Posted on September 24, 2008 by Danny Brown
Leading file sharing website Mininova has released figures that prove the piracy clampdown by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is failing, and in a big way.
Despite heavily publicized details of successful cases against illegal downloaders, it’s clear to anyone without blinkered vision that the MPAA, RIAA and other worldwide regulatory bodies are fighting a losing battle against file sharing websites.
This is compounded with the news that the most popular of these file sharing sites, Mininova, has enjoyed 6 billion downloads since its inception 4 years ago. Hardly the work of an industry in decline, despite what authorities would have consumers believe.
With these figures from Mininova, it’s clear that file downloading is the way forward for new media. It’s also indicative of the amount of consumers pissed off at over-priced movie tickets, CD prices and DVD costs.
Independent music artists learnt a while back that offering their music via digital download offers the best way to expand their audience. Yet still the greedy movie studios and major record labels decry the amount of money lost to illegal download sites.
Perhaps if they got off their well-cushioned high horse and actually spoke to file sharing sites like Mininova they’d be able to offer consumers a direct method of buying their product (Mininova now offers premium deals for publishers, and has enjoyed high success with it). Until they do, sites like Mininova will grow and the studios and labels will continue to be left behind.
Filed under: Tech Time | Tagged: file sharing websites, illegal download sites, mininova, mininova download site, mpaa, p2p file sharing, riaa | 1 Comment »
Posted on September 23, 2008 by Danny Brown
Bad news for Google and their new information portal Knol. Far from being the next step in the takeover of the digital world for the search engine giant, Knol could be going the way of flop search engine Cuil as a lesson in how not to launch a product.
While Knol is still in Beta stages at the moment, it’s clear that there are problems with the system already. Admittedly, the idea behind Knol was a good one - offer a viable alternative to Wikipedia and actually paying experts writing the Knol stuff via Google’s own ad-revenue-share program. Unfortunately, good ideas don’t always translate into successful realities.
Where Knol differs from Wikiepedia is that as opposed to simply having a membership and editing information you see is wrong, Knol requires you to contact the author of the piece and ask permission to edit it. Cue in-denial wannabe experts whose work can’t possibly be wrong…
Additionally, there have been many complaints that Knol is nothing more than a glorified self-promotion tool for the digital egomaniacs online today (of which there are many).
So, is Knol about to fail before it’s even out of Beta? While it’s true that it’s still early days (and at least they’re not making the same claims as Cuil did that ultimately backfired on them), Google will need to look at the early feedback and make adjustments if it wants Knol to be taken seriously.
The good news is that Google is normally one of the best companies for listening to it’s users, so maybe Knol isn’t quite beyond saving yet.
Filed under: Tech Time | Tagged: cuil, google knol, google tools, knol, online information websites, wikipedia | 1 Comment »
Posted on September 22, 2008 by Danny Brown
The very first touchscreen Blackberry, the Blackberry Storm, looks set to launch later this year - November, if the latest reports are true. While the 3G iPhone and the Googlephone have been drawing all the news, the PDA specialists have been a little quiet. That’s about to change with the Blackberry Storm.
As was to be expected from Canadian manufacturers RIM, the features on the Blackberry Storm are making a clear statement of intent - “We don’t fear Apple or anyone else.”
- Full Haptic touch screen capability (no physical keyboard)
- Quad band coverage
- Wi-Fi
- HSDPA GPS
- 3.2 mega-pixel camera
Although there’s no confirmation of price yet, the smart money’s on $199 with a 2-year contract. With the all-important Christmas technology purchase season on the horizon, the November release date for the Blackberry Storm should make it an interesting Smartphone battle in the coming months.
Filed under: Tech Time | Tagged: blackberry 9530, blackberry storm, blackberry storm pictures, blackberry storm price, blackberry storm release, storm, touchscreen blackberry storm | No Comments »
Posted on September 16, 2008 by Danny Brown
Following earlier reports that the new HTC Dream would be the Google Android, it looks like the rumours are about to become fact. According to the Wall Street Journal, cellular service provider T-Mobile will begin selling the first Android-powered cell phone later next month and it will be the HTC Dream.
Codenamed G1, the Android-powered HTC Dream is expected to debut on October 20th. Manufacturer HTC is expecting to ship around 750,000 of the Dream smartphones. More concrete news on the Google Android/HTC Dream should be available shortly.
Filed under: Tech Time | Tagged: g1 google smartphone, google android, googlephone or android, htc dream, release date for google android htc dream | 6 Comments »
