Prince To Sue YouTube, eBay Over Music Use
Prince plans to sue YouTube and other major Web sites for unauthorised use of his music in a bid to "reclaim his art on the Internet". The man behind hit songs "Purple Rain", "1999" and "When Doves Cry" said on Thursday that YouTube could not argue it had no control over which videos users posted on its site. "YouTube ... are clearly able (to) filter porn and paedophile material but appear to choose not to filter out the unauthorised music and film content which is core to their business success," a statement released on his behalf said. YouTube responded by saying it was working with artists to help them manage their music on the site. "Most content owners understand that we respect copyrights, we work every day to help them manage their content, and we are developing state-of-the-art tools to let them do that even better," said YouTube chief counsel Zahavah Levine. "We have great partnerships with major music labels all over the world that understand the benefit of using YouTube as another way to communicate with their fans." In addition to YouTube, Prince plans legal action against online auctioneer eBay and Pirate Bay, a site accused by Hollywood and the music industry as being a major source of music and film piracy.

Google Antes Up $30 Million For Moon Shot
The Space Act Agreement signed by Google and NASA in 2005 isn't just about a plum parking space for the Boeing 767-200 owned by Google's co-founders. It's also about making space more universally accessible. Alan Eustace, senior VP of engineering at Google, announced that Google is sponsoring the Lunar X-Prize, which will award a total of $30 million to teams competing to land a privately funded spacecraft on the Moon. The Google Lunar X-Prize seeks to create a global private race to the Moon that excites and involves people around the world and accelerates space exploration for the benefit of all humanity. In conjunction with that announcement, Google released a new version of Google Moon, the company's browser-based moon viewer. Taking a page from Google Maps, the new Google Moon offers a Street View option. Street View on the moon offers no streets to view and invades no one's privacy, as a few Google Maps Street View pictures did, but it's still a nice touch. Eustace said that Google hopes its space initiatives will renew public interest in math, engineering, and computer science. To satisfy curiosity in matters terrestrial and extra-terrestrial, Google also offers Google Earth, Google Mars, and Google Sky.

Google readies PowerPoint killer
It’s been known for a long while that Google will at some point take on PowerPoint with a web-based presentations package. The breaking news is that the coming-out party for the software is any day now. Called Presently, the slideshow program is likely to be based in part on code Google bought through the acquisitions of Zenter and Tonic Systems earlier this year. Call it a PowerPoint killer or PowerPoint clone but, with Presently, Google now has a suite of the main productivity tools office dweebs spend one third of their lives in. That said, the jury is still divided on the question of whether cloud-based apps are a match for the disk-based opposition.

Online video popularity keeps climbing
People in the U.S. have steadily increased the amount of time they spend watching videos online and Google's YouTube remains by far their preferred video site. In July, almost 75% of U.S. Internet users watched videos online, up from 71.4% in March. The monthly time spent watching videos went up to an average of 181 minutes per viewer in July from 145 minutes per viewer in March. People in the U.S. are also watching more video clips. In July, the average user watched 68 clips, up from 55 clips in March. Overall, almost 134 million U.S. Internet users watched a little over 9 billion video clips in July, up from 126.6 million people and a little over 7 billion clips in March. In July, Google ranked as the top provider of video clips, serving up 27% of the total -- almost 2.5 billion clips -- most of them via YouTube, comScore said. Yahoo nabbed a distant second place, serving up 4.3% of the clips. Fox Interactive Media, the News Corp. Internet division that includes MySpace.com, came in third with 3.3%. Viacom (3.1%) and Disney (2%) rounded out the top five. Google also ranked first in July in unique video viewers with almost 68 million, followed by Fox Interactive (35.8 million), Yahoo (35.3 million), Time Warner (26.6 million), and Viacom (22.6 million), comScore said.

Scientists warn of 'vocal terror'
Computers could mimic human speech so perfectly that vocal terrorism could be a new threat in 10-15 years' time, scientists suggest. In the future, it may be possible to mimic someone's voice exactly after recording just one sentence. Such technologies would pose a danger if it were not possible to verify who was speaking, researchers believe. Scientists were predicting the future at the British Association (BA) Festival of Science in York. Worrying scenarios envisaged by the researchers included a phone call, apparently from your bank manager, requesting you to confirm details of your account. If the call actually came from a computer able to mimic the bank manager's voice flawlessly, your account could then be emptied by the people operating the computer. Fraudsters are already making this kind of call; but the new technology could make them much more convincing. It might become easier to make prank calls as well. The terrorism aspect would come in if the technology were used for more malicious purposes, such as someone taking over a communications network for a country and broadcasting a speech apparently from the country's leader.

