Category: Tech News

Wal-Mart Now Offers DRM-Free Downloads But Still Has Issues with Firefox

August 21, 2007 Bob Caswell No Comments

Wal-Mart is trying to step up its competition with Apple iTunes. The retail giant, which is already the No. 1 seller of recorded music because of CD sales, will now sell digital downloads of songs without any copy protection (DRM) via walmart.com for 94 cents a track, or $9.22 an album. The service will launch with music from two of the major record labels: Universal Music and EMI.

The company plans to continue offering its existing WMA protected format for other music downloads, which cost 88 cents a track but won’t work with iPods and plenty of other digital music players. Here’s what Kevin Swint, Wal-Mart senior director for digital media, had to say, “As we consistently strive to help our customers shop smart at Wal-Mart, our new ‘DRM-free’ MP3 digital tracks give them the ease and flexibility to play music on virtually any device at a great value.”

Apple, Music, Tech News

Airline Virgin America Offers Satellite TV & Text Messaging From Every Seat, But Is That Enough?

August 6, 2007August 20, 2008 Bob Caswell 3 Comments

Beginning Wednesday, Virgin America will offer daily flights linking San Francisco to New York and Los Angeles. Virgin is apparently trying to compete with the major U.S. airlines both in terms of price and features. Tickets between San Francisco and New York are competitive at just over $250.

And the airline hopes to be an attractive alternative due to its on-board amenities. The seatback entertainment system allows you to enjoy satellite TV, radio, and games. You can even order food, create a playlist from a library of 3,000 digital songs, and send each other text messages.

Gadgets, Tech News

The Irony of the Most Popular Anti-Virus Having the Worst Customer Service

August 3, 2007August 20, 2008 Bob Caswell 4 Comments

Symantec Computerworld has an interview with Symantec CEO John Thompson, which discusses, among other things, the poor customer service the company has been dishing out lately. Apparently, it took hold times of over an hour for the anti-virus giant to realize something had to be done.

In answer to the question, “Have you sufficiently addressed related customer service issues and long telephone waits?” Thompson replies: “We think we have by overstaffing, but that’s not a sustainable model, so we have to fix the technology underpinnings… Wait times from their peak of well over an hour are down to now under two minutes.”

Internet, Privacy, Tech News

14 Countries Have More Cellphone Subscribers than People

July 27, 2007 Bob Caswell No Comments

Cellphone subscribers in the 30 countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) reached close to 933 million in 2005, meaning 80 subscribers per 100 people. Interestingly enough, there are 14 countries which have more cellphone subscribers than people with Luxembourg having the highest penetration rate: 157 subscribers for every 100 people!

The United States is below the average with at least 15 countries that have a higher penetration rate. South Korea and Japan appear to be the only countries which have adopted more third-generation (3G) phones than 2G phones. See below for a chart (via the Economist):

Gadgets, Tech News

Nintendo Profit Quadruples, Wii Continues to Outsell Competition

July 25, 2007August 20, 2008 Bob Caswell No Comments

Compared to the same period last year, Nintendo sales more than doubled while net income jumped to ¥80.3 billion ($668.82 million) from ¥15.6 billion. Nintendo’s strategy of bringing gaming to the masses is paying off. Approximately 9.3 million Wii consoles have been sold world-wide as of the end of June. Wii sports seems to be…

Gaming, Tech News

Amazon Profit Triples, Consumers Love Free Shipping & Harry Potter

July 25, 2007August 20, 2008 Bob Caswell 1 Comment

Amazon reported that profit more than tripled in the second quarter and was optimistic enough to raise its forecast for the year. And the sales momentum is set to continue, especially considering more than 2.2 million copies of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” were ordered on the site in advance of the July 21 release. That sets the record for Amazon’s largest new product release ever.

The company’s CEO, Jeff Bezos, is attributing the success to its membership program, Amazon Prime. Incidentally, I tried out Amazon Prime for the first time this past month (if you haven’t used it before, you can usually sign up for a one month free trial here). Here are the details:

Amazon, Tech News

Erasing or Changing Emails Even After They’re Delivered: Good Idea?

July 24, 2007 Bob Caswell No Comments

BigString is a company set on eliminating “email sender remorse” by allowing you as the email sender to control emails even after they’ve landed in the recipient’s inbox. I was intrigued both from a technical perspective (i.e., how does it work?) and from a sociological perspective (i.e., what does potentially needing this technology tell us about ourselves?). The company even hosts a weekly contest where it asks for your worst emails (sent to wrong person, reply all mistakes, email while drunk, etc.) and awards the most embarrassing ones with cash prizes. So, first off, here’s how it works:

Internet, Privacy, Tech News, Web 2.0

Will Google Come to Microsoft’s Consumer Privacy Party?

July 23, 2007 Bob Caswell 2 Comments

SearchTraffic So the big news today comes in the form of a Microsoft press release explaining a strategic alliance of sorts between Microsoft and Ask. The two companies are “joined together in the commitment to call on the industry to develop global privacy principles for data collection, use and protection related to searching and online advertising. The companies will work with other technology leaders, consumer advocacy organizations and academics to come together and join them in working on the development of these principles, which could include developing and sharing best practices to provide more control for consumers.”

Microsoft, Privacy, Tech News