Microsoft announces Xbox 360 Elite

The Xbox 360 Elite, fully updated and revised version of its Xbox 360 console, will go on sale in the US on April 29 for $479.99 with a UK release expected later in the year.

Xbox 360 Elite will include a 120Gb hard drive, Xbox Live Headset, an HDMI port and bundled HDMI cable allowing for 1080p High-Definition visuals to be displayed on an HD-ready television.

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Microsoft to Buy DoubleClick?

Bloomberg is reporting that Microsoft is in talks to buy DoubleClick. Double Click owners Hellman & Friedman are seeking a $2 billion.

"The purchase would give Microsoft tools to battle Google Inc. for ads that appear on Web sites. DoubleClick works with advertisers to create online campaigns, such as streaming video clips to promote New Line Cinema's movie "The Number 23." The New York-based company's Dart technology monitors the performance of Internet ads for marketing companies."

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Yahoo to Offer Unlimited Storage on Free E-Mail Accounts

Yahoo has announced plans to offer unlimited e-mail storage to its customers starting in May, upping the ante in the free e-mail space where Google offers 2.8GB for free and Microsoft 2GB.

"We are giving them no reason to ever have to delete old e-mails," Yahoo co-founder David Filo told Reuters. "You can keep stuff forever."

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Run your own MySpace or YouTube

KickApps Corporation today announced the launch of KickApps Version 2.0 (KickApps 2.0), a hosted platform designed to quickly and easily add social media experiences to any Web site. Unlike other platforms, KickApps provides sites of all sizes with a full range of building blocks that include user-generated content, social networking, video players, Web cam applications, Widget-building, media/member management and reporting.

KickApps 2.0 is the only social media platform offering three levels of customization. Consumers can use KickApps’ preconfigured set of building blocks to quickly create social media-enhanced Web sites. Developers can create uniquely branded solutions through the platform’s extensive component library and reach even higher levels of customization through KickApps’ standard APIs.
“With this latest release of our platform, we continue to broaden an already robust set of building blocks necessary to transform existing destinations into live community-oriented open portals,” said Alex Blum, CEO of KickApps. “Very quickly these building blocks will be thought of as core elements for all Web sites rather than optional add-ons.”
Specific enhancements to KickApps 2.0 include:
Premium Player Widget – The fastest way to deploy programmable video players on any Web site.
Video Enabled Message Boards and Private Messaging – Members can post text, audio and video messages on community message boards and in private messages to peers.
New Widgets – 25 new Widget options are now available, including Forum, Slideshow, 3D Cubes and a variety of HTML-based List Widgets.
One-Click Home Page – Anyone can create their own community site with one click.
Updated Member Profiles and Roles – Community members can be designated “editors” to enable them to view and approve media.
Webcam Video Upload – Members can instantly post videos with no editing skills or software required.
Advanced Tagging and Categories – Sites create their own tag and category hierarchy for selective display media and members.


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Viacom Sued by YouTube Parody Creators

Viacom, which recently filed a $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit against YouTube, was itself sued on Thursday by activist groups representing the producers of a parody video who say Viacom made an illegal request that the video be removed from YouTube.


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Gmail blocks Yahoo Group emails

Reports come from Google Groups that Yahoo! Group emails are not being delivered to Gmail users.
Seems Google does not like Yahoo Groups much :) . Sources say that Google has been aware of it for 3-4 days and the problem still has not been corrected.

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Law Enforcement utilizes social networking resources

There are over 300 known social networking sites on the internet. Myspace.com has over 110 million users and Facebook.com adds 20,000 new users each day. Too often, investigators overlook or underutilize this valuable resource.

This one day (8 hour) course provided by our Cyber Crime Training Division, is designed for police officers, detectives, and criminal analysts.

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Friendster looking to capitalize on its patents?

Since Friendster has failed in comparison to rivals MySpace and Facebook, it is looking for a strategy to make money out of their patents. Friendster gets another social networking patent; third in last 9 months, which makes you wonder.... They don't charge anyone now yet, but my feeling is theat they will. Time will show...

The company says the patent covers adding friends, personalizing a profile through arranging, ordering and classifying connections made in an online community, and managing these connections at will.

