News and Analysis Results
Channel 4 raises Bing word-extinction alarm
Roll over Wittgenstein, Channel 4 has a bold claim to make, thanks to New Media guru Benjamin Cohen. It's trumpeted in what must be the weirdest press release we've received in years - or at least since the Blooks one. We reproduce it in full, trying to give you a flavour of the insane typography: PLEASE CREDIT CHANNEL 4 NEWS …
Murdoch: Google is mortal and together we can kill it
"Everybody loves the BBC and it doesn't cost anything, Murdoch should learn a thing or two." - Comment by reader 'peter 3' at The Register Everyone's missed the clever part of Rupert Murdoch's broadside against Google last week. Murdoch said he'd block Google from spidering his websites' content, and may use litigation against …
Ignoring P2Pers costs music biz dear - survey
A think tank survey into UK music fans suggests that timid major record companies, obsessed with "cannibalisation" and "substitution", have spent a decade barking up the wrong tree. The Demos report, sponsored by Virgin Media, suggests file sharers aren't the wreckers of civilization they're painted to be - but failing to …
You will learn to love Google's sorry music widget
Hyped overnight as a Google 'Music Service', what we see instead is set to be the most underwhelming launch in a long history of label-backed music flops. It's barely a 'service' - merely a sorry widget that yokes a DRM-crippled version of LaLa's already unpopular streaming offering with unsold Adwords inventory. Instead of a …
The Register joins The Pirate Party
It's the most controversial choice of guest for years - not the BNP on the BBC, but something that caused almost as much controversy. The Pirate Party founder Rik Falkvinge made his first UK address at the In The City music festival convention and conference this weekend. And I took part in the panel that followed. Yvette …
The Briffa Scandal - your letters
While we put together more stories on The Briffa Scandal, here's some mail from the earlier piece. I received 60-odd pieces in the mailbag and with one exception, they were positive. The one that wasn't so nice was so bizarre, it deserves a Snotbag in its own right. I'll spare you the praise - let's get stuck in. I am myself a …
Pop stars back 'Three Strokes' policy
Another day, another joint statement from a bunch of artists. This one comes from a number of signed artists who say they aren't the Featured Artists Coalition (but most of them are). The er, FAC members now say they too want a "graduated response" to internet copyright infringement, and have persuaded Lily Allen to sign up to …
Opera Mini gets facelift, sprouts tabs
Opera is bringing multipage browsing to its popular Mini browser, with a beta rolling out today. Mini 5.0 also gets a slick visual makeover, and touch support on devices that accept touch input. Underneath it's the familiar Opera 4 Mini engine with a few tweaks, and existing users will be relieved that key shortcuts have been …
Moondreams, engineers and bureaucracies
With world+dog celebrating the Apollo program this summer, we thought we'd try something different. So a few weeks ago, I looked at the Lunar Orbiter, a fascinating tale of technology improvisation that brought in some cracking mail. Here are some thoughts on technology, optimism and bureaucracies. Before we get going, I want to …
China 'orders Baidu cleanup'
The balance of power in China's internet search market could soon change, as the government orders home grown music services to clean up their acts. But it could be worse news for Wall Street investors who have backed the Chinese giant without fully assessing the risks. According to sources cited in the Wall Street Journal, the …
Nokia: Castration as Motivation
Here's a roundup of odds and ends I found at Nokia World Stuttgart this week. Starting with a very odd one... Ball breaker The first speaker on the morning after the Nokia Party, addressing 2,000 very hungover attendees, was an aggressive motivational speaker called Chris Moon. He's an ex-Army guy who was a Khmer Rouge hostage …
Hands on with the Nokia N900
Announced last week, the N900 finally gives Nokia something competitive in the high-end market, and offers a great deal for developers to get excited about. I had a hands on today and came away with fairly positive impressions, for an iPhone user. But more importantly, Nokia has a roadmap that takes it into the next decade. Qt …
Fire at Google UK
Staff at Google's London lair have been evacuated after fire broke out. Four fire engines were called to the blaze. Reports of staff fleeing the blaze on Segways at high speed (8mph) could not be confirmed. The conflagration caused much excitement at the Daily Stenograph newspaper, which is sited opposite Google's Victoria HQ. …
Official: Google wants to tell you what to think
File this one under spectacular and hubristic PR own goals. Google has anointed an "approved list" of writers it thinks you should read. But not only is Google's choice far from "Neutral" - there's no libertarians, merely one (shrieky and not very representative) conservative, and a preponderance of Greens - there isn't a …
Vodafone's Ovi-killer leaks
The world's biggest global mobile network appears to be planning to put the skids under Nokia, Google and Apple's plans for mobile software. According to videos leaked to TechCrunch UK last week, Vodafone is planning a comprehensive services offering called "Vodafone People". Apple might not be too worried, but Nokia and Google …
Nokia and Microsoft cosy up in small Office space
Two of the losers in the smartphone wars are cuddling up. Historic enemies Microsoft and Nokia today announced a wide ranging partnership covering mobile software, services, and eventually GUIs. Or as the execs put it today, as they exchanged dopey-eyed looks, the pair will "jointly design a range of new user experiences". The …
Circular Awards 2009 - now with added Astroturf
We're in our fifth year of watching the circular awards business - where like-minded campaign groups indulge in an annual orgy of backscratching. And this is shaping up to be the most exciting yet! It first caught our attention in 2005, when the Electronic Frontier Foundation decided to give its prestigious 'Pioneer Award' - …
SpinVox: Veni, vidi, descripsi
Yesterday's technology demonstration by SpinVox at its Marlow HQ reminded everyone just how hard it is to do voice to text machine translation, and how far away anyone is from automating the bulk of the voicemail translation in the real world. All of the messages supplied by our small group of visitors tripped through to a …
BBC bids to control next-gen Telly UI
The BBC has hoisted the bathrobe on its secretive and ambitious Project Canvas set top box project, via the BBC Trust. Canvas has been nicknamed "Freeview on Steroids" or "The iPlayer in hardware", which gives you some idea of its ambitions. It's intended to create a single hardware and software reference standard for future net …
To the Moon - with extreme engineering
It's a temptation, watching many of the 40th Anniversary retrospectives, to think of the Apollo space program as a triumph of power and industrial might. The superpowers' space programs were, of course, political and chauvinistic, designed to showcase national wealth. But there's a better way of looking at the program, Dennis …
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