Music Group Defers Fees for Small Webcasters
A group backed by the record industry that collects Internet music royalties said it would defer new copyright-payment rates for small Webcasters who claim the new payments would bankrupt them. SoundExchange, which collects and distributes royalties from Webcasters and satellite radio, said the offer was for Webcasters with annual revenue of $1.25 million or less. SoundExchange's latest efforts follow mounting pressure and activity in Congress, where legislators have introduced bills to annul the pending royalty-rate increase, which they say threatens the fledgling industry. "Although the rates revised by the [Copyright Royalty Board] are fair and based on the value of music in the marketplace, there's a sense in the music community and in Congress that small Webcasters need more time to develop their businesses," said John Simson, executive director of SoundExchange, which collects royalties on behalf of artists and big music companies like Warner Music Group Corp. and Vivendi's Universal Music. An advocate for Internet radio operators criticized SoundExchange's offer, however. "A proposal like this would doom small Webcasters and kill large Webcasters," said Jake Ward, of SaveNet Radio Coalition.

More than 105% of people buy music
People were able to make multiple choices. According to a recent survey conducted by the Greenfield Online team, more than 64% of people bought their music from shops while 41% downloaded their tunes from the Interweb. This means that 105% of people bought music this year. Of course, five% could be made up of multi-dimensional quantum particles which have a nasty habit of doing all sorts of things when they are not observed, but you think someone would have noticed them buying records. The 'Fact of the Week' survey is made up of 1,000 Internet respondents who answer questions online. Since people get paid for providing this information it would seem to suggest that either Greenfield made a howler when it sent out its informative press release about music buying, or someone has worked out a way of making a bit of extra cash by hacking into the automatic survey system.

Half of Wi-Fi hotspot money is wasted
Wireless hotspot usage is climbing, but more than half of the money spent on ad-hoc hotspot access is wasted, according to a survey by Wi-Fi roaming company Trustive. The company said its research showed that half of the users surveyed were connected for 30 minutes or less per session, and more than a quarter of sessions were 15 minutes or under. With most hotspots charging by the hour, basically you're wasting half your money.The problem is even more acute for businesses, because most hotspots require payment by credit card, which means the IT manager has no control over expenditure as the user simply pays it themselves and then charges it as expenses. The answer, he claimed, is to use an aggregator - such as Trustive, Boingo, or iPass - which not only lets you roam across hotspot networks, but which charges by the minute or second, so you don't pay for unused time. Over 100 hotspot operators of all sizes responded to the survey, along with 500 users.

CBS Buying Wallstrip
CBS has bought Wallstrip, an online company whose Web site mixes finance with humor, to add to its daily financial news Web broadcast. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Wallstrip, which also produces blogs about financial news, will retain a separate identity, CBS said in a statement yesterday. The network will work with the creators of Wallstrip.com to develop Internet programs and information that can be sent to mobile phones and other devices. The acquisition will increase the original Internet video offerings produced by CBS’s interactive unit. CBS has agreements with more than 10 companies, including AOL and YouTube, to distribute its shows online. It is also an investor in the video Web site Joost. Wallstrip.com’s content is distributed through channels like YouTube, Google Finance and Apple’s iTunes store to a predominantly young male audience.

Europe slashes roaming charges
Europeans will save at least 50% on the cost of using their mobile phones while abroad after a landmark deal agreed on Wednesday. The cost of making and receiving calls while in another European Union country will be slashed from mid-August following the vote by the European parliament. The decision to cap lucrative roaming charges marks a significant and controversial intervention by the EU into a previously lightly-regulated market. The move is a rare example of an EU law that is popular with consumers and was agreed in the face of fierce national and industry opposition. Under the deal backed by MEPs in Strasbourg, mobile users will pay a maximum of €0.49 a minute, before VAT, to make a call while travelling in another EU country. Roaming fees vary widely across the union, but this figure is roughly half the typical existing charge. The price of an incoming call while roaming will be capped at €0.24 a minute, before VAT. For months, the pro-consumer law seemed unlikely to succeed in time for the summer holidays, with powerful operators such as Vodafone arguing that regulation was unnecessary.

