The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Number (ICANN), the group in charge of setting Internet addressing guidelines, shot down a proposal to give adult websites their own “.xxx” domain. Apparently, certain groups from both the adult-entertainment industry and various religions (first time working together?) weren’t in favor.

more…

Apple today is introducing a new offering at its iTunes store. Called "Complete My Album," the new service allows you to purchase the remaining songs of an album at a discount if you’ve already purchased singles from that album. So, for example, if you have already bought two songs for 99 cents, you could buy the rest of the album for $8.01.

Will you go back to buying music the old way? Will this help boost sales of albums? Probably not much, but it’s still a great option, anything that provides us with more flexibility in our music purchases is a good thing.

more…

The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) has no less than two articles out today on Internet video. The first talks of a new study that is skeptical of where it can go while the second focuses on built-in chatting while watching (see picture to the right). Let’s take a closer look:

more…

Just last week we saw reports of how the music industry was in trouble (CD music sales down by 20% compared to last year), only to be followed by this week’s news: Electronic Arts wants in on the music label action. Of course, the company plans to operate its full-service music label differently when compared to your typical label.

more…

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) announced that it has reached 116 settlements after going after 400 students / computer users at 13 universities just a few weeks ago. More settlements are expected, as the RIAA sent out another batch of letters last week.

more…

Last week, 40,000+ students at Purdue (including myself) received a warning email. In short, stop illegal downloads, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is coming. Purdue is advising all computer users to remove or at least partially disable any peer-to-peer file sharing software on their computers.

more…

                                                    
Although PayPal already offers some limited functions for mobile users, it is working on a new payment service for cellphones to be launched later this year. The idea is for participating e-commerce sites to work with PayPal in developing a version of their website for cellphones with a PayPal payment option built in. A leaked screenshot (see below) shows how it might work/look using Papa John’s Pizza as an example. So you could easily order your pizza using your cellphone without talking to anyone. Cool idea, but will it take off?

more…

Earlier this week, Dell released a new product line, the EC280, with a price of approximately $335. This is part of a new initiative by Michael Dell himself to boost sales of PCs to consumers globally. Dell explained that the EC280 "was designed with China and other key markets in mind," so that the company could "adjust our business to meet the needs of customers in fast-growing and emerging markets." So far, sales of the EC280 are limited to China, but Brazil and India are other countries where it will be sold shortly.

more…

Novell announced the opening of Novell OpenCourseWare this week at their their annual BrainShare conference. This is the first time open
education is being used by a for-profit training services group. What Novell is doing shows that corporations can take the idea of “openness” beyond
open source software and into open educational resources. Novell currently has 10 courses available, from Getting Started with the Novell Linux Desktop to Geeko Animation Videos. It will be interesting to see if other companies follow suit.

more…

I haven’t watched TV in over a year. I’ve watched television programs, but I no longer watch TV. I buy or rent programs on DVD, download shows on bit torrent, or watch them on YouTube or on the networks’ own sites.

The side affect is that I no longer watch commercials. Out of all of the above options, the only time I see a commercial is on the networks’ sites. I haven’t missed them. Commercials might very well be on the way out. It is now quite easy to watch entire television shows without seeing a single commercial.

more…