RossCode Weekly #046?- 05.03.2006

The voice isn't up to?par yet - I was hoping to wait until tomorrow to?do it,?but there's no real hope that I'm going to be able to get through it without hacking and coughing?in your ears through the whole thing. So, for the?second week in a?row, you get complete show notes.?

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News & Views
Fox purchases NewRoo and kSolo
?? NewRoo has been rumored for a while - this makes it official
?? both potentially make good additions to MySpace
?? $10,000,000 a piece.
Yahoo! Tech launches
?? Competing with C|NET Reviews
?? Heavy use of?Flash
?? Not a lot there yet??
Plaxo buys calendaring company
?? HipCal
?? Calendaring will now come with free Plaxo software
Google news-gest
?? Someone used their 20% time at Google to add Suggest to Google News
?? Alternate URL - not rolled into the main Google?News
?? Cool because suggest info is based on current events
Blogburst launches
?? Has agreement with a few major publications and 1,000 bloggers
?? Basically, it?takes blogs in different categories and sells them to publications for broader distribution
Latest Live Messenger beta supports Live ID with multiple IDs
?? I need to check this out!
All Mix06 content available online
?? All 52 sessions, including keynote, 43 breakouts
?? All videos, with demos and slides
?? Can be downloaded for offline viewing
?? Note: all PDC '05 content is still available - extended for a bit

The Cold Warsu
"MSN Originals" debuts
?? 10 web pilots
?? Tom Arnold in a comedy (possibly)
?? Successful online shows could move to TV
?? Some will be user generated - called Warhol (15 minutes of fame)
CBS debuts a Broadband channel
?? Mainly original content
?? Some may be connected to current CBS shows
?? Probably won't include full-length episodes of shows, but plans to in the future
?? Could include some affiliate programming after it airs on the affiliate channels
?? First show could include a chance to be on "As the World Turns"
ABC: streaming shows for free starts now
?? Free, but with ads
?? Uses flash, so it's cross platform
?? Trial from now until end of June
?? If all goes well, should relaunch in the fall
?? Max of 4 30 second ads
Apple signs deal with record companies to keep songs at $0.99
?? Four record companies
Sphere.com launches
?? Sent out a letter at 1:00 AM saying it was launching, but had an embargo until 7:00 AM. Yeah right.
?? Also announced receiving $3,750,000 in funding.
?? Their relevancy algorithm is supposedly pretty good
Google upset about IE7
?? Google complains that IE7 defaults to MSN search
????? Imagine that - Microsoft promoting itself
?? Is Google complaining about Firefox's lack of choice? Opera's?
EchoStar and TiVo - Round 2
?? Back in court fighting TiVo's original patent
?? a la NTP / RIM
????? Difference: they filed this after TiVo sued EchoStar, not before, like RIM did
Visto next in RIM suing parade
?? Off a win against Seven Networks, they are going after RIM now.
?? Here we go again - RIM says patents are invalid, but lawsuit still coming
Napster is free, again, sort of
?? You can listen to every song up to five times for free
?? Ad supported - visual ads in an audible medium?
?? 2,000,000 tracks - that's a lot of music

The Grapevine
Vista to be delayed again?
?? April '07
?? from Gartner
?? Microsoft denies it
?? Better to get it out or get it right?
OS X "Leopard" with built-in BitTorrent?
?? For downloading content from the iTunes store
?? OS updates
?? Apple would reward you for offering up your bandwidth - iTunes store credit, or minutes on their upcoming iPhone product
Apple DVR coming soon?
?? Jobs said to look for it - but in a not exactly direct way
4 & 8 GB iPod Nano video coming?
?? Sounds like a pretty small screen to me
?? Would explain the sign in the store in India a little bit

Odds & Ends
Professors banning in-class laptop use
?? Time to find better means to handle the problems than banning
?? Reason: force students to pay attention
????? Prof got idea while in court - stenographer didn't absorb what he was saying - just transcribing
???????? Except, that's their job - trascribe, not absorb
Facebook Corporate: No AOL
?? Facebook has branched into corporate membership
?? 1,000 companies, but no AOL.
Unaltered Star Wars Trilogy coming out
?? Original theatrical versions
?? Actually, it includes both the old and the retouched versions
?? September 12th - December 31st

Bonehead of the Week
DirecTV fines installers for not lying
?? In Florida
?? Had to?tell customers that DirecTV boxes won't work unless you have a phone line
?? Would fine installers for installs without a phone line connection (well, not officially fine, but pay less than a phone based install)
RIAA sues family for filesharing who have no computer or internet connection
?? They even know about that information, and that it's likely it's the previous resident, but that doesn't stop them
?? subpeona says "has used, and continue to use"

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Production Notes
Background music provided by Chronos (Introvert 4) and the Podsafe Music Network.
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