Articles by Fred J. Aun

Adult movie makers in Japan have apparently found a way to have their wares mass-produced on Blu-ray Discs, something that has been hampered, to date, by Sony's antipornography policies A Japanese company is creating adult films on the Blu-ray Disc format at a disc production facility in Taiwan that has the Sony equipment, according to reports from...

Google and YouTube are planning to unveil copyright protection technology that goes above and beyond what some observers think is even possible A Google lawyer told a judge that Google it is creating a database of video "fingerprints" and a system that will match them against uploaded clips to screen out those that appear to be copyrighted, accordi...

Linden Lab, the creator of the massive Second Life online virtual world, is facing heat from its customers after this week's decision to ban gambling from the pseudo-reality realm The comments filed by members on the Second Life blog, where the gambling ban was announced, range from concerned to mad-as-hell. Despite the mostly negative reaction, Li...

A federal judge on Wednesday gave the founders of Facebook challenger ConnectU two weeks to shore up their case against the popular social networking site, indicating he thinks the lawsuit is based on a shaky foundation The plaintiffs contend Mark Zuckerberg surreptitiously stole their idea for a Web site that could be used by college students to c...

Social networking Web site MySpace has found and purged more than 29,000 sexual predators using the site, a number described by Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal as an "exploding epidemic." The figure is more than quadruple the amount MySpace said it found two months ago. In May, MySpace -- which allows users to create their own Web p...

A federal judge in Boston is set to hear arguments this week in a case that accuses Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg of stealing the code on which he built his massively popular Web site. The lawsuit could at least damage the young Web 2.0 entrepreneur's reputation, and at worst result in a Facebook shutdown Cameron Winklevoss, his brother Tyler an...

The price war between movie rental companies Blockbuster and Netflix continued Sunday when Netflix slashed by US$1 the price of two DVD rental subscription plans The $1 reduction will benefit most of Netflix's 6 million customers because it affects two of its most popular rental packages, Netflix said. The price cut will lure many prospective custo...

You can't label it a Web operating system. Don't refer to it as a simple platform or a bunch of applications. Yes, you can accurately call Parakey "acquired." The hard-to-describe startup, created by Mozilla Firefox cofounders Blake Ross and Joe Hewitt, is now owned by Facebook. The deal is the first acquisition for the social networking utility ba...

A new company called "Ooma" is introducing a peer-to-peer (P2P) Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) network that will result in free domestic calling for its customers, a concept it says will revolutionize home telephony The Silicon Valley company, which includes industry veterans such as TiVo cofounder Mike Ramsay and Napster cofounder Sean Parker...

The newest -- and thinnest -- BlackBerry smartphone from Research In Motion (RIM) includes GPS (Global Positioning System), new media player enhancements, an expandable memory slot and the ability to connect to the Internet via WiFi The BlackBerry 8820's multiple methods of connectivity are "unprecedented," for a RIM smartphone, said RIM President ...

Get ready for easy-to-use home servers. With Monday's release to manufacturers of the long-awaited Windows Home Server (WHS) software, vendors will be putting the devices on the market this fall There once was a time when homes with more than one PC were rare. However, now a modern household can have multiple networked computers, a situation that c...

Ever pushing the computing speed limit, Intel says its new Core 2 Extreme mobile dual-core processor is the world's highest-performing notebook chip The company, in announcing the new processor, said there is a big demand for high-performance processors for notebooks being used by "hardcore gamers, artists and media enthusiasts." Intel pointed out ...

Boldly claiming "the future of PC navigation starts now," peripheral vendor Logitech has unveiled a laser mouse that uses motion-control and wireless technology so users can click, scroll and perform other control functions while holding the unit in the air from across a room The new Logitech MX Air rechargeable cordless air mouse will become avail...

Lagging behind Nintendo in the handheld gaming device market, Sony has shaved some size and weight from the PlayStation Portable (PSP), added more memory and fitted it with a video port The new US$200 model will hit stores in September, the company said....

A Hollywood talent agency and an Internet advertising company are joining forces in a new venture designed to help create, find advertisers for and distribute over the Web professionally produced short-form video content The new company, 60Frames Entertainment, has secured US$3.5 million in funding from institutional and individual investors includ...

Reacting to changes in Internet browsing fostered by Web 2.0 applications, Internet market research company Nielsen//NetRatings is adding to its toolbox two new ways of measuring Web site use The company's NetView syndicated Internet audience measurement service will now include "Total Minutes" and "Total Sessions" metrics, Nielsen//NetRatings said...

After initially denying it had plans to cut the price of its PlayStation 3 gaming console, Sony on Sunday announced a hefty price reduction and announced a new PS3 model As recently as Friday, Sony's president told Reuters there were no plans to cut the PS3 price, something observers expected was coming because the console's sales continue to lag b...

Conceding many Xbox 360 gaming consoles were built with a flaw that resulted in system crashes, Microsoft is tripling the system's warranty, upgrading its design and reimbursing those who paid for repairs The initiative will cost up to US$1.15 billion, the company said....

With nary a press release or even an announcement on its Web site, eBay has started offering its Kijiji free online classified ad service to people in the United States The rollout of Kijiji in the U.S. puts it in direct competition with free online classified ad pioneer -- and leader -- Craigslist. The fact that eBay owns a 25 percent interest in ...

In what could be a victory for Microsoft and