Full FeedPandora (and other internet radio) to stay afloat…for now
For a while it was starting to look rather iffy as to whether or not Pandora, as well as internet radio in general, was going to be able to continue, or die a sad death. The cost of keeping it afloat was simply getting too high in the face of the streaming rates for Internet radio. But now, artists, record labels and webcasters have finally come to an agreement, according to Pandora’s Tom Conrad.
“Pandora is finally on safe ground with a long-term agreement for survivable royalty rates,” Conrad says.
So, what does this long-term agreement consist of? SoundExchange agrees to a 40-50% reduction in the per-song-per-listener rate, or Pandora giving up a 25% share of its US revenue, whichever is higher. The new agreement runs through 2015.
Your social security number may not be as secure as you think
We all know to keep our social security number private, and not share it with the masses, right? After all, if the wrong person gets a hold of it, that could be a very bad thing. Our social security number (SSN) is like the magic little key to our financial world, and other critical parts of our lives. It can open or close doors for us. And if misused by another, like in the case of identity theft, it can break us.
Well, what if that number is not as secret and secure as we would like to think? What if there were a way for wily would-be hacker/thieves to steal our SSNs and have a field day with our identity? And no, I don’t mean just through the old break into an institution and get their records method. Nothing as blase as that. I mean actually being able to figure out what your SSN is, based on your date of birth and where you were born, using a specific algorithm. Yes Virginia, it is possible.
Samsung breaking Intel’s rules with their new netbook
It seems that Samsung is going all wild and daring with their upcoming netbook offering. It’s going to be Nvidia Ion platform based, with an Intel Atom N-series CPU and an 11.6-inch display.
By having the screen be that size, Samsung breaks Intel’s restrictions on netbook panel size, which maintains that they must be 10.2-inches or smaller. The rebels. Lenovo also broke the rules when they launched their 12-inch Intel Atom N270-based netbook last month. Lenovo also used the Nvidia Ion graphics chipset.
As a slap on the hand for breaking the rules, Intel has canceled the vendors’ preferential pricing for the Intel Atom N270 CPUs, sources revealed. Intel would not comment on the situation, citing “customer confidentiality,” but they did say that “it has long been pro-competitive.”
Hmmm…now is Intel actual doing all this punishing because of screen size or because of the whole competition to Intel’s own low-power graphic chipset that is sometimes used in netbooks, and here the Nvidia Ion was used instead in these machines?
Come on, it’s a netbook. It’s a difference of not even an inch and a half in Samsung’s case. Let’s find bigger things to argue about, kids.
Read: [digitimes]
RelatedGadgetell Guide: Make your computer a lean, clean machine
Dust. It is definitely not your friend when it comes to your computer. Do you actually take the time to clean it out or is your computer a cavern of dust galore, slowly killing your computer’s insides? Here is a quick guide to help you get rid of some of that icky stuff. Now, keep in mind, there are probably more ways to do this than what I’m going to tell you about. But, I’ve been doing it this way for over 12 years, and it’s always worked for me, and I’ve never damaged or destroyed a component.
Hail to the red, white, and blue gadgets
With Independence Day fast approaching here in the States, I thought it would be a nice time to have our own red, white and blue display. Of gadgets, of course. Ready for some bright, fun toys? Here’s a rundown of five I found.
1. The ScandiPhone
This thing has apparently gotten great reviews from almost all the people that have used it on the shopping sites I checked out. Although, even I have to admit, I’m a tad confused by the shape and “how?” of it all. But, regardless, if you are looking for a funky addition to a room, in an “I’m not shy” design and color, this may be for you.
T-Mobile Dash 3G: Sneak peek and Review
There has been lots of buzz about the latest brainchild from T-Mobile and Gadgetell was lucky enough to get its hands on one of these before it hits the shelves. The T-Mobile Dash 3G, designed by HTC—does it live up to its speedy namesake, or do we find it lagging behind?
Wikipedia gets behind the NY Times to help hide story of kidnapping by Taliban
It was hidden for seven months—almost unheard of in the news world. A kidnapping by the Taliban of a reporter to the NY Times was hidden and covered up by both the print and online press. The thing is, in this case, it was done for his safety.
David Rohde, along with his interpreter and their driver, was kidnapped in Afghanistan on November 10, 2008. In response to the action, executives at the Times decided to keep it quiet, believing that publicity about the event would increase Mr. Rohde’s value to his captors, and in turn, lower his chances of survival.
Usually, when a decision is made to keep something quiet, a call is simply placed editor to editor from one publication to another. The trouble in this day in age in keeping news quiet is the obvious. We have the Internet. News travels at the click of a button whether someone wants it to or not.
