A Laboratory of the Future Human Experience
Apple’s App Store launched nearly five years ago and they are counting down to the 50 billionth downloaded app. In celebration, the company will reward the person who downloads that app with a $10,000 App Store gift card. In line with this, Apple also revealed its updated lists of all-time top iPhone and iPad apps.
Continue reading… “Apple unveils top iPhone and iPad apps of all time”
Facebook is gaining momentum in the video realm.
Facebook is already the largest photo site in the U.S., and now it is climbing up the charts for online video. Facebook now ranks as the third largest video site on the Web in terms of unique viewers according to comScore, with an estimated 51.5 million people on Facebook watching a video during the month of July. The month before it was No. 6. It passed Microsoft, Yahoo, and Viacom. Only Vevo (with 62 million monthly viewers) and YouTube (158 million) are bigger.
It is only a matter of time before Facebook passes Vevo, but can it ever take the crown from Google/Youtube?
Continue reading… “Facebook climbs to no. 3 video site in US”
One in 14 downloads is malicious says Microsoft.
You might want to think twice the next time a website says to download new software to view a movie or fix a problem. There’s a really good chance that the program you download is malicious.
Continue reading… “1 in 14 Downloads by Windows Users is Malicious”
Media Piracy in Emerging Economies, an academic report on pricing and copyright infringement in poor countries, comes to the conclusion that high media prices (as measured against the average wage in poor countries) are responsible for piracy — that is, when you control for social attitudes towards copying, enforcement differences, and so on, the largest predictor of whether a country will have rampant copyright infringement is whether the media in that country is priced high relative to peoples’ earning power.
To make their point, the authors have released the report under a provocative “Consumer’s Dilemma license” that charges escalating rates depending on whether your IP address is in a rich or poor country.
Continue reading… “Poor Countries Have More Piracy Because Media Costs Too Much — Report”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XK2dwTVi-aQ&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
Game For Cats has a title that’s about as literal as they come. It’s a game. For cats.
Continue reading… “The iPad Game for Cats”
Sales of digital downloads slows down.
In 2010, the growth in sales of digital downloads, which only last year had been marked and promising, slowed to a trickle, as more consumers plugged into Internet radio and video streaming sites.
Continue reading… “Growth in Digital Download Sales Slows to a Trickle”
There are very few things this writer loves about France, but here are two: government-subsidized healthcare, and, now, government-subsidized music. That’s right, the country of Debussy and Gainsbourg will now (partially) pay for its young citizens’ digital music.
Continue reading… “France to Offer Government Subsidies for Music Purchased Online”
e-books are on the rise!
So Barnes & Noble just let loose its financial results for the last year (ending May 1), and things are looking pretty rosy, at least if you take their view of them. The main point is that the e-book store is gaining popularity and online sales are solid, while brick-and-mortar sales are, predictably, in decline. B&N’s CEO, William Lynch, chose to highlight this little statistic:
In fact, in just a brief 12 months since we launched the Barnes and Noble ebookstore, our share of the digital market already exceeds our share of the retail book market.
Windows: It may not stick around that long once the powers that be find out, so if downloading and watching Hulu videos offline could help you out, grab StreamTransport. The tricky little app provides full-quality captures of streaming shows and movies.
Continue reading… “StreamTransport Grabs Hulu Videos for Offline Viewing”
By the way, which one’s Pink?
Pink Floyd has won a court ruling that will put an end to places like iTunes selling its songs individually. The band feels that their music can only truly be appreciated in the album format, from start to finish, and it never liked people being able to pick and choose what songs they wanted to download.
The gist of the ruling—The High Court in the UK, to be exact—is that EMI, the band’s record label, won’t be allowed to sell individual songs from its catalog online. That means, from now on, you’ll only be able to buy The Wall as a full album online, and not merely “In The Flesh?” and “The Thin Ice.”
That’s the debate: should consumers be allowed to buy whatever song they want without having to buy an entire album?
Continue reading… “Pink Floyd Only Wants You To Download Their Entire Albums, Not Individual Songs”
The survey also indicates gender differences in what is morally acceptable behaviour, with women being overall less approving of viewing pornography, using dating services, downloading copyrighted material and flirting with others on the internet.
The results are the second in a series of UMR polls on morality. One thousand New Zealanders were surveyed online in November. The poll indicated 41 per cent of New Zealanders think it is morally acceptable for a single person to view pornography, compared with 13 per cent who see downloading copyrighted video as acceptable and 18 per cent who consider downloading copyrighted music acceptable.
StarShipSofa has, in one day, done what no other SF podcast has done before. In another unprecedented move, StarShipSofa has put out all seven Nebula Short Story 2008 nominees, all available as free audio podcasts for your listening pleasure.
The Nebulas are a very special event in the SF world and I wanted the StarShipSofa to mark this occasion by doing something unique for this year’s awards.
I wanted to put out all the stories nominated in one day so people can, straight away, have them downloaded back to back… sitting on their iPod and, for the next few hours, submerge themselves in SF stories of the very best calibre. All for free.
Continue reading… “Every Nebula-Award-Nominated Story As A Free Podcast”
