Google Buzz bug spotlights tepid usage

by Tom Krazit

Six months after its debut, it's becoming clear that Google Buzz has yet to become the social-media breakthrough that Google craves.

That's because if a Buzz falls on the Internet and nobody hears it, it never really happened. Popular tech podcaster and blogger Leo Laporte discovered over the weekend that two weeks' worth of Buzz posts set to be public never actually showed up in his public feed.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-30684_3-20014442-265.html?tag=topStories1

UK Anti-P2P Lawyer Faces Disciplinary Tribunal

Written by Jared Moya

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) decides to refer Andrew Crossley of ACS Law to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) following complaints over the firm’s practice of sending ‘bullying’ letters to people it accused of illegal file-sharing.

Back in May of last year a new law firm called ACS: Lawsprang up to take on the battle of illegal file-sharing, sending out P2P “settlement” letter en masse on behalf of a number of different copyright folders.

http://www.zeropaid.com/news/90357/uk-anti-p2p-lawyer-faces-disciplinary-tribunal/

uTorrent’s New Privacy Settings Cause Confusion

Written by Ernesto 

A few days ago the uTorrent team updated the 3.0 release with several privacy features. Due to some unfortunate wording, the new feature caused confusion among users. One of the new options, “do not share your IP with peers”, led some to believe that uTorrent had implemented a new feature that makes BitTorrent transfers anonymous.

A day before we published an article on how BitTorrent users can hide their identities from the outside world , the uTorrent development team released build 21340 of the uTorrent 3.0 client.

http://torrentfreak.com/utorrents-new-privacy-settings-cause-confusion-100823/

California moves to outlaw online "e-personation"

By Nate Anderson 

Hoping to administer a powerful sockdolager to online fraudsters, the California legislature passed a bill earlier this month that makes it illegal to impersonate someone else online.

Its backer, state senator Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto), says that the old laws against fraud or defamation just aren't cutting it anymore. "In the age of the Internet, pretending to be someone else is as easy as using their name to create a new e-mail account. When that is done to cause harm, folks need a law on the books they can turn to," he said. "New laws are needed to crack down on this form of harassment."

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/08/california-moves-to-outlaw-online-e-personation.ars

Samsung Blu-ray players won't play Warner, Universal movies after firmware update, require a rollback

By Richard Lawler 

As annoying as continuous Blu-ray player updates are, usually having the latest one is the best way to play more movies. Unfortunately the opposite was the case for Samsung (again) with the v2.09 update posted recently for its 2009 BD-Px600 line of players. Forum posters on CNETand AVSForum report the upgrade blocked them from playing Universal and Warner Bros. 

http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/22/samsung-blu-ray-players-wont-play-warner-universal-movies-afte/

Amazon Kindle Third Generation With 3G + Wi-Fi
by Steven Levy

Though Amazon.com won't say how many units it has sold, its Kindle e-reader has been a tremendous success for the e-commerce giant. Some analysts estimate Amazon sold 3 million before this year, and will double that total in 2010. Despite some predictions that the iPad and other Web-oriented tablets would start the Kindle doom clock ticking, its continued popularity bodes well for the future of single-purpose long-form reading devices.

http://www.wired.com/reviews/product/pr_kindle3

Will Prior Art Doom Apple’s Anti-Theft iPhone Patent?

 by Drew Wilson

There’s a bit of commotion with a new patent request by Apple over on Slashdottoday. The claim is that Apple is creating a new patent to stop jailbreaking.

About a month ago, we reported that a review of the DMCA put forth the possibility of jailbreaking ones phone without breaking anti-circumvention laws (though this is under a set of specific circumstances). A court also ruled that the act of circumvention in and of itself does not constitute infringement.

http://www.zeropaid.com/news/90351/will-prior-art-doom-apples-anti-theft-iphone-patent/

Nokia drops Nokia from Nokia Music

What's an Ovi?

By Andrew Orlowski 

The world's biggest mobile company is to remove the obscure and confusing "Nokia" branding from its key strategic music service, Comes With Music, and lavish it with the world-renowned and highly respected "Ovi" brand, instead. The news didn't merit an official announcement, but was leaked to bloggers instead. A spokesperson explained the move: "The new name is also simpler for music fans around the world to understand, and when presented in local language, will better communicate our truly local service proposition in each market. In doing so, we are giving our users a simplified, Ovi-branded experience."

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/08/20/not_nokia_music/

U2 manager still thinks ISPs are freeloading

by Matt Rosoff

This month's U.K. edition of GQ Magazine contains a fairly substantial article from U2 manager Paul McGuinness in which he blames Internet service providers and technology companies directly for the falling sales of recorded music. As he notes in the article, he made a speech on this subject about two years ago and was roundly criticized by various "anonymous bloggers." I've never been anonymous, but I did point out some of the factual inaccuracies and weird assumptions in his speech at the time.

I can't speak for anonymous bloggers everywhere, but I've never said that recorded music should be free
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13526_3-20014322-27.html?tag=topTechContentWrap;trendingNow

Sony unveils 'Single Wire Interface Technology'

by John Messina

Enlarge

Sony aims to improve design flexibility, reliability and durability for mobile devices with movable mechanisms. Credit: Sony Corp.

(PhysOrg.com) -- With Sony's newly-developed 'single wire interface technology' bi-directional transmission of multiple signals, including video, audio and control signals can propagate over a single copper cable. DC power is also sent along the same cable by using Sony's unique encoding technology with DC balance.

http://www.physorg.com/news201522551.html