Bob Caswell

The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) and the Financial Times report that Sony may introduce a video download service as soon as the first part of 2007. The idea is to target those consumers that are purchasing movies online through iTunes and other services. The downloads will, of course, work nicely with Sony’s PlayStation Portable (PSP). Movie watching on PlayStation Portables hasn’t really been that popular, but apparently Sony doesn’t want to wait around till it is. As it is, the company is already late in the game.

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The Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California hosted a symposium last month to commemorate the 35th anniversary of Intel’s microprocessor. But that’s only the beginning of milestone anniversary dates in computer history this year. As a result, anniversary celebrations seem to be on the rise in Silicon Valley. Some are attributing this to the computer industry coming to terms with no longer being as young as it once was. Whatever the case, here is a list of the most notable computer innovation anniversaries for this year:

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Backing up your computer is never something you want to worry about it; you wish it would just happen. With that perspective, I previously reviewed two online backup services: Mozy and Carbonite. Mozy had more customization options while Carbonite had a slicker interface and offered unlimited backups.

But Mozy’s back with the release of Mozy Unlimited, and the company today has impressed even Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal. It’s the little things that seem to make the difference, such as the option to have all your files sent to you on DVD or Mozy keeping multiple versions of your files for 30 days (Carbonite doesn’t have the DVD option and only keeps the latest version of any file).

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The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) has an article out that indirectly outlines Nintendo’s comeback into the gaming world. Accordingly, U.S. retailers estimate that nearly 1.5 million Wiis will be sold before Christmas, about twice as many as the PS3. Nintendo explains that “Demand, as you can see from the reaction of consumers, has been greater than even we had hoped for.”

Sony’s response? “We feel very confident that the PlayStation fan is going to wait until
they can get a PlayStation 3…If they do pick up a Wii, it’s as more of a novelty,” says Sony spokesman Dave Karraker.

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Wow. The Blogosphere is all a buzz today on what seems to be a battle for which you’re supposed to pick a side. The major stories have to do with YouTube allowing CBS to filter comments on its videos and have them on a separate page (rather than right below the video itself) and the New York Times adding, that is, “surrendering to” social news (meaning, you can submit NYTimes articles directly to Digg, Newsvine, or Facebook from within an article).

Mix that with the lingering rumor that Fox, Viacom, CBS, and NBC might have a YouTube competitor in the works, and you have all sorts of opinions flying!

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The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) has an excellent article discussing email addiction and what to do about it. It’s the type of thing you laugh about with words like “CrackBerry” until you realize that professionals (including time-management experts, professors of psychiatry and family studies, and family counseling therapists) have weighed in on the subject and consider it closely related to Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. Luckily, they’ve compiled a 12-step program for the email addict:

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A new study out this week claims that users that browse newspaper websites are more likely to be online shoppers. Newspaper website browsers apparently spend quite a bit more online than your average online shopper. Readers are more likely than other Internet users to spend “upwards of $1,000 online annually.”

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Tis the season for online advertisers to attract new customers. If you have a website, blog, etc. and are looking for the perfect time to build exposure while freeloading, then these offers are for you. This is likely to be the best compilation of free offers available for some time; if interested, make your move now, as most these offers expire within a month. Here are the details and links for each company and offer:

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