Business

Tempted to buy an Apple iPhone for yourself or a loved one this Christmas? Impressed by its video playback, games, and touch screen technology? How about its speed? Well, the latter may not be as impressive as Apple has led consumers to believe. ... According to reports, Apple has been forced to pull an advertisement airing in Britain that boasted the device's extremely fast capabilities. The ad in question showed an iPhone 3G transferring data "really fast"; however, Britain's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has deemed that spot misleading and has in turn banned the ad from airing in ... (view more)

Think the iPhone is a fantastic new technology that should be celebrated the world 'round, not unlike Apple's iPod? Well, if you live in Britain (or perhaps any region other than North America) you may have trouble with one of its popular features. ... The iPhone includes a number of handy tools, including a touch screen, mp3 playback, video display, organizational utilities, and games. However, many fans in the US are particularly fond of a new iPhone tool: voice recognition-based search. Unfortunately, for those using the device in Britain the voice-recognition tool is struggling to compensate ... (view more)

Apple's new 3G iPhone has now become the best-selling mobile handset of any kind in the United States. Meanwhile, the original iPhone has earned the title of the 'most reliable' smartphone. The iPhone 3G snatched the top spot away from Motorola's ... RAZR, which had been the best selling phone for three full years. NPD, the group which produces the regular rankings, says this shows buyers are now much more interested in a phone's features than its look. That could be because people want better value as the economy slows. (Source: latimes.com ) Before anyone gets carried away, it's worth bearing ... (view more)

The antivirus software industry may change dramatically now that Microsoft has announced it will be offering free protection in the near future. The Redmond-based giant has revealed that it will terminate sales of its popular Windows Live OneCare ... security suite and will instead offer a slimmed-down version called "Morro" in its place -- for free. The switch will be effective June 30, 2009 and could have homicidal ramifications for other popular antivirus makers like McAfee, Symantec, and Trend Micro. (Source: pcworld.com ) Some are heralding the move as a sort of socialist godsend. The free ... (view more)

A New York judge has ordered a new Apple executive to stop work until a legal dispute with IBM, his former employer, is settled. Mark Papermaster had been set to head the hardware side of Apple's iPod and iPhone division. Papermaster was formerly ... IBM's executive in charge of blade servers, a technology which involves bare-bones servers taking their power from storage racks rather than individual power supplies. This makes much slimmer servers which is particularly useful for firms needing to store a large number of servers in a small space. As part of his IBM contract, Papermaster is banned ... (view more)

In an attempt to compete with Google and Zoho, Microsoft is reportedly giving away free software to early-state Web start-up companies as part of a recently launched worldwide program called BizSpark. BizSpark wants to help startups by providing ... production licenses and technical support for several Microsoft products. The licenses are free for the first three years. BizSpark gives Microsoft a way to promote the use of its software. ZocDoc, a New York-based company that offers an online service for booking doctor and dentist appoints, became an early member of the BizSpark program. ZocDoc ... (view more)

Just a few days ago I reported on rumors that Google was nearing a deal that would lead to the placement of full-length movies on its popular video site, YouTube. Now, it appears Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), one of Hollywood's biggest studios, is on ... board with the idea. The precedent for full-length movies was set back in the summer, when prominent Canadian studio Lionsgate (behind flicks like W. and The Transporter 3) announced they would be placing shorts on Google's popular video site. Of course, that's besides the fact that more and more people turn to web sites like Hulu for their favorite ... (view more)

At one time, the Internet was targeted by the Motion Picture Association of America as a serious threat to the industry. For most of the last decade, file-sharing protocols and Torrents have been home to many free, pirated flicks for greedy movie ... fans with the tech-savvyness to download and burn them for free. However, it looks like that cynical attitude towards the world wide web is about to change -- primarily because the movie industry now recognizes that big bucks can be made online. According to reports, Hollywood is seriously considering posting full-length movies on YouTube, the home ... (view more)

Just as we reported yesterday, it seems the Yahoo and Google web advertising deal has been rejected by the Department of Justice. The decision came early Wednesday morning when the Justice Department announced to the two top search engines that if ... they went ahead with their planned agreement (which would see Google ads on Yahoo's web pages), a lawsuit would be filed to block it. According to reports, over the last few weeks federal antitrust regulators steadily became more and more critical of the deal. Although there's still a chance the deal could be made with significant changes to its ... (view more)

Not long ago, Google agreed to pay $125 million to the book industry to settle claims of copyright infringement over its BookSearch scheme. The agreement means Google can now legally scan copyrighted books and put them online as long as they are no ... longer in print. The cash will go towards setting up a registry of books involved, compensating authors and publishers affected by Google's violations, and paying the legal fees of the case. The agreement will have to get the backing of a New York court (where the case was brought) before it takes effect. (Source: google.com) The case involved a ... (view more)