Podcasting, a format to publish rich media like audio and ultimately video by use of RSS, has come of age in 2005 with an estimated world wide audience of 4.8m people compared with just 800k in 2004. As main stream media giants begin to see the benefits of this emerging technology and bandwidth becomes more readily available (broadband internet access has overtaken dial up in the UK for the first time this year), using RSS perhaps combined with bit torrent will become the formats to publish video. For now I am enjoying this, not so amateur, radio that is easily downloaded directly to my PC and walkman. [Link]
Dell Corporation is shipping PCs in the UK with Mozilla Firefox on the desktop.
The firm is giving it a go because Firefox is a popular web browser amongst buyers, the sources continued. [Link]
British police would never risk the lives of other people whilst chasing a car but this American cop is happy to fishtail the criminal’s car into another driver. [via A Welsh View]
Online search engine Google has confirmed it will invest $1bn to take a 5% stake in Time Warner’s AOL unit as part of a major strategic alliance. The deal, which follows intense negotiations between the two US internet giants, values the troubled AOL unit at $20bn. The global online advertising partnership will make more of AOL’s content available to Google users. The agreement shuts out software giant Microsoft from a rumoured AOL tie-up. "We’re very pleased to build significantly on our special relationship with Google," said Time Warner chief executive Dick Parsons.
Microsoft threat
Microsoft was also said to have been considering buying a stake in AOL, with a view to integrating its own internet service into the company. The tie-up between Google and AOL demonstrates Google is prepared to pay heavily to prevent Microsoft from becoming a bigger player in the lucrative internet search sector. AOL is currently Google’s biggest customer. During the first nine months of the year, it accounted for about $429m, or 10%, of Google’s revenue. Time Warner has been seeking a partner to boost AOL’s value, which would in turn lift the US media giant’s shares. The company has seen its share price plunge since its takeover of AOL in 2000 – sinking from highs above $85 to about $18 currently.
AOL founder Steve Case last week backed calls for AOL to be split from Time Warner. Yahoo had also been in talks with Time Warner but dropped out in November, reportedly because the media giant wanted to retain a majority stake in AOL.
The FTC says spam is DECLINING in the U.S., thanks to new laws and better anti-spam technology. {is Georgia still in the U.S… ?????}
Now you can access your Gmail account from your mobile phone or device. Just point your phone’s web browser to http://m.gmail.com. Your Gmail account stays synched, whether you access it from the web or the mobile interface. It’s easy to use and it’s free (but yes, your wireless plan could still charge you)
It also has these cool features:
• Automatically optimizes the interface for the phone you’re using
• Opens the attachments you receive in messages, including photos, Microsoft Word documents and .pdf files
• Lets you reply by call to people whose phone numbers are in your Gmail Contacts list
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