By Ryan Singel March 24, 2009
Skype is now the largest provider of international phone calls in the world. That's according to telecom research firm Telegeography, which estimates that Skype’s cross-border traffic shot up to 33 billion minutes in 2008, up more than 40% from the year before. That includes about 25 million minutes of free "Skype-to-Skype" traffic that travels only through internet pipes and doesn't even go over the traditional telephone network. A little over 8 billion minutes are paid "Skype Out" calls that go from a user's computer to traditional telephones. "Skype’s traffic growth has been remarkable," said TeleGeography analyst Stephan Beckert. "Only five years after its launch, Skype has emerged as the largest provider of cross-border voice communications in the world."
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Tuesday, March 24, 2009
No disks needed for startup's streamed video games
By BARBARA ORTUTAY Mar 24, 2009
Music and movies can be streamed over the Internet, so why not video games? A startup founded by technology entrepreneur Steve Perlman says it has developed a technology to deliver video games on demand, an idea that threatens to eventually take consoles out of the equation. OnLive Inc., Perlman's Palo Alto, Calif.-based company, planned to unveil its technology Tuesday night at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Seven years in the works, OnLive says it has developed a way to stream video games without any lag that humans can notice. So the instant you press a button to shoot something on the screen, the gun goes off. This has not been possible before, because unlike with music and movies, which can be compressed - or put into smaller files that are more easily transferred online - before being streamed, video games are interactive and require instant responses. That has meant video games needed to be played on consoles packed with computing power, like the Xbox or the PlayStation, or downloaded to personal computers that could process some of the data that enabled games to run. OnLive's technology gets around that limitation with a new form of compression that lets its game servers communicate with players over broadband connections in real time. This also means OnLive's service can work on older computers, even those without a graphics processing unit that has until now been an essential component of gaming. Through a "MicroConsole" about the size of a cassette tape, OnLive's service will also be available for television sets.
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Music and movies can be streamed over the Internet, so why not video games? A startup founded by technology entrepreneur Steve Perlman says it has developed a technology to deliver video games on demand, an idea that threatens to eventually take consoles out of the equation. OnLive Inc., Perlman's Palo Alto, Calif.-based company, planned to unveil its technology Tuesday night at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Seven years in the works, OnLive says it has developed a way to stream video games without any lag that humans can notice. So the instant you press a button to shoot something on the screen, the gun goes off. This has not been possible before, because unlike with music and movies, which can be compressed - or put into smaller files that are more easily transferred online - before being streamed, video games are interactive and require instant responses. That has meant video games needed to be played on consoles packed with computing power, like the Xbox or the PlayStation, or downloaded to personal computers that could process some of the data that enabled games to run. OnLive's technology gets around that limitation with a new form of compression that lets its game servers communicate with players over broadband connections in real time. This also means OnLive's service can work on older computers, even those without a graphics processing unit that has until now been an essential component of gaming. Through a "MicroConsole" about the size of a cassette tape, OnLive's service will also be available for television sets.
Read more here -->Link
Twitter gets you fired in 140 characters or less
The 'it' social networking tool of the hour streamlines your humiliation
By Helen A.S. Popkin, March. 23, 2009
Why waste valuable social networking hours getting yourself "Facebook fired," when Twitter allows you to humiliate yourself quickly, and in 140 characters or less? A recent tweet by one would-be Cisco employee proves that when it comes to placing a permanent black mark on your resume via the Internet, Twitter is now the tool of choice. To illustrate, here’s the tweet the now Web-infamous "theconnor" shared with the world: "Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.” It wasn’t long before Tim Levad, a "channel partner advocate" for Cisco Alert, shared this open response: "Who is the hiring manager. I’m sure they would love to know that you will hate the work. We here at Cisco are versed in the web." Was "theconnor’s" job offer rescinded? Nosy netizens have yet to suss that out — but they’re doing their darndest to make "theconnor’s" life miserable in the meantime. It didn’t matter that "theconnor" almost immediately set his Twitter account to private and deleted all information from a home page. It was already too late.
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By Helen A.S. Popkin, March. 23, 2009
Why waste valuable social networking hours getting yourself "Facebook fired," when Twitter allows you to humiliate yourself quickly, and in 140 characters or less? A recent tweet by one would-be Cisco employee proves that when it comes to placing a permanent black mark on your resume via the Internet, Twitter is now the tool of choice. To illustrate, here’s the tweet the now Web-infamous "theconnor" shared with the world: "Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.” It wasn’t long before Tim Levad, a "channel partner advocate" for Cisco Alert, shared this open response: "Who is the hiring manager. I’m sure they would love to know that you will hate the work. We here at Cisco are versed in the web." Was "theconnor’s" job offer rescinded? Nosy netizens have yet to suss that out — but they’re doing their darndest to make "theconnor’s" life miserable in the meantime. It didn’t matter that "theconnor" almost immediately set his Twitter account to private and deleted all information from a home page. It was already too late.
