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Category: Tech News

Radiohead Responds to Download Stats: Says They’re False

Posted on November 8, 2007August 20, 2008 By Bob Caswell 214 Comments on Radiohead Responds to Download Stats: Says They’re False

Radiohead BandRadiohead has decided to respond to the previous coverage of their social experiment of offering their album online at a name-your-own price. According to a study (by a third party, comScore), only 38% of downloaders paid something while the 62% majority paid nothing. And of those paying, most paid less than $4. While it was fun to speculate on what this could mean for the music industry, turns out any speculation was based on more speculation (comScore’s). Here’s what Radiohead had to say:

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Music, Tech News, Web 2.0

Results of Radiohead Experiment: 38% of Downloaders Pay an Average of $6

Posted on November 6, 2007August 20, 2008 By Bob Caswell 9 Comments on Results of Radiohead Experiment: 389 of Downloaders Pay an Average of $6

RadioheadAbout a month ago, we mentioned Radiohead’s social experiment of offering fans a choose-your-own-price way for downloading the band’s latest album (with the option of free). As I had mentioned, simple economics dictates that the most likely price in this case will be the minimum. And I was right, sort of.

Only 38% of downloaders paid something while the 62% majority paid nothing. Globally, the average price paid was $6; the average in the U.S. was around $8. But those numbers ignore the freeloaders. Including the “no pay” crowd, the average price was around $2.26 globally and $3.23 in the U.S. Of those who did pay something, 17% paid below $4 (the most common category) but 12% paid between $8 and $12, a price in line with iTunes or Amazon.

Was it a success? Yes and no, depending on how you look at it.

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Music, Tech News

What the “Gphone” Means for Consumers: Good News & Bad News

Posted on November 5, 2007August 20, 2008 By Bob Caswell 4 Comments on What the “Gphone” Means for Consumers: Good News & Bad News

Google CellphoneSo Google today announced its plans to be the latest force in the cellphone industry. The gist of the press release is that Google has partnered with 34 companies to develop and release an “open source” operating system, user interface, and applications. What this means in terms of the highly anticipated Gphone is best explained in the words of the Google engineer in charge of the project, Andy Rubin: “We are not building a GPhone; we are enabling 1,000 people to build a GPhone.”

This is really only news if you’re a developer. As for what this means for technology consumers specifically, see below for a compilation of the most relevant and interesting quotes surrounding the latest news of the pseudo-Gphone:

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Gadgets, Google, Internet, Microsoft, Tech News

United States Responsible for 5x More Spam Than Any Other Country

Posted on October 31, 2007 By Bob Caswell No Comments on United States Responsible for 5x More Spam Than Any Other Country

Sophos, an internet-security company, released numbers on the amount of spam sent per country between this past July and September. And the United States is responsible for about 30% of it (see chart below). Despite legislation such as the CAN-SPAM Act, the U.S. hasn’t been able to do much to stop spam. And spam is getting more complicated: fake e-cards, virus-infected PDF attachments, and worthless MP3 files or ringtons are the latest methods. In fact, according to anti-spam company MXSweep, nearly one in ten spam e-mails attach MP3 files or ringtones.

I guess I wouldn’t know much about this. I use Google’s gmail and rarely see any spam.

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Cyberlaw, Microsoft, Privacy, Tech News

Even More Gphone News: Google in Advanced Talks with Verizon & Sprint

Posted on October 30, 2007August 20, 2008 By Bob Caswell 4 Comments on Even More Gphone News: Google in Advanced Talks with Verizon & Sprint

GphoneThe latest info from our good friends those “people familiar with the matter” is that Google is in advanced talks with two U.S. cellphone operators: Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel. The talks, of course, are revolving around the two companies offering new Google-powered mobile phones. Google has to get some major wireless operators to sign on to this project if it’s to reach its rumor-generated goal of getting Gphones in front of consumers by the middle of next year.

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Gadgets, Internet, Microsoft, Tech News, Web 2.0

Google Unveiling Gphone Plans In Two Weeks & Wants to Change the Cellphone Industry

Posted on October 29, 2007August 20, 2008 By Bob Caswell 37 Comments on Google Unveiling Gphone Plans In Two Weeks & Wants to Change the Cellphone Industry

Google CellphoneThe Wall Street Journal (subscription required) is quoting “people familiar with the matter” in stating that within two weeks Google will announce plans to bring Google-powered phones to market by the middle of next year. Apparently, Google’s goal is “[T]o make applications and services as accessible on cellphones as they are on the Internet.”

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Gadgets, Microsoft, Tech News, Web 2.0

Web Video Quality: Companies Are Starting to Care

Posted on October 9, 2007 By Bob Caswell 3 Comments on Web Video Quality: Companies Are Starting to Care

BitTorrentYouTube made popular the idea of video on the Internet even if it has always seemed to be pretty low on the list of options in terms of picture quality. But now certain companies have realized that just because computers can be another way to watch video doesn’t mean the general population is content with fuzzy, low quality in a tiny window. Today there’s news of at least two companies focusing on Internet video quality: BitTorrent and Move Networks.

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Media, Tech News, Web 2.0

FriendFeed: A Solution to Fragmented Social Networking?

Posted on October 5, 2007July 13, 2008 By Bob Caswell 9 Comments on FriendFeed: A Solution to Fragmented Social Networking?

FriendFeedAnyone familiar with digg, Netflix, del.icio.us, flickr, Picasa, LinkedIn, Last.fm, StumbleUpon, reddit, etc. knows that any sort of social networking at any of these sites (that is, sharing / commenting / befriending) happens in isolation. Want to see what your friends are up to in terms of music listening, picture uploading, movie watching, career changing, or Internet bookmarking? Well, clear your schedule because you’ll need the time to log in to your dozen or so favorite social networks. Being social has never been so fragmented and time consuming.

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Amazon, Internet, Tech News, Tech Reviews, Web 2.0

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