IT-Code-News: IT News HeadLines (Digital Trends) 20/08/2009

Bose Tweaks Noise Reduction in QuietComfort 15 Headphones

If you live or work in lcoations with a ton of extraneous mouse (the author look meaningfully out the window at the rumbling carpet cleaning van 15 yards away), noise-cancelling headphones can be a godsend if you need to be able to hear details in audio or music, rather than just recognize bits and pieces as they go by. To that end, high-end audio company Bose has announced its QuietComfort 15 Acoustic Noise Cancelling Headphones, which improve on the active and passive noise reduction and cancellation technologies in earlier models to deliver improved audio quality across a wide range of frequencies in even noisier environments. "We believe the QuietComfort 15 headphones offer a combin

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Microsoft Takes LifeCams Widescreen and High-Def

Microsoft's hardware group has long been making mice, keyboards, headsets, and other peripherals for computer users, and today the company announced a new addition to its LifeCam series of Webcams, the LifeCam Cinema. The LifeCam targets the high-definition video crowd, claiming to be the first consumer Web cam to offer a native 720p sensor and a 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio, and promises sharp pictures and high frame rates even in low-light conditions. "When we started working on LifeCam Cinema almost a year ago, we were motivated by the fact that new computer displays were pred

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YouTube Expands Time Warner Video Deal

In its bid to expand beyond the universe of user-generated video, Google's online video sharing service YouTube has expanded its deal with Time Warner to bring programming clips from a variety of the company's cable television networks to YouTube. Time Warner networks CNN and HBO already post shorts and clips to the site, but the expanded deal will include additional material from CNN, as well as content from Cartoon Network and TNT. Neither company disclosed financial terms of the deal, but the companies will share in advertising revenue derived from the clips. Material on offer wi

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Privacy Suit Slams Facebook

A new suit filed against Facebook in Orange County alleges that the social networking site violated California law by reposting copyrighted images without approval, and also letting personal information of minors to be posted and shared without parental consent. The suit has been brought by three adults and two minors. In part, the suit alleges: "Facebook's interface and web site architecture causes users to believe and understand that personal information and photos uploaded to Facebook are private." "Users may be unaware that data they submit, or that data others submit about them, may be extracted and then shared, stored, licensed or dow

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More Companies Blocking Social Networking Sites

A new report from ScanSafe states that the number of companies blocking workplace access to social networking sites has risen by almost 25% in the last six months, to 76%. That’s far more than those blocking access to shopping sites – that stands at 52% - while 51% cut off sports sites and 58% don’t allow webmail access from work. The data was culled by spending a month looking at over a billion Web requests. Also among the sites often blocked are travel sites, job sites, and those for restaurants and bars. So is it about increasing productivity, or simply trying to cut down on the possibility of malware creeping into networks? A bit of both, according

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Americans Give Thumbs Down To Mobile Phone Music

Americans, it seems, don’t particularly want music on their mobile phones. At least, that’s the conclusion of a new report by Forrester Research. It found that only 10% of American adults listen to music on their phones once a month. By comparison, in the UK that figure is 27%, and 70% in China, where handsets and music go together well. So what are the reasons behind this American rejection? Several, the report concludes. Americans tend to be less savvy when it comes to the capabilities of their handsets, the mobile music options aren’t as wide or as cheap, and also, outside the US fewer people have dedicated portable music players, relying instead on

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MySpace Buys iLike

News Corp-owned social networking site MySpace has been quiet of late, having been hammed into second place by the relentless ascendancy of Facebook. Yesterday, however, MySpace announced that it had bought music discovery service iLike, which lets users listen to and share music across social networks, and is, in fact, Facebook’s most popular music application – although it hasn’t been on MySpace. No one’s giving the exact price, but the rumors are that it went for the relatively paltry figure of $20 million. MySpace CEO Ow

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HTC Touch Pro2

We loved the original HTC Touch Pro. Or wanted to, anyway. Though HTC wowed us with distinct styling, a snappy keyboard, and a downright luscious screen, we could never quite get past how clunky the slow the TouchFlo 3D interface felt pasted over Windows Mobile 6.1. At the end of the day, we just couldn't recommend it. But with a company as prolific as HTC, you seldom have to wait long for a better version. With the second go around on the Touch Pro2, HTC has attentively resolved many of the most annoying issues with the first phone, delivering one of the most livable Windows Mobile 6.1 handsets to date.

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Apple's iTunes Now 25 Pct Of U.S. Music Sales

Almost a year and a half ago, Apple's iTunes store took over the top spot in U.S. music retailing from Wal-mart, and the event was hailed as a bit of a milestone in the development of the digital music business. But iTunes' growth hasn't really stopped there: according to new sales figures from the NPD Group, Apple's iTunes store now accounts for 25 percent of the U.S. music market. And while the audio CD remains the most popular format for music sales in the United States, digital sales are growing at a pace that should have them nearly equal to CD sales by the end of 2010.

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Microsoft Announces Fable III, Takes Fable II Episodic

Microsoft is going to let Xbox 360 users take a shot at gaining (and ruling) a kingdom in Fable III, the next installment of the company's well-regarded fantasy RPG series. Announced at gamescom in Germany, Fable III will be set 50 years after the events in Fable II, as characters take on the role of the child of their hero in Fable II as they sit on the throne of the kingdom of Albion. Instead of following the traditional RPG path of starting as a powerless nothing and working one's way up to top-dog status, Fable III will put players in charge…and then let them make the morally ambiguous, incompletely-informed,

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Garmin-Asus Launches Nuvifone M20 in Asia with Windows Mobile

Joint venture Garmin-Asus has formally launched the Nuviphone M20, a more compact follow-up to the company's first combined phone/GPS device, the Nuvifone G60. The Nuvifone M20 sports a 2.8-inch touch screen display, a 3 megapixel camera, 4 GB of Flash storage, and (of course) connectivity out the wazoo, including 2G and 2G data service along with 802.11b/g and Bluetooth 2.0 wireless networking. However, the M20 also sports something the Linux-based G60 did not: Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, inc

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Microsoft Seeks Stay in Word Injunction

Last week, a U.S. district court in Texas slammed Microsoft for infringing on an patent held by Canada's i4i, ordering Microsoft pay more than $290 million in damages for infringing on a parent covering creating and managing custom XML documents—but more important than the monetary damages was an order that Microsoft stop selling Microsoft Word 2003 and 2007 within 60 days. Microsoft is obviously eager to keep Word 2007 on shelves, and has now asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit for an expedited review of its appeal before the October 10 "stop Word" deadline comes to pass. In its motion, Microsoft

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Features for the Perfect Notebook

With the launch of both Windows 7 and Snow Leopard this holiday season, we may be getting the biggest single refresh of PCs that has ever happened at one time. At the end of September Apple shoots, at the end of October Microsoft shoots, and then for 60 days we have World War III. Because Apple wants to move as many products as it can before Windows 7 ships, and because the Windows OEMs will be fighting tooth and nail not only against Apple but each other for the 60 days of massive sales, the prices, offers, bundles, and deals should be amazing. I know some of what is coming, but I actually haven’t seen my perfect product yet. So I’m going to provide my wish list. I am going to leave the OS dis

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Thursday, August 20, 2009

IT News HeadLines (Digital Trends) 20/08/2009

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