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Intel freezes top salaries, reprices options
Meltdown strikes again
By Rik Myslewski, 23rd March 2009
Intel will freeze the salaries of its top five officers for 2009 and restructure its stock-option plan, allowing employees to exchange their overpriced options. In the company's Schedule 14a preliminary proxy statement filed on Monday, the Board of Director's Compensation Committee stated that "Given Intel’s financial performance in 2008 as well as uncertainty in the global economic environment, the committee elected to keep base salaries and annual incentive cash baselines flat for all listed officers for 2009." Those "listed officers" are defined in the proxy as the "CEO, Chief Financial Officer (CFO), and three other most highly compensated executive officers in a particular year." This year, that would be Paul Otellini, President, CEO; Stacy Smith, VP and CFO; Andy Bryant, EVP, Finance and Enterprise Services and CAO; Sean M. Maloney, EVP and Chief Sales and Marketing Officer; and David Perlmutter, EVP and General Manager of the Mobility Group. Don't feel too badly for them, though. Total compensation for these five in 2008 came to $12.7m (£8.7m) for Otellini, $2.5m (£1.7m) for Smith, $5.5m (£3.8m) for Bryant, $5.3m (£3.6m) for Maloney, and $4.7m (£3.2m) for Perlmutter - although the latter, as noted in the proxy, is paid in Israeli sheckles, so he has those pesky currency-conversion rates to deal with.
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By Rik Myslewski, 23rd March 2009
Intel will freeze the salaries of its top five officers for 2009 and restructure its stock-option plan, allowing employees to exchange their overpriced options. In the company's Schedule 14a preliminary proxy statement filed on Monday, the Board of Director's Compensation Committee stated that "Given Intel’s financial performance in 2008 as well as uncertainty in the global economic environment, the committee elected to keep base salaries and annual incentive cash baselines flat for all listed officers for 2009." Those "listed officers" are defined in the proxy as the "CEO, Chief Financial Officer (CFO), and three other most highly compensated executive officers in a particular year." This year, that would be Paul Otellini, President, CEO; Stacy Smith, VP and CFO; Andy Bryant, EVP, Finance and Enterprise Services and CAO; Sean M. Maloney, EVP and Chief Sales and Marketing Officer; and David Perlmutter, EVP and General Manager of the Mobility Group. Don't feel too badly for them, though. Total compensation for these five in 2008 came to $12.7m (£8.7m) for Otellini, $2.5m (£1.7m) for Smith, $5.5m (£3.8m) for Bryant, $5.3m (£3.6m) for Maloney, and $4.7m (£3.2m) for Perlmutter - although the latter, as noted in the proxy, is paid in Israeli sheckles, so he has those pesky currency-conversion rates to deal with.
Read more here -->Link
Best Buy Hit with Class Action Suit Over Alleged Anti-Price Match Policy
Judge in New York State certifies class action lawsuit against Best Buy
By Shane McGlaun - March 23, 2009
There was a time when you could find several electronics stores in most major cities around the country. Consumers had options when it came to shopping for gadgets and electronics. As the big box retailers like Walmart, Circuit City, and Best Buy began to proliferate around the country, choices became more limited as smaller firms were forced out of business. Circuit City closed its doors this month for good after it succumbed to the pressure placed on it by competitors like Best Buy. Amid the poor economy, new reports of major retailers having policies and practices in effect that aren’t in the best interest to consumers and doing things that are illegal are beginning to surface. This month, Office Depot found itself in hot water over allegedly lying to customers about notebook stock.
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By Shane McGlaun - March 23, 2009
There was a time when you could find several electronics stores in most major cities around the country. Consumers had options when it came to shopping for gadgets and electronics. As the big box retailers like Walmart, Circuit City, and Best Buy began to proliferate around the country, choices became more limited as smaller firms were forced out of business. Circuit City closed its doors this month for good after it succumbed to the pressure placed on it by competitors like Best Buy. Amid the poor economy, new reports of major retailers having policies and practices in effect that aren’t in the best interest to consumers and doing things that are illegal are beginning to surface. This month, Office Depot found itself in hot water over allegedly lying to customers about notebook stock.
Read more here -->Link
Skype using open-standard SIP for business VoIP service
By Rick C. Hodgin, March 23, 2009
Skype Technologies announced today a beta business-based VoIP service to run on the open-standard SIP (Session Initiation Protocol). The eBay-owned communications company has increases its base to well over 15 million daily users, however eBay would like Skype to be a better financial performer on their balance sheets. As such, a business-class service began last month with 438,000 PBXes shipped, according to IDC. Called Skype For SIP, SIP-compatible PBX owners are able to use both of Skype's desktop-based and handset-based calling technologies. The service would make it free to call any business using Skype as the desktop client. While Skype today offers a handset service, it requires that a PC be in use somewhere to coordinate the handset call with communications over the Internet. Skype's new PBX handles this directly without the need for a specific PC.
Read more here -->Link
Skype Technologies announced today a beta business-based VoIP service to run on the open-standard SIP (Session Initiation Protocol). The eBay-owned communications company has increases its base to well over 15 million daily users, however eBay would like Skype to be a better financial performer on their balance sheets. As such, a business-class service began last month with 438,000 PBXes shipped, according to IDC. Called Skype For SIP, SIP-compatible PBX owners are able to use both of Skype's desktop-based and handset-based calling technologies. The service would make it free to call any business using Skype as the desktop client. While Skype today offers a handset service, it requires that a PC be in use somewhere to coordinate the handset call with communications over the Internet. Skype's new PBX handles this directly without the need for a specific PC.
Read more here -->Link
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