And that is just what happened in this case. Or, what kept trying to happen anyway. Just days after Mr. Rohde was kidnapped, it began showing up on his Wikipedia entry. Thus started the Wikipidia editing battle.
The Video Bay to be setting sail soon
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum! Ye makers of The Pirate Bay are apparently not planning to go sailing into waters unknown even amidst all the current legal fiascos they are facing. They are launching a new site called The Video Bay to be in competition with YouTube. No one ever said pirates were the meek sort.
Now, this little venture was apparently first started quite some time ago. As in, two years ago, but it seems they have decided to finally forge on. A few days ago, according to Slashdot, Peter Sunde appeared via Skype at the Open Video Conference in NY and said they were gearing up to launch something new. Of course at that point speculation ran rampant. What could it be?
Then, some changes appeared on TVB site. And the the site suddenly stated for a while,
“To stay in the spirit on which TPB was founded and using the Latest Technology, TVB aims to use the new HTML5 features, more specifically the video and audio tags with the ogg/theora video and audio formats. This site will be an experimental playground and as such subjected to both live and drunk (en)coding, so please don’t bug us too much if the site ain’t working properly.”
I went and tried to check out TVB, which is currently in the roughest of beta modes, but couldn’t get anywhere other than seeing that the home page did indeed exist. Apparently, this is a change from fairly recently, when the curious were able to tack random numbers on the end of the page URL to see movies that are on the page for beta-testers. Of course, even that process was pure hit or miss. You would, for example, be typing in a “21” after thevideobay.org/, without having any idea what movie might be showing up for you to view. This little trick is no longer working at time of writing. Now, when you do that, or click on any link, including the one to register, it asks you for your username and password.
So, when is it going to go live for the public? That’s anyone’s guess. Including The Video Bay. They told TorrentFreak that “there is still a lot of work to do behind the scenes. The encoder is not finished yet and the design is also a work in progress.” And, “it will be done when it’s done, in the future.”
One thing that should also be noted, they say they will not be implementing P2P technology to be streaming the videos. The site definitely has potential become a key player in the video streaming area. It’s going to be a site where users can share whatever - no censoring. I can see heads in the movie industry steaming already.
Read: [slashdot]
RelatedDouble the YouTube: Now you can upload 2GB videos
Fans of YouTube should be happy, since they have just doubled the size of uploads for users from 1GB to 2GB. The change counts for regular account holders, no fancy account status needed. According to the company, the increase is to compensate for users’ HD uploads.
This is a pretty nice move on their part considering they only recently made the move to 1GB from 100MB back in September 2008. One thing to take into account is that even with the size increase, any non-partner videos still remain limited to 10 minutes in length.
For those people that do make use of uploading HD videos to share and embed, YouTube has made the process easier than it was previously. All you have to do now is add “&hd=1” (without the quotes) to the YouTube URL, and if possible, it will play in HD. Or, you also have the “Play in HD” option you can use when you are configuring things to embed your code to copy and paste it somewhere.
Apparently one user, Barry Schwartz, actually had his account upload limit raised to a whopping 20GB, even though a YouTube spokesperson said the limit is 2GB. So, whether this is a freakazoid anomaly or a privileged few are being handed some kind of “Oh, you’re lucky. Try this on for size accounts” remains to be seen.
Regardless, double the size? Thanks, YouTube. I’m sure that will make lots of folks rather happy. Because like they say, size matters.
Read: [newteevee]
RelatedFacebook makes yet another Twitter move: Changes in Publisher
Maybe they should just start calling it “TwitBook” because Facebook sure seems to be trying to adapt their interface to everything Twitter. Their latest redesign sees them making some changes to their Publisher tool (this used to be the status update box). Now, users can choose just how public (or private) they want their shared content to be. “Public” as in everyone—you don’t even have to be friends.
There actually still seems to be some confusion as to how public “Everyone” really is. Facebook doesn’t clarify the term on their blog. Some people are stating it means your content will actually be Google-able, others say it probably means just searchable within Facebook. You can also choose to feed your updates to friends, friends of friends, networks, or just certain friends.
Experience what it’s like to download at unlimited speeds from a massive collection of over 800 Terabytes of user uploads. You’ll max out your Internet connection downloading a file in… Continue Reading »
Black Friday 2009
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Palm Pre Information & Updates
Palm just introduced their next-gen smartphone, the Palm Pre, and next-gen operating system, Palm webOS. Gadgetell's got the latest Pre and webOS information and news for you right here.
