Now, THIS is the one I've been waiting for:
Amazon.com Inc. declined to comment on Monday on a report in Advertising Age magazine that it would launch a movie download business in mid-August.
Speculation has swirled for months that Amazon is working on a digital download service that would allow consumers to download and copy popular movies and television programs.
So, I guess you people aren't reading your newspapers at work much these days. According to a new study from Ball State University, the Web is now the No. 1 source of news in the workplace, No. 2 in the home. And you thought all those people with their terminals glowing were doing work-related spreadsheets.
It's not the medium, it's the message. People want news, and they will adapt (not adopt; somebody needs an editor) to new ways of getting it:
There was no call to throw open the gates. But this is not to pick on our friends at the AP, which is now reorganizing its business to serve the new world (and is a news supplier to this site). The whole industry was slow to recognize that the Web is not a proprietary medium, like print, but a distributed one.
It's not just newspapers that are in trouble. All the creative middlemen are threatened. We've been able for a while now to make and distribute our own music and movies. Now, add books. The "vanity press" isn't quite what it used to be.
Holy cow. Not only can we watch live streaming of the NCAA games on our workplace computers -- a helpful Boss Button is provided, "which will instantly cover any viewer's screen with a spreadsheet." Of course all this nonproductive time will cost companies an estimated $250 million (said to be a conservative figure), not to mention the disruptiuon of services customers might encounter:
Boy, the toys are just getting cooler and cooler:
One day you may roll up your computer and toss it in your bag -- no more rugged titanium cases. Today's visionaries are planning a world of flexible electronics that will make even your svelte new laptop look clunky.
If you do research on the Web and want to get beyond basic googling, here's a site you should bookmark. Compiled by Al Tompkins of the Poynter Institute, it's a wonderful list of hot links to research sites and tools. It's being used by a lot of journalists to do research, and now you have it, too. Don't go there if you're easily sucked in unless you have a lot of time to kill.
Look through this list of the 50 greatest gadgets of the past 50 years and try to guess which is the very best gadget of all. Give up? The next one, of course.
Don't want to get hooked by the phishers? DON'T ANSWER QUESTONS online unless you've verified the legitimacy of the company asking the questions.
These days, we're so used to miraculous discoveries coming at breakneck speed that we tend to forget what heroic undertakings they once involved. Reading about the "Vicorian Internet," note especially the lengths they went to in Australia to be involved:
By 1870, a submarine cable was heading towards Australia. It seemed likely that it would come ashore at the northern port of Darwin from where it might connect around the coast to Queensland and New South Wales.
