Good news for students and parents: Prices are dropping and quality improving on tech products that have been around for a while, Reuters reports. That includes laptops, DVD players, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and little data storage devices. Reuters cites market research company NPD Group as saying prices have dropped 5% to 10% from last year. And the article points out that Taiwan-based … [Read more...] about Back-to-school tech: Cheaper now
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File-sharing paid-for tunes
It has become a trend: More and more pay-per-tune services are offering file-sharing of tunes their customers purchase. MusicMatch is the latest to join in, the Washington Post reports. "Like Napster 2.0 [and unlike Apple's iTunes], MusicMatch subscribers can share playlists with fellow subscribers and others who don't subscribe to the service," according to the Post. "Unlike Napster, which only … [Read more...] about File-sharing paid-for tunes
Oz porn watchdog: No bite
Once famous for its unusually tough approach (for a democratic country) to Internet porn, the Australian Broadcasting Authority has been found "powerless against offshore [porn] operators," Australian IT reports . The article adds that the ABA shut down only four Australia-based sites last year. But Aussie adult sites aren't the primary problem, apparently. The international, borderless nature of … [Read more...] about Oz porn watchdog: No bite
File-sharers to be ‘unmasked’
This may be a little scary to young music fans and file-swappers, and possibly their parents, because the RIAA sues minors too. A federal judge just made the RIAA (Recording Industry Assoc. of America) very happy by granting its request to "unmask anonymous file-swappers accused of copyright infringement," CNET reports. US District Judge Denny Chin ruled that Cablevision, a broadband Internet … [Read more...] about File-sharers to be ‘unmasked’
Google glitch
Actually, it wasn't just Google, but just having Google down can affect a lot of family and corporate Net researchers. If you tried to do a search and couldn't at Google, AltaVista, Lycos, and possibly Yahoo today, it's because they were attacked by a worm, CNET reported. In a separate article, CNET said that this week's version of the MyDoom worm, working on home and business PCs that had been … [Read more...] about Google glitch