Newspaper Web Sites Are Cannibalizing Print

Newspaper Web sites are beginning to cause some cannibalization of print editions, according to Belden Associates‘ Spring 2003 survey of newspaper Web site users. Although Belden’s earlier quarterly surveys had reported that newspaper sites had no net affect on print subscriptions and…

QuickTime Panoramas

Three of the best collections of QuickTime panoramas we’ve ever seen are at Panoramas.dk, z360.com and Virtual Guidebooks (the latter by Don Bain, a pioneer of Internet virtual panoramas). Panoramas.dk’s images are full-screen, many with audio.

The Digital Golem Project

Belgian Conceptual Artist Eric Van Hove has incorporated our Theory of New Media into his Digital Golem project, his entry in the UNESCO/Iamas 2003 international new media contest entitled Digital Pluralism. Van Hove’s project, to be submitted at the 5th World Forum…

The EU Ban on Spam

While North American governmental bodies lament the rise of spam, the European Parliament is banning it. Effective in October, the Parliament’s Directive 2002/58/EC [(PDF format)] bans unsolicited commercial e-mail within the European Union countries. The directive, which also applies to unsolicited SMS…

VoIP is 'Virtually Unstoppable'

‘Voice over IP‘ is long-distance telephone calls route through the Internet rather than through telelphone companies’ circuits. VoIP calls have little or no cost. Ten percent of all international calls last year used VoIP. Traditional telephone companies fear VoIP. Read Dan Gilmour‘s…

A Cloth Keyboard

Speaking of flexible items, there’s now a cloth keyboard for the Orange SPV Mobile Digital Assistant (a mobile phone/Personal Digital Assistant). Manufactured by Ora of the United Kingdom, it uses electro-conductive fabrics and can be rolled up and pocketed when not in…

Embedding MMS into New Mobiles Phones & MDAs

To encourage consumer use of MMS — Multimedia Messaging Services, the rich graphics successor to plain-text SMS (Short Messaging Services) — software companies are making deals with mobile phone handset and Mobile Digital Assistants (MDAs) manufacturers to embed MMS software into devices.

Truly Smart Clothing

The Pioneer Corporation of Japan has developed a wearable computer with a display you can wear on your sleeve. A prototype jacket was shown in Tokyo last week. The wearable color display is composed of active-matrix organic-electroluminescent (OEL) film, a material which…

Moblogging

What is Moblogging? Well, we’re posting this message by using a Pocket PC Phone from waist-deep in Long Island Sound at Greenwich Point beach in Connecticut. Unwired mobile bogging.

UK Banks Scrap WAP

Several large UK banks have scrapped their WAP-banking services this week, following sparse demand by banking customers during the past few years. Halifax and Abbey National have scrap WAP. Many European (and few American) publishers still features WAP as their primary wireless…

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! The Court's MP3

The Recording Industry Association of America and several recording companies are suing file-sharing network Aimster (now known as Madster) for abetting copyright infringements and the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals is being technohip by releasing the case’s oral arguments in MP3…

Friend Swapping on Friendster

Sure, you’ve heard about the file-sharing softwares Napster and Grokster. But how about the friend-sharing software Friendster? A hybrid of peer-to-peer distribution and online dating application, Friendster helps you find new friends or become one. You list your interests, hobbies, favourite movies,…

Average MMS Price is Euro 0.35

eMarketer reports an In-Stat/MDR study showing the current price per multimedia message service (MMS) is now $0.40 (0.34 Euro) in Europe. That’s too high a price for consumers, effectively limiting MMS to business use. However, the study believes that the price per…