for display, video, and other online ads...

Apple: Finding even more uses for iTunes - BusinessWeek

As Apple closes in on the release of a device usually described as a tablet—most likely in early in 2010—my thoughts turn to the role of iTunes, the online store selling music, books, and downloadable applications for the iPhone and iPod touch.

We don't know the tablet's precise features or release date, but it's reasonable to assume the machine will play music and video and run a range of software applications. It may also be positioned as a Kindle-killing digital reader, and thus display digital books, magazines, and newspapers, presumably sold on iTunes...

Wal-Mart to offer prepaid cellphone service -- chicagotribune.com

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., intensifying competition in the low-cost mobile service market, said Wednesday that it would begin selling prepaid cellphone service starting at $30 a month.

The Straight Talk service, which will include an unlimited calling plan for $45, will be available for purchase at more than 3,200 Wal-Mart stores nationwide beginning Sunday. The $45 monthly plan includes unlimited minutes, unlimited texts, unlimited mobile web access, nationwide coverage and unlimited 411 calls...

The end of the email era - WSJ.com

Email has had a good run as king of communications. But its reign is over.

In its place, a new generation of services is starting to take hold—services like Twitter and Facebook and countless others vying for a piece of the new world. And just as email did more than a decade ago, this shift promises to profoundly rewrite the way we communicate—in ways we can only begin to imagine...

Samsung TVs go direct to Blockbuster on-demand

Samsung has cut a deal with Blockbuster that will allow customers of the former’s combination hub-TVs, or certain of its Blu-ray players, to directly access the latter’s Internet-based on-demand service.

Viewers will also have the option to buy movies through the service...

What do online book browsers want? - InternetNews.com

Online previews of e-books and digital texts lead to more sales -- with romance novels topping the list of the genres most perused online -- according to the wireless periodical delivery firm LibreDigital.

LibreDigital, a digital publishing company that also works with publishers, authors, retailers and social networking sites to offer sample book chapters online, on Wednesday released some data on how readers browsed such content over the past 18 months...

Self-diagnose the H1N1 flu...online - PC World

Feeling sick? Wondering if it's the H1N1 flu or just a regular old go-away-don't-come-near-me, flu?

Face it, your doctor may not be able to squeeze you right in. But you may be able to figure it out using a Web-based self-assessment tool developed by researchers at Emory University in Atlanta. The tool is now available on several national Web sites, including flu.gov , the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and Microsoft's H1N1 Response Center ...

Google to launch remote book downloading platform - USATODAY.com

FRANKFURT (AP) — An executive with Google says the company will launch a new platform next year that lets readers buy books that can be accessed from anywhere, be it a personal computer, cellphone or other platform.

Tom Turvey, the head of Google Books partnership program in North America, Southern America and Asia, said Thursday that the search giant, which launched Google Books in 2004, is "moving to a platform allowing users to buy a book..."

TechLife Columbus: 2Checkout.com: Secrets to Survival - Retail Merchandiser - Redcoat Publishing

Alan Homewood started 2Checkout.com in his house in 1999. In 2001, he added his first employee, and by the end of that year, he and his staff of five moved into their first office. By the end of 2002, they were in their second office, and by 2003, the company had expanded across the entire building.

With a vision to provide a low cost of entry for companies needing to outsource their e-commerce needs, Homewood skillfully navigated the dot-com boom and bust, but those years weren’t without temptation. In 1999, the cost for processing and accepting payments on line was high. Start-up or small businesses often faced up-front costs of $500 plus a monthly fee and a mandatory multi-year contract...

Report: Barnes & Noble expected to introduce ebook next week - FierceBroadbandWireless

Barnes & Noble is expected to introduce its own ebook next week, according to Gizmodo, which posted information on the device.

Gizmodo revealed that most of the device, which is rumored to run on the Android platform, will sport a traditional e-ink display, similar to the Amazon Kindle, but the bottom portion of the device will incorporate an LCD color display with multi-touch technology. The display will be used to browse through book titles...

5 steps to proper setup & feeding of Twitter | Social Media PR Blog

If you’re a member of the Twitter Elite (Twelite? Tweelite?) or even a regular user of Twitter, you probably already know everything there is to know about setting up your Twitter account. This post is for everyone else.

I’m surprised at the number of people who have 1,000+ followers, but haven’t filled out the basic information that Twitter allows. In fact, when I see an account with a mess of followers but no details, I automatically assume they’re playing the Twitter Numbers Game, and don’t follow the person...

Finland: You have the right to check your e-mail

The Finnish Ministry of Transport and Communications has approved a law mandating that all citizens have access to high-speed Internet by next July. Under the legislation, telecommunications companies are now obliged to provide Finland's 5.3 million citizens with at least a 1 megabyte-per-second connection...

Comcast-NBC Universal team-up could kill free Web TV

In July, 158 million people watched free television shows online, according to market tracker ComScore Inc. That number marked the largest audience ever recorded. But could the figures plummet if Comcast Corp. (CMCSA) makes good on its plan to buy the majority stake – worth about $35 billion – in media and entertainment giant NBC Universal? More to the point, could Comcast even get away with monetizing Web TV?

Comcast, the largest cable operator in the United States, very well could put a price on NBC’s Hulu, the go-to site for programming from popular first-run shows such as “The Office” to feature-length films of yore (“Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” anyone?). Such a move would put Comcast in front of its rivals in the race to monetize online video – even the gurus at Google Inc. (GOOG) have yet to make YouTube profitable. However, Comcast could not implement the strategy without substantial resistance from lawmakers...

Riders can track when bus will stop | The Columbus Dispatch

Beginning today, bus riders in the Ohio State University campus area need not wonder when their buses will arrive.

