Mar 22 2009

BT Shows First Fiber-Optic Broadband Rollout Plans

MJackson writes “BT has revealed new details about the roll-out of its £1.5bn programme to deploy super fast fibre optic broadband to as many as 10 million UK homes (40%) by 2012. Scotland will become one of the first places to benefit from next-generation broadband services, with more than 34,000 homes and businesses in Edinburgh and Glasgow receiving speeds of up to 40Mbps and potentially 60Mbps from early next year (2010). Overall, BT Openreach, which is responsible for ensuring that all rival operators have equality of access to BT’s local network, aims to deploy Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) based next generation broadband services next summer (2010) to 500,000 homes and businesses in the UK.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Mar 22 2009

King Maker & Social Networking Made Obama A Rock Star?

Was a king maker and social networking responsible for Obama’s successful political campaign?

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Mar 21 2009

No Business Case For IPv6, Survey Finds

alphadogg writes “Business incentives are completely lacking today for upgrading to IPv6, the next generation Internet protocol, according to a survey of network operators conducted by the Internet Society (ISOC). In a new report, ISOC says that ISPs, enterprises and network equipment vendors report that there are ‘no concrete business drivers for IPv6.’ However, survey respondents said customer demand for IPv6 is on the rise and that they are planning or deploying IPv6 because they feel it is the next major development in the evolution of the Internet.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Mar 21 2009

Facebook Users’ Verdict On Redesign: Hate! – CBS News

So there’s a new Facebook app out there, designed to poll users on the social network’s latest redesign. The results? Hundreds of thousands have responded. 94 percent give it a thumbs-down. Ouch.

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Mar 21 2009

Sony Charges Publishers For DLC Bandwidth Usage

tlhIngan writes “Since October 1, 2008, Sony has been billing game publishers for DLC bandwidth usage. The game companies are forced to pay 16 cents per gigabyte downloaded by users (the ‘Playstation Network Fee’) regardless of whether the content is free or paid. The good news is that free content will only be billed during the initial 60 days it’s up, but paid content will require fees forever. (No word on whether free content will mysteriously disappear after 60 days, though.) Given that some popular game demos run over a gigabyte by themselves, it could easily start costing publishers serious money (16 cents each for a few million downloads adds up). So far, it hasn’t cut down the content available (or few publishers have started pulling content), but it’s too soon to tell. It should be noted that Microsoft isn’t charging publishers any money for content on Xbox Live, though some may argue that the ‘gold premium content’ is the same thing.” Perhaps this is one of the reasons various publishers are pressuring Sony for a PS3 price cut.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Mar 20 2009

China Mobile says it’s still in iPhone talks

Despite prior negotiations repeatedly breaking down, the world’s largest mobile phone network operator says it’s still negotiating with Apple to bring the iPhone to China.

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Mar 20 2009

Apple and AT&T Sued, Again, Over 3G

Macworld is reporting that Apple and AT&T are being sued, again, for the lack of delivery on their 3G network. This follows a long line of other lawsuits in San Jose, San Diego, Alabama, Florida, Texas, and New York “The lawsuit charges the companies with Negligence, Breach of Express Warranty, Breach of Implied Warranty of Merchantability, Unjust Enrichment, Negligent Misrepresentation, Violation of the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act and Other Similar State Statutes, and Breach of Contract. Dickerson is seeking to force Apple and AT&T to correct its labeling and advertising, as well as to recover compensatory, statutory and punitive damages.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Mar 20 2009

Chinese social network Tencent beats $1 billion in revenue

Publicly-traded Tencent, a leading Chinese web portal, instant message client, social network, game developer and more has exceeded billion in revenue in a single year. Tencent has done this through the use of virtual goods and other “Internet valued-added services,” like avatars, online memberships, music and community sites.

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Mar 19 2009

Symantec Launches Cloud Storage For Consumers

Symantec today formally unveiled its cloud-based storage service, Norton Online Backup, which allows you to manage through a Web interface up to five PCs on your home network under a single license.

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Mar 18 2009

AT&T Plugs into Grid, Powers Smart Meters’ Conversations

Smart meters can now get a little more talkative through a deal between AT&T and SmartSynch, a firm that creates networked utility meters designed to provide two-way communication between an operator and a customer’s services and appliances…

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