Ban cellphone use for teen drivers
A message from the state of California to its 16- and 17-year-olds: Dnt txt n drv — thx. A law signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will require those teens to put down all cellphones and other electronic devices while driving. Older drivers will be able to use hands-free devices but minors won't enjoy that luxury — in part because of the popularity of text-messaging among teens. The law barring cellphone use by drivers under 18 will take effect July 1, as will the law restricting cellphone use among older drivers, which the governor signed last year. Violators will be fined $20 for the first offense and $50 for subsequent offenses. Both laws include exceptions for drivers who need to make emergency calls. Schwarzenegger's signature means California joins 15 states and the District of Columbia in banning the use of wireless communication devices for teenage drivers. Nearly a dozen other states are considering similar action, according to the American Automobile Association. The governor cited statistics by the California Highway Patrol that cellphone use is a primary cause of accidents caused by distracted drivers.

Net gains for tiny Pacific nation
An atoll in the South Pacific has come up with a novel way of making money via its domain name .TK. Tokelau may only have 1,500 inhabitants and be a two-day boat trip from its nearest neighbour but selling its .TK domain is reaping benefits. The Dutch entrepreneur who bought the address now offers a free domain name service in return for targeted ads. The deal has allowed Tokelau to add 10% to its GDP as well as gain PCs and net access for residents. When Joost Zuurbier, the founder of Dot TK, decided to invest in a country level domain name in 2001 he had a choice of four unregistered addresses including ones for Palestine, East Timor and Pitcairn. The South Pacific .tk address was the most appealing but it was a long process to convince the overseer of the net's addressing system - the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) - that they had a valid case. Now there are more than 1.6 million Dot TK domain names registered and it is adding around 10,000 each day. Registering a .TK domain is free although users must agree to receive targeted banner and text advertising. The Dot TK company gives an undisclosed amount to Tokelau from every .tk sales that has allowed the tiny nation to add 10% to its economy. For Tokelau the partnership with Dot TK has offered a new way of communication to a nation that had previously relied on expensive satellite telephony and, before 1994, radios to speak to each other. Now many of the inhabitants use free voice-over IP telephony services.

South Korea boasts world's most advanced mobiles
South Korea's advanced networks and strong manufacturing base are turning the country's mobile phone market into one of the most sophisticated in the world. The country's mobile carriers have all rolled out high-speed CDMA2000-1X EV-DO networks, and are exploring new technologies like WiMax and HSDPA. South Korean consumers can choose between almost 500 different phone models. More than 16 million phones were sold to the country's 49 million citizens last year. The country's leading mobile phone makers, Samsung and LG, have been able to build on the strength of their home market to expand overseas, observers say.

Bond car beats iPod and YouTube as UK's coolest
A fast car with a James Bond image held onto its place atop a list of the coolest brands in Britain in a new survey. Aston Martin nudged out Apple's iPod music player and video Web site YouTube in the 2007 list of the top 500 coolest brands in Britain. Although much of the top 20 places in the list were dominated by the online, technology and gaming categories, Aston Martin's profile has been boosted by the success of the latest Bond flick Casino Royale. Apple's iPod music player was runner up to Aston Martin and its software iTunes just made it into the top 20 at 19th place. Apple, which declined to comment on its success in the list, was voted the seventh coolest brand in Britain. YouTube, the video web site owned by internet company Google came third place in the survey. Google, which was the only web-based company to make it into the top 20 in 2006, placed fifth place, one up from last year. Google officials said they welcomed the news but declined to comment officially on the ratings. For the hippest holidays, Britons are eschewing European countries for the more exotic with Japan and Brazil heading the list of coolest international destinations. Despite London not making the grade, many of its attractions and venues are considered among the coolest in Britain. The Tate Modern museum is the coolest attraction and the report points to the gallery's "continually innovative programme of exhibitions and installations" as a key factor behind its success. British men are more likely than their female counterparts to perceive electrical equipment as cool, while women consider food and drink brands such as Green and Black chocolate or Ben & Jerry's ice cream as cooler.

College offers YouTube class
Pitzer College this fall began offering what may be the first course about the video-sharing site. About 35 students meet in a classroom but work mostly online, where they view YouTube content and post their comments. Class lessons also are posted and students are encouraged to post videos. One class member, for instance, posted a 1:36-minute video of himself juggling. Class members control most of the class content and YouTube watchers from around the world are encouraged to comment.

Average user rating

   (0 vote)