Monday, August 31st, 2009
Apple released “Snow Leopard” its new version of OS X, which it states will be “faster, more reliable, and easier to use” and contains some new updates to core technologies. Some new additions include Grand Central, OpenCL, full 64-bit mode, QuickTime X, and Exchange for Mac users.
To upgrade from a previous version, Snow Leopard will cost $29.
Monday, August 31st, 2009
The iPhone is already popular in China even though it officially has not entered its mobile market. The iPhone can be bought in the underground market and unlocked by software in order to purchase applications. In some estimates, there are already 1.5 million devices in use within China.
With more than 687 million mobile phone users in China–the largest market in the world, Apple is eager to start doing business in the region. The success of the iPhone seems predetermined with so much interest even before its official release in the country. For many Chinese the iPhone is a status symbol–a display of the cutting edge, wealth and coolness.
The research firm IDC has attributed 7% of the iPhone sales to the Asia Pacific region within areas like Australia, Hong Kong and India. (The US is still the largest iPhone market. The iPhone has not however performed as strong in Japan, where the Apple brand does not carry the same golden shine as it does in the US.)
China Unicom is the expected carrier of the iPhone. Apple is nearly conclusion with negotiations with China’s state-owned wireless operator. Apple has also already received one of the technical licenses required by the Chinese Government, but it is unknown how many more licenses it will have to complete. Currently the anticipated release is October 2009.
Friday, August 28th, 2009
Following complaints that Google has unfairly used its dominant market share to deny publishers a fair share of advertising revenue, Italian authorities have begun an investigation into the search giant. Anti-trust concerns will drive the investigation into two Google services: Google’s search engine and Google News service based on a “lack of transparency”.
“Publishers provide much of the content on the Internet, but they get nearly nothing for it” stated Carlo Malinconico, president of the Italian Federation of Newspaper Publishers. (NYTIMES – AUG 2009)
Copiepresse, a Belgium newspaper company, set a precedent for legal action against Google after winning a case which restricted Google from including its content within the company’s news service.
Friday, August 28th, 2009
The European Commission is planning on drafting guidelines that will make it easier to publish manuscripts online for out-of-print works and orphan works. The goal of this effort will be to encourage online business and make information more accessible. The new guidelines will require businesses to acquire single digital copyright covering the European Union rather than having to seek out various agencies within its member states.
Monday, August 17th, 2009
Three individuals, one American and two Russians, were indicted by the Department of Justice on the largest computer crime and identity theft case in history. The three individuals are responsible for hacking into the networks of Heartland Payment Systems–a company that processes transactions for 7-Eleven Inc.; Hannaford Brothers, a regional supermarket chain; and two unnamed national retailers. Over 130 million debit card and credit card numbers were stolen in total in 2007. The hackers did not use the credit cards themselves, instead the numbers were sold online and their buyers used the information to make unauthorized transactions and purchases. The hackers studied lists of fortune 500 companies before deciding on the victim of the attack, and they visited locations of those companies to study which type of payment systems they used. The attack took advantage of flaws in the SQL programming language.
Monday, August 17th, 2009
As Apple has increased rejections of emerging apps that may (directly or indirectly) conflict with its business interests, many of these apps find their way into the market by avoiding the iTunes store.
Much controversy has surrounded some of these rejections by Apple. Perhaps one of the most notably conversial rejections was the Google Voice app, which will now be available to iPhone users via a web browser since the request for distributing the application via iTunes was rejected. Many application developers are not taking such rejection as a final answer. Some of these apps quickly become available via the Jail-breaked/hacked app store called Cydia. Cydia is essentially the blackmarket for applications not allowed into the regular markets. The Cydia app store is both a free package repository and commercial storefront to third-party developers.
Thursday, August 13th, 2009
The Chinese Government has canceled its plans of forcing computer manufacturers to install internet filtering technology into computers sold in China.
The Chinese Government paid 5.85 Million dollars for a vendor to develop software that will monitor computer activities. The Chinese Government claimed that the software was solely to be used to filter out internet pornography and not for spying on citizens.
Li Yizhong, China’s industry and information technology minister, said that it was a miscommunication that installation of the Green Dam software was intended to be mandatory.
There had been a fury of criticism and outrage directed at the Green Dam software. From privacy and spying concerns to a legal issue of copyright infringement against an American company, the Green Dam software suffered a problematic beginning which delayed its launch.
Tuesday, August 11th, 2009
Engine Ready, an Internet marketing company, stated that visitors who click on sponsored links are more likely to buy than those who click on organic search results.
This study may help influence both marketers and buyers about where marketing dollars should be spent: 1. development of a website to rank high in organic results or 2. focus on spending marketing dollars on paid, sponsor link campaigns.
Broken into pure dollar value form, the study attributed a dollar value to each type of web visitor: $2.38 was the dollar value attributed to a visitor that arrived via a sponsored link and $1.35 was the dollar value of a visitor that arrived at a website from organic search results.
In addition to likeness of a visitor to come to a website an make a purchase, the study also suggests that visitors who arrive by paid links will also spend more than their organic search result counter parts.
Tuesday, August 11th, 2009
Google has made available for developer preview a new search infrastructure–”next-generation architecture for Google’s web search”. Google is soliciting comments and feedback on how search results compare to the old structure.
Potentially speed has been improved in this new search model. Relevancy may have also improved in the search functionality as well as size of the Google archive–which in turn will drive more relevant ads.
The URL for the sandbox is: http://www2.sandbox.google.com/
Monday, August 10th, 2009
Microsoft purchased aQuantive and Razorfish, a child company, in 2007. The French advertising company Publicis Groupe agreed to buy Razorfish for $530 million in cash and stock following an auction for that company. Publicis ranks fourth largest advertising/interactive agency worldwide. With the new purchase, Publicis will now generate about one fourth of its revenue from interactive and digital advertising.