Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

“Pics show beauty topless, kissing married TV star”..
“Reality show couple calls it quits"…
“Star is skin and bones on red carpet”...or if you don’t like that anorexically-inclined headline, try “Skinny actress frumpy in white"…
“One busy, hot mama tells how to get in shape quickly"…

At 10:30 p.m. PST on July 15, 2008 - the end of a day that saw more stomach-churning stock market volatility, more violent death in Iraq and Afghanistan and closer poll results in the presidential race - the front page of AOL showed some, shall we say, interesting priorities among those who are making the news judgment calls and authorizing the headlines at this major portal.

Not that Yahoo! or MSN, viewed at the same time, were in danger of being confused with PBS’s “Newshour with Jim Lehrer.” It’s just that AOL seemed to be taking most of its news cues lately from its sister entertainment/celebrity gossip website TMZ.com. 

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In the hostile world of today it is good to know that anything you say, or type, is safe from the prying eyes of family member’s, government organizations or even just a nosy person of the street. However, unfortunately, that is not always the case. A recent News.com survey into privacy revealed some pretty interesting results, the most notable of which is that AOL AIM is the most secure with no logs and secure logging-in and secure conversations, and Facebook Chat is the worst as they refused to answer lots of questions and also have an insecure log-in and insecure conversations.

One of the questions asked was “Have you ever received a subpoena, court order or other law enforcement request asking you to perform a live interception or wiretap, meaning the contents of your users’ communications would be instantly forwarded to law enforcement?”

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AOL is no longer carrying feeds from satellite radio provider XM now that contract the two companies had has expired. Presumably this also means that subscribers to XM’s online streaming service will no longer have access to AOL Radio. The announcement has been particularly upsetting to listeners from outside the U.S. and Canada, where XM service is unavailable. AOL radio was the only way for them to enjoy the over 80 commercial free music channels XM provides. XM does offer online streaming of their channels, but the service is once again, available to U.S. residents only. In an effort to make up for the loss, XM is offering a special deal to AOL subscribers in which they can sign up for the online service for just $2.99 a month. The company is currently awaiting FCC approval for its much anticipated (and for some, dreaded) merger with rival Sirius Satellite Radio.

Via [CrunchGear]

AOL has announced 3 new developments in its drive to bring various services to customers via their mobile phones. The new AOL MyMobile services have been launched in beta, the AOL Mobile Search now enables easy access to Blackberry devices and the expansion of the AIM TEXT across all major carriers in the U.S.

The AOL MyMobile is a suite of mobile services that provides customers with personalized access to AIM, AOL Mail, AOL CityGuide, Moviefone, MapQuest, AOL Local Search, AOL News, Weather, Sports and AOL Pictures. All these services will run seamlessly together on users mobile phones. AOL MyMobile was built using Action Engine’s on-device portal technology. AOL MyMobile beta can now accessed by visiting http://wap.aol.com/mymobile on your mobile phone and selecting the “Get AOL MyMobile BETA” option.

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AOL announced its intention to purchase social networking site Bebo for $850 million making many wonder what exactly was Microsoft thinking buying a 1.6% stake in Facebook for $240 million.  Using some advanced math skills, that puts the suspected value of Facebook at $15 billion.  But is that fair?

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I, just like many others of you, may remember back to the day when Netscape Navigator was the easiest and most simple way to surf the net. This was before Mozilla or Safari or even the humble IE were used by the masses. The ‘internet’ experience would have been: fire up the modem, listen to the screeching as it connects, then click on the familiar Netscape icon.

Of course, these are also the days when Netscape dominated 90% of browser use. Recently, it has plummeted to 0.6%. AOL bought over the company that started in the mid-90s, but now the company have stated that there will be no support for their products as of March 1st 2008 and instead are suggested current Netscape users make the move over to Firefox or Flock. Thanks for the good times, Netscape!

Read [BBC]

Joining the “openness” bandwagon led by Google’s Android to remove the barriers in the mobile industry, AOL has announced at the Mobile World Congress its own AOL Open Mobile Platform.

It will basically enable outside developers to create innovative mobile applications that can run on major mobile device platforms such as BREW, Java, Linux, RIM, Symbian, and Windows Mobile. Here’s the technical version as explained by AOL:

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The Times of London are reporting that Yahoo! is seeking to resume merger talks with AOL as a way of defending itself from Microsoft’s takeover bid. Previous talks broke off after disagreements about price, but the unwelcome takeover bid by Microsoft has spurred hopes of renewed negotiations. Yahoo says they are rejected Microsoft’s offer because they feel it undervalues the company and won’t consider it unless they are offered at least $12 billion more. A source close to Yahoo!’s thinking told The Times: 

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Time Warner has announced it plans to split off its Internet access business from its website and and cut 100 jobs at its corporate headquarters. In addition, it is looking at selling its remaining shares of Time Warner Cable.  The company’s 4th quarter revenue fell 32% compared with the same quarter a year ago. There was no specific timeline given for the moves.

Read [The Washington Post]

While the whole world is all tied up about Microsoft’s shocking bid to enslave Yahoo!, Time Warner’s Internet arm AOL is also busy with its own acquisition of online affiliate marketing network buy.at. As usual, the company did not disclose the financial terms.

Just like the Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, AOL wants to boost up its Internet marketing operations and achieve its overall goal of becoming the one-stop shop for online advertisers.

Unlike the popular pay-per-click and display advertising models, buy.at is an online marketing network powered by a commissioned-based scheme. Here, advertisers will only pay its affiliates or Web publishers once a visitor responds to its ad and take the necessary action such as purchase. 

Read [Reuters]