Ireland gets wireless broadband
Personal Broadband is to build a mobile broadband network across Ireland based on the iBurst technology, making use of its two radio-spectrum licenses. The network, which will be available for corporate customers, will be capable of 1MB/sec. Personal Broadband's licenses both cover a 20MHz band between 1785 and 1850MHz. One comes from Ofcom, for Northern Ireland, and the other from ComReg, for the Republic. They were snapped up pretty cheaply (£352,000 for the NI license, and £139,000 for its license in the Republic), and come under the new technology-neutral licensing, where companies buy up the frequency and use it as they please. Since its 2004 trials in Oxford as "Personal Broadband Australia", little has been heard of the company. But it has been quietly running an iBurst test site in Belfast, and trying to find some radio spectrum to play in.

China abandons blog identity plan
The Chinese government is backing down from plans to force millions of Chinese bloggers to register their real names. There are an estimated 20 million bloggers in the country and the plans announced last year provoked huge protest from Chinese internet users. At the time, the government said it thought the system would make bloggers more responsible for their behaviour. But Chinese bloggers condemned the proposal as an attempt by the government to control information. China regularly blocks websites that do not agree with government views. The new code encourages bloggers to register with their real names and personal details, and promises to provide better services for those who do so. Bloggers have now broadly welcomed the new code.

Geeks put girls off tech careers
Microsoft said a survey it conducted showed that many female IT professionals reckon women are put off pursuing a career in computing by its geeky image.. Of the women surveyed, 50% said they were viewed as "nerdy" by other women because they were in the tech industry. The long hours culture in the industry also puts them off with late nights and weekend working not exactly an attraction. After women have had babies, most thought materity leave would damage their careers. Male geeks also think female geeks are less techy than themselves. The women also feel excluded from social gatherings of the geeks. There is hope, then. Surely most women would go stark staring bonkers if they socialised down the pub with the geeky boys who talked about nothing but ASP, gadgets and gizmos, while sinking endless pints of real ale and guffawing like drunken idiots.

Hot Tools To Make Work Easier

TalkPlus is a hot company reinventing calling around the world with two new products that makes it possible for people living abroad, small businesses, multinational ventures, and military families stationed oversees to easily and affordably stay in touch internationally.
TalkPlus Country Connect is a subscription service that gives you access to international phone numbers that ring on the phone of your choice in the US – mobile, home, or work phone. When your friends call that number, they only pay the cost of the local or in-country call and you pay the TalkPlus Country Connect rate of 2.7 cents per minute. Activated in less than 5 minutes, the service features advanced voicemail and carrier-grade voice quality. With no download required, you can sign up immediately online or over the phone.

TalkPlus Global lets you make international calls from your mobile or landline phone. You simply enter your phone number at www.TalkPlus.com, and the number of the person you would like to call. TalkPlus calls you first, then the person you’re calling, connecting you both. Calls are activated on the web, but executed over the regular phone line, so no mobile application is required and call quality is the high level that you expect from your voice carrier. As a prepaid service, there are no contracts, monthly fees, or hidden charges.

Jott.com, which lets users dictate a cell phone voice message, convert it into text and send it to multiple users through the web, e-mail or phone. The service, currently free and in public beta testing, converts voice to text with the assistance of human transcribers. But plans are afoot to add capabilities that could create cash flow. Founded in April 2006 by Microsoft veterans John Pollard and Shreedhar Madhavapeddi, Jott lets users import contacts from Outlook, Gmail, AOL and Yahoo and other popular e-mail programs.

Conference calling is a $2 billion business in North America alone. But it’s not perceived to be a sexy space, and Gaboogie, which brings some next generation smarts to conference calls if making sexier. Gaboogie starts with a beautifully simple “why didn’t I think of that” solution to this problem: the service calls you. No password is needed because if you’re not supposed to be there, you don’t get called. Participants simply press ‘1′ to join, ‘2′ to decline, and ‘3′ for ‘later.’ The service makes the adjustments for time zones, too. And if you get disconnected, the number is on your caller ID to redial. Calls are setup through the website and it’s easy to check the schedule online. Moderators have a dashboard to monitor calls in progress. You can set participation in a call to “lecture” which lets you simply listen. Calls can be recorded and shared as RSS feeds or MP3 files, all with a single click. Attendees can be added on the fly by simply dragging them from the phonebook.

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