Archive for the ‘Tech News’ Category

It’s tough enough raising four kids, you know with food costs, clothing costs, medical costs, and all that. Even clipping coupons, shopping at thrift stores, and taking advantage of dental care discounts, it’s tough. How did the jury come to this decision anyway? $80,000 per song!?! Were they crazy?

Attorneys for Jammie Thomas-Rasset, a Minnesota mother of four slapped with a $1.92 million fine by a federal jury last month for illegally downloading 24 songs, have filed a request for a new trial.

They’re right to request one because the judgment against the music-sharing mom was ridiculous.

The award for damages — which comes out to $80,000 per song — “shocks the conscience and must be set aside,” Thomas-Rasset’s lawyers wrote.

With the current rates on iTunes and places like that, a fine of $5 per song should be suffice, don’t you think? Hopefully this mother of four will receive a proper fine so she can put this behind her.

I’m looking forward to seeing a rested, relaxed, and energetic Steve Jobs.

Apple Inc CEO Steve Jobs is on track to return to the company from his medical leave of absence as planned, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a person who had seen Jobs in recent weeks.

The report that Jobs will return by the end of the month comes ahead of Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco on Monday, an event at which Jobs unveiled Apple’s 3G iPhone a year ago but had not been expected to attend this time.

I wish I was going to the conference. sigh. But instead I get to sit here staring at porcelain tile wondering where I went wrong. Okay, so I wasn’t wrong, but I would much rather be there.

Still making cuts at Yahoo.

Yahoo Inc said it would cut 5 percent of its global workforce and reported quarterly results that showed progress toward controlling costs, sending shares higher in an after-hours relief rally.

The Internet company said economic conditions remained challenging, as revenue on Yahoo Websites from both display ads and search ads fell during the first quarter.

Working at Yahoo would be much more painful than any blackheads treatment, that’s for sure. The ship is still listing, I wonder how long before it completely capsizes? Will it?

Other than the occasional storm of visits, is there any value with StumpleUpon?

Two founders of Web content recommendation service StumbleUpon said Monday they bought the company back from online auction house eBay Inc., just two years after eBay purchased the startup for $75 million.

The founders, Garrett Camp and Geoff Smith, bought the company back with the help of investors including Ram Shriram of Sherpalo Ventures, Accel Partners, and August Capital, they said. Financial terms were not disclosed.

No wonder I can’t find a job.

This morning’s news about the latest unemployment statistics was dismal and quite sobering. The U.S. has lost 5 million jobs in the past 16 months, and the unemployment rate has hit a 25 year high, reaching 8.5%. Our own TechCrunch layoff tracker reports nearly 320,000 tech jobs lost since August. While jobs are being shed at an unprecedented rate, job listings are also being affected, both in tech and general employment sectors.

Apparently Sun thinks it’s worth more than IBM was offering. I’m not sure how much that is, but what now?

After weeks of negotiations, I.B.M. withdrew its $7 billion bid for Sun Microsystems on Sunday, one day after Sun’s board balked at a reduced offer, according to three people close to the talks.

The deal’s collapse raises questions about Sun’s next step, since the I.B.M. offer was far above the value of the Silicon Valley company’s shares when news of the I.B.M. offer first surfaced last month. Sun, an innovative pioneer in computer workstations and Internet-era software, has struggled in the marketplace in recent years.

IBM (IBM.N) cut its offer for Sun Microsystems (JAVA.O) to $9.55 a share after a thorough vetting and may soon unveil details of its largest- ever takeover, a source with knowledge of the matter said on Thursday.

But the source, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the deal, said that price was not final, although IBM had decided Sun Micro was worth less than thought after a weeks- long due diligence process.

There’s a lot of that going around isn’t there?

Imagine changing phones every couple years. What if you switch from Blackberry to iPhone to whatever. Yeah, like anyone would switch after using an iPhone, anyway, can you imagine all the copies of an application you will need to make sure things run on all your phones?

Research in Motion Ltd., the maker of BlackBerry phones, launched its awaited one-stop shop for add-on applications on Wednesday.

While third-party programs have long been available for BlackBerrys from many sources, the Waterloo, Ontario-based company is now following in Apple Inc.’s footsteps by creating and operating a central store. Every other major company in the “smart” phone industry is doing the same.

Interesting…

Microsoft dusted off one of its favorite Apple arguments this week, rolling out new television and Web ads which claim that PCs are cheaper than Macs and offer a broader range of configuration options.

Microsoft’s channel partners love the ads — and, as it turns out, so do many Apple partners, albeit for different reasons.

PCs are cheaper than Macs. Duh. Of course, PCs are crappier than Macs too. Maybe there is a correlation there? Nah… PCs are generally a (p)iece of (c)crap aren’t they?

Adobe Acrobat (and Reader) users beware!!!

Bad news for anyone that utilizes Adobe’s Acrobat software, or Adobe reader to view PDF files. A critical vulnerability has been identified that can cause the applications to crash and allow an attacker to control the affected system. All versions from 7 forward on all operating systems are suspected to be at risk.

According to the announcement from Adobe, this isn’t just a possibility, it’s actually happening. Reports have already been made of the buffer overflow exploit being used in this type of attack. Adobe is also working with antivirus vendors to patch the holes, and patches to update the vulnerable apps are in the works. The bad news: patches aren’t likely to be ready until March 11th, 2009.