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DEVEY'S MEDIA SNAPSHOTS 4.3.06

At Last, Movies to Keep Arrive on the Internet

New York Times

Today 6 major movie studios plan to begin selling movies over the Internet that users can download and watch anytime. New movies will cost around $20-$30.

Mitsubishi Harnesses Colored Lasers to Produce New-Generation Lightweight HDTV

New York Times

Mitsubishi announced its plan to develop a television that uses colored lasers to display images on a thin lightweight flat screen, which will surpass the quality of images seen on film.

America Online Changes Name to AOL

Wall Street Journal

America Online has officially changed its name to AOL because most users already refer to the company by the initials.

Mobile Games: Way Beyond Phone Tag.

BusinessWeek

Games that can be played on your cell phone are hot and getting hotter.  CEO of Digital Chocolate, a company specializing in mobile games, sheds some light on the emerging trend.

Mapquest unveils navigation help on mobile phones

Reuters

Mapquest can now be accessed via your cell phone, complete with voice directions, text, and maps.  The program, entitled MapQuest Navigator will be cheaper than built-in car navigation systems.

eastpicks: 3/24/06

Get Lawrence Lessig's "Free Culture" for Free

What a bargain -- you can stream it or download it free.

Micropersuasion:  Using the Power of Many to Fight Spam

"Blue Frog is adding a new twist to the war on spam by aggregating users into a community of passive aggressive activists."

Jeremy Zawodny:  Why Google Finance Makes Me Sad

"There's a light at the end of the tunnel. All hope is not lost. Unlike a small number of Google product launches, this one didn't blow the doors off. It's no Gmail or Google Maps. Yahoo! Finance isn't out of the game. But I sure as hell hope this is a wake-up call!"

eastpicks: 3/19/06

The New York Times Magazine:  Kos Celebre

A talk with super-blogger Markos Moulitsas Zúniga (Daily Kos).  Learn about his Army training, how much he earns, and what he thinks of celebrities who blog.

Wired: Now That's a Flash Mob

"Mass street drinking sessions fuelled clashes between Spanish youths and riot police early on Saturday, leaving 80 people injured and 70 arrested in Barcelona and Salamanca, police said."

Edge  (via Slashdot):  Kevin Kelly on Wikis and Science

"'Wikiscience' is leading to perpetually refined papers with a thousand authors.  Distributed instrumentation and experiment, thanks to miniscule transaction cost, will yield smart-mob, hive-mind science operating 'fast, cheap, & out of control'.  Negative results will have positive value (there is already a 'Journal of Negative Results in Biomedicine'). Triple-blind experiments will emerge through massive non-invasive statistical data collection -- no one, not the subjects or the experimenters, will realize an experiment was going on until later. (In the Q&A, one questioner predicted the coming of the zero-author paper, generated wholly by computers.)"

eastpicks: 3/18/06

Petition:  Save the Merc

Online petition asks readers to protect future of The San Jose Mercury News.  The ownership and fate of the paper are still TBD.  Also see Jay Rosen's note at Press Think.

AP:  Goolge Avoids Surrendering Search Requests

"A federal judge on Friday ordered Google Inc. to give the Bush administration a peek inside its search engine, but rebuffed the government's demand for a list of people's search requests — potentially sensitive information that the company had fought to protect. "

CNET:  A Map That Tracks Where You've Been

"For all you jet-setters out there, here's a handy tool to keep track of which states and countries you've visited. Yes, this can be done by coloring in a paper map, but who uses those anymore?"

Neville Hobson:  Another Offline Editor

"Following my earlier post about RocketPost, I’ve just found out about another offline blog editor for Windows - BlogDesk."

Smart Mobs:  The New World of Blogjects:

"The three major characteristics of a blogject are its sense of space combined with its ability to track where it has been, its knowledge of its encounters and previous experiences, and more importantly, its ability to participate in an assertive way to social networks."

eastpicks: 3/17/06

AP:  "Google to Complete AOL Investment in Q2"

CNET:  Ballmer -- IBM in the Crosshairs

New York Times:  France Weighs Forcing iPods to Play Other than iTunes

Ross Mayfield:  CEO Blog

Neville Hobson:  Communications Measurement 101

Media Snapshots: 3/14/06

Google, U.S. Set For Court Face-Off Over Search Data

Wall Street Journal

Justice Department lawyers will press their case against Google Inc. today by arguing in federal court that consumer privacy won't be violated by the release of millions of company search records.

France Weighs Law Forcing iTunes Access Beyond Apple's iPod

Wall Street Journal

France is pushing through a law that would force Apple Computer Inc. to let consumers download songs from its iTunes online music store onto devices other than the computer maker's popular iPod player.

Microsoft to offer free parental Web monitoring

Reuters

Microsoft is offering parents a free service to help control and monitor what their children are doing online in its upcoming Windows Live offering of Web services.

BMW to start serial output of hydrogen-powered car

Reuters

BMW expects to release the first hydrogen-powered car (a 7-series) in 2010. The cars will be able to switch between burning standard gasoline and hydrogen.

Keith's Media Snapshots 3.13.06

Searching the World, From

Jersey City

New York Times

Accoona.com could be the next Google.  The privately held New Jersey company claims to find search results that other search sites such as Google miss.  Acconna’s advertising model is also turning heads.

Anonymous Source Is Not the Same as Open Source

New York Times

Author Randall Stross critiques open source websites such as wikipedia, arguing that any bozo can alter the text with no apparent credentials.

Google to Sell Access to Full Texts

Wall Street Journal

Google plans to sell full-text books online to consumers, through a program called Book Search.  Google is inviting publishers to submit books.

PC Sales Expected to Slow in 2006

Yahoo News

Shipments of PC’s will grow slower in 2006 according to market researchers.

The Nets New Age

BusinessWeek

New technologies and start-ups may change to face of the Internet.  This innovative Internet boom is referred to as Web 2.0.