Top Items:
Reuters:
MovieBeam offers first HDTV online movie rentals — NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A video on demand movie service spun out of Walt Disney Co. is introducing on Tuesday the first U.S. home delivery service for high-definition films, backed by top Hollywood and Silicon Valley partners.
RELATED ITEM:
Saul Hansell / New York Times:
As an Alternative to a Trip to a Video Store, Movies Through a Set-Top Box — Will people pay $230 and hook a new gizmo up to their television sets so they do not have to drive to the video rental store? — That is the question to be answered by MovieBeam, a service being introduced in 29 major markets today.
apple.com:
Apple Begins Shipping MacBook Pro — MacBook Pro Features Faster Intel Core Duo Processors Up to 2.16 GHz — CUPERTINO, California—February 14, 2006—Apple® this week will begin shipping the new 15-inch MacBook™ Pro notebook computer featuring the new Intel Core Duo processor …
Discussion:
Gizmodo, Guardian Unlimited, Paul Thurrott's Internet Nexus, OSNews.com and The Apple Core
RELATED ITEM:
AppleInsider:
Apple tables plans for Mac mini iPod dock once again — Apple Computer, for the second time in less than two years, appears to have scrapped plans to include a built-in iPod dock with some of its forthcoming Mac mini desktop computers, AppleInsider has gathered.
Martin LaMonica / CNET News.com:
Oracle snags open-source database company — Oracle said on Tuesday that it acquired open-source database company Sleepycat Software for an undisclosed sum. — The database giant said Sleepycat's open-source Berkeley DB database will complement Oracle's existing line of closed-source databases for embedding within applications.
RELATED ITEM:
Niall Kennedy / Niall Kennedy's Weblog:
Seeking new horizons — I am leaving Technorati to pursue new opportunities. I submitted my resignation letter this morning and I will be a free agent on March 1. I joined Technorati in February 2005 excited about changing the world of weblogs and introducing people to a new kind of search.
Om Malik / Om Malik on Broadband:
Camino Sends OS-X A Valentine — When it comes to browsers, there are many options for Apple users such as Safari, Opera, and Firefox. And then there is Camino, a browser that combines the visual and behavioral experience of a Mac with the speedy Gecko core. Originally called Chimera, it has been nearly four years in the making.
RELATED ITEM:
Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols / desktoplinux.com:
Google Windows apps coming to Linux — Google and CodeWeavers Inc. are working together to bring Google's popular Windows Picasa photo editing and sharing program to Linux. The program is now in a limited beta test. If this program is successful, other Google applications will be following it to the Linux desktop, sources say.
Declan McCullagh / CNET News.com:
Google's ad sales tested in court — Another lawsuit is poised to challenge Google's lucrative advertising-based business model by arguing it encourages unlawful use of trademarks as keywords. — The parent company of a payday loan provider called Check 'n Go has sued Google in federal court in Ohio …
Google Blogoscoped:
Google Changed Another Help Entry — Google in response to their new censorship policies in China (in which they agreed to remove results unwanted by the Chinese government) changed another help entry. This is what was available before, live until at least late January:
Jenstar / JenSense:
AdSense beta testing third party tracking in image ads — Selected members have begun to receive an email from Google about the new third party tracking AdSense beta they will begin testing. This is a true beta (there were some publishers questioning if it really was from the AdSense team.
Nik Cubrilovic:
The Firefox Threat - IE7 Is Getting Things Right — Yesterday I wrote about my frustrations with Firefox - especially the memory leak issues and the fact that with iteration and iteration of new releases the core stability issues were not being addressed. The core issue, as also picked …
Dsifry / Sifry's Alerts:
State of the Blogosphere, February 2006 Part 2: Beyond Search — In Part 1 of the State of the Blogosphere report, I covered the overall growth of the blogosphere. Today I'm going to cover the growth of the blogosphere as media, and discuss some of the emerging trends that deal with handling information overload.
Discussion:
B2Day, Guardian Unlimited, Joho the Blog, ben barren, Peer Pressure, Newsome.Org, Center for Citizen Media, Voidstar, Somewhat Frank, Bloggers Blog, A View from the Isle, Search Engine Watch Blog, The Blackfriars Blog, Burningbird, Smalltalk Tidbits …, Boing Boing, Raw, AdPulp and www.josschuurmans.com
Joseph Kahn / New York Times:
In Rare Briefing, China Defends Internet Controls — BEIJING, Feb. 14 — Chinese authorities are determined to stop "harmful information" from spreading through the Internet, but the controls it places on Web sites and Internet service providers in mainland China do not differ much from those employed …
Discussion:
Fast Company Now
Pamela Parker / ClickZ:
MSN Tempts Would-Be Searchers With Prizes — You'd think the lure of easy information and good search results would be enough to attract people to a search engine. But MSN is dangling prizes and charitable donations in front of would-be searchers, hoping that those who try its engine for the winnings might just hang around.
Discussion:
Thomas Hawk's Digital …, PR Newswire, Search Engine Journal, Clickety Clack, InsideMicrosoft and PaidContent.org