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Great Classic Heavy Metal Social Networking site

Recently, I came across a great social networking web site for heavy metal enthusiasts.
If you love Metal bands like Iron Maiden, Twisted Sister, this site is for you. It features message boards, contests, audio and videos.

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Viacom Sues Google, YouTube for 1 Billion Dollars

Viacom announced that it has filed a $1 billion federal copyright infringement lawsuit against video-sharing site YouTube and Google.

Viacom said that almost 160,000 unauthorized clips of its programming -- the company's holdings include Paramount Pictures, MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon -- have been viewed more than 1.5 billion times on YouTube.

"Their business model, which is based on building traffic and selling advertising off of unlicensed content, is clearly illegal and is in obvious conflict with copyright laws," Viacom said in a statement.

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Pro-Kremlin parties dominate in a fake Russian Democracy

Pro-Kremlin parties, including United Russia (a party that supports President Vladimir Putin), have won Russian regional elections, preliminary results showed yesterday, after a campaign that left Russia's weak opposition more marginalised than ever.

Pundits had predicted that government parties, buoyed by a strong economy, Kremlin-controlled media, generous funding and Mr Putin's popularity, would sweep the vote.

Critics of the Kremlin say the opposition, in retreat since Mr Putin's first presidential win in 2000, never had a real chance.

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Spammers, hackers target sites such as MySpace and Facebook.

Because of MySpace, Facebook, YOuTube incredible growth in recent years, many spammers, hackers and other crooks are trying to take advantage of it. "What happens in the virtual world . . . is very (similar) to what happens in the physical world," ... Where a lot of people congregate, at some point you're going to have a bad element that shows up and tries to do bad things."

Scammers often set up fake profiles on MySpace, Friendster, Facebook and similar sites and then go about inviting people to become their Internet "friends."

In doing so, they can glean personal information about their potential targets — like their ZIP codes, age or gender — that can be used to fashion legitimate-sounding spam or phishing attacks.

So, watch out!


P.S. Tips for safe networking

• Limit the information you give about yourself.
• Don't automatically assume something sent from a 'friend' is legitimate.
• Be careful about adding strangers to your friends list.
• Don't use links in embedded e-mails to go to any unfamiliar site.
• Set limits on what people can see, you profile, etc

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Mobile Web Content is on the Rise

Of the 76% of consumers in the U.S. and Western Europe who own mobile phones with Web access, about one-third are currently using it, according to a survey conducted by the Online Publishers Association and TNS Media and Entertainment.

The U.K. leads in mobile Web usage (54%), followed by the U.S. and Italy (41%).

The survey also found that 34% of mobile Web users internationally say they will watch ads in exchange for free mobile content, and nearly one-in-ten have actually made a purchased based on a mobile Web ad.

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ClickandBuy To Offer Person-to-Person Payments, Cash Vouchers and Phone Billing for Digital Content

ClickandBuy, an ASP ePayment service for digital music and other types of content, plans to offer secure person-to-person payments and a cash voucher program for the European market. Lastly, ClickandBuy plans to unveil its phone billing service in the U.S. market.

"Delivery of secure digital content for online music stores is dependent on expansion into new markets and different ways to pay. For example, in Europe, most people do not use a credit card and therefore merchants are leaving money on the table, so to speak. The reason why companies like Apple iTunes selected us in Europe is that we can deliver over 40 payment types, which enables our merchants to instantly increase their income," said Norbert Stangl, CEO of ClickandBuy.

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Should a newspaper be a social network?

In light of USAToday's re-design, should a newspaper be a social network?

1. Yes, newspapers should become social networks

2. No, leave the social networking to MySpace, Facebook, KickApps

What works best for kids Motrin or TyIenol?

According to the University of Ottawa, ibuprofen (Motrin, Advil and generics ) led to significantly better improvement on a pain scale than acetaminophen (Tylenol and generics) or codeine.

There were no significant differences in pain scores among the three groups at 30 minutes, but from 60 minutes onwards, the patients who had received ibuprofen reported significantly greater pain relief (improvement in pain score) than patients in either the acetaminophen or codeine groups (P<0.001). There were no significant differences at any point between the two latter groups.

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