Author Archive

Well, it?s happened. Sony BMG announced it is ?finalizing plans to sell songs without copyright protection? sold via the Web.
And here we were just starting to appreciate the resistance the recording giant had thus far erected in the face of inevitable change.
Okay, actually, to be straight with you, no, we didn?t so much as give the company a passing smirk in our own coverage of its stubborn refusal to bend to consumer demand. But let?s shelve the nasty talk [...]

It was a match made most begrudgingly by two clashing factions, and one which often seemed far too uncomfortable for all involved and more trouble than it was worth to keep together. But it was nonetheless a partnership widely viewed as a critical compromise that would have to be maintained, against all odds, if the grander mission both parties had publicly pledged strongly to was to be achieved.
Well, so much for the value of good will. It appears Intel [...]

Blogs can be wonderful things. They can be informative, and can perhaps be taken as trustworthy authorities on various subjects. They can be irreverently grim and/or humorous to levels mostly avoided by the industry of old media, a freedom which can be exploited to their great advantage. They can be quite inclusive as far as communication is concerned between writer, editor, and reader, enabling them to appear more “down to Earth” than their antecedents.
On the whole, they comprise an [...]

Know what hip-hop mogul Jay-Z and tech industry extraordinaire Steve Jobs have in common? Apparently a record company.
So some in the blogosphere are predicting will be the news later this month, anyway. The Boy Genius Report was one of the first to point out Wednesday the odd indication that a joint venture by the Apple CEO and former head (Pres.) of Def Jam is supposedly set for public debut. Why odd? Primarily because Mr Jobs hasn’t [...]

Not a week has passed since I assembled a list of predictions for 2008 for your amusement, and already we find two well-known corporate entities deliver an official press release proving one postulation to be quite on-target.
Indeed, both Netflix and LG have teamed together to form a sort of digital download alliance, giving something of a morsel of credence to the article published here in Profy last Saturday. The arrangement the two partners in cinematic deliverance [...]

It’s hard out there for…a Saudi Arabian blogger.
The headlines on Technorati are many today. It’s now been made officially clear by the Saudi Interior Ministry that a widely-regarded Arabian noisemaker, Fouah al-Farhan, was recently “taken in” for questioning “about specific violations of non-security laws.”
Mr al-Farhan covers, among other items, the subject of social issues in his blog. Yes, quite a basic and broad template upon which to write one’s thoughts. Plenty of fine lines to walk in that area [...]

One unpopular prime minister, John Howard, was ousted in Australia’s November ’06 election for his unwavering support for Operation Iraqi Destruction. His replacement, Kevin Rudd, is now under fire not two months into his first term for an initiative which would enact the filtration of the nation’s entire Internet backbone, much to the apparent anger and dismay of its citizens.
The filter’s purpose? To put a halt to rampant nakedness. Literally.
It’s been just a short while since word first crept about [...]

I tend to keep my eye on about a dozen or so feeds (gathered by Google Reader, if you’re curious to know) every day in order to scrounge up enough fodder for my posts here at Profy. (Si, soy un moocher.) Some of course receive more attention than others.
Case in point: I passed over my subscription to CNET’s Tech News Blog for the first couple of days of the week, and in so doing, missed quite a delectable piece [...]

It’s January 1st, and we’re creeping ever closer to the day of the 700MHz spectrum auction, a so far widely publicized event to be orchestrated by the FCC. Some 260 or so applicants have submitted their names as participants in the process, including Google, AT&T, Qualcomm, and Alltel. Even Chevron is on the roster.
We mention this contest once more here at Profy for the fact that Forbes, a highly-regarded publication with a primarily business-centric focus, recently put forth [...]