The Central Ohio Transit Authority is launching a $15,000 pilot program of a service it dubs "BUStracker..."

For social networks, it's game on - USATODAY.com

SAN FRANCISCO — Life on FarmVille has had a transformative effect on Laura Phillips. For 45 minutes a day, Phillips, a 41-year-old marketing contractor in the Silicon Valley town of Morgan Hill, Calif., gets lost in the digital game on Facebook, managing crops and animals on her virtual farm. "This is my escape from city life; it's my relaxation," she says. "Since Day One, I've been a complete addict. I lose sleep at night, worrying about my farm."

Phillips is one of more than 56 million monthly users of the game created by Zynga, a company that specializes in social games for platforms including Facebook, MySpace, iPhone and Bebo. FarmVille had just 354 users on June 20, the day after it launched. It's widely believed to be the largest and fastest-growing social game ever...

New F.T.C. rules has bloggers and Twitterers mulling - NYTimes.com

LAST August, Britt Aboutaleb, a New York-based blogger, wrote a post for Fashionista.com, a beauty and fashion Web site, about her visit to a Gap store where “cute boys” served her coffee while Patrick Robinson, the Gap’s lead designer, helped her select a pair of jeans. It was unclear whether Ms. Aboutaleb had received the $69 jeans free, but some readers’ antennae were raised.

In comments about her post, they accused her of being intentionally vague. But her online response to the comments was anything but vague: “How is it less than crystal clear that I went intending to walk away with gifted jeans? Must I put FREE in the title?...”

Real-life lessons in using Google AdWords - NYTimes.com

It used to be that business owners often struggled to afford advertising for their products or services. Google AdWords has changed that by offering an inexpensive way to spread the word. But if you don’t do some careful planning, you can easily find yourself spending thousands of dollars with little to show for it.

Here are the basics: Google AdWords are keyword-driven ads that show up along the right-hand side of a Google search page under the rubric “sponsored links.” People who search for terms related to those you select — say, “widgets for sale” — will see your ad alongside the results of their search. How high up your ad appears on the list of sponsored links will depend on how much you’re willing to spend on your campaign. The more you spend, the higher your ad will rank. Because AdWords is a pay-per-click service, you pay Google only when someone clicks on your ad...

Off the shelf, onto the laptop - Libraries Try Digital Books - NYTimes.com

Kate Lambert recalls using her library card just once or twice throughout her childhood. Now, she uses it several times a month.

The lure? Electronic books she can download to her laptop. Beginning earlier this year, Ms. Lambert, a 19-year-old community college student in New Port Richey, Fla., borrowed volumes in the “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” series, “The Lovely Bones” by Alice Sebold and a vampire novel by Laurell K. Hamilton, without ever visiting an actual branch...

No friends of Facebook's, in a generation that is - washingtonpost.com

Tomek Kott is so stubborn about not joining his friends -- in truth, nearly his entire generation -- on any social networking site that his wife launched a mini-crusade against him.

Exploiting a tactic surely befitting our times, she whipped up a Facebook group last year called "Tomek Kott Must Join Facebook..."

U.S. broadband study says "open access" fosters competition - NYTimes.com

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Open access policies have helped other leading industrialized nations develop more competitive broadband markets by lowering entry barriers, according to a study commissioned by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.

The study, commissioned by the FCC, examines global broadband plans and practices and comes as the agency is devising a plan aimed at increasing broadband usage in rural and urban areas of the United States...

Time Warner Cable to offer 4G service in N.C.

Time Warner Cable’s first launch of its 4G wireless network is set for Dec. 1 in the North Carolina communities of Charlotte, Greensboro and Raleigh.

Time Warner Cable had previously said it would have the 4G service launched in four markets by the end of the year, which in addition to the North Carolina market includes Dallas. A spokesman for Time Warner Cable said Honolulu and Maui, Hawaii, will launch early next year. Time Warner Cable also announced that it plans to launch additional mobile services to customers in the future, such as the ability to program a DVR from a mobile device and the ability to take video content on the go...

New Wi-Fi Direct spec syncs up devices - InternetNews.com

The Wi-Fi Alliance plans to unveil a new specification today designed to let devices connect directly to each other using the popular networking technology.

The proposed Wi-Fi Direct specification is almost complete, and the industry-supported Wi-Fi Alliance, said it expects to begin certifying devices around the middle of next year...

Wal-Mart to expand cellphone service - WSJ.com

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. on Wednesday said it would expand Tracfone Wireless Inc.'s ultracheap Straight Talk cellphone service nationally, in another illustration of the pricing decline at the low end of the wireless industry.

Straight Talk, which offers a monthly plan for as low as $30 and an unlimited-access plan—including text messages and mobile Web access—for $45 a month, was until recently offered as a limited trial service by Tracfone, a unit of America Movil S.A.B. de C.V...

Speakeasy outlines five hottest voice and data trends; launches biggest broadband promotion - FierceWireless

SEATTLE, Oct. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Speakeasy (www.speakeasy.net), a Best Buy company (NYSE: BBY), has compiled a list of what's hot and what's not when it comes to voice and data trends. Not surprisingly, faster, more reliable Internet tops the list.

To that end, Speakeasy is giving away one month of free service, plus free installation, for customers upgrading to Speakeasy's fastest broadband speeds...

Facebook postings lead feds to fugitive | The Columbus Dispatch

SEATTLE -- Maxi Sopo was living the dream of a fugitive abroad, kicking back on the beaches of Cancun by day, partying in the clubs by night.

Then he did two things that are never a good idea when you're on the run from authorities: He started posting Facebook updates about how much fun he was having -- and added a former Justice Department official to his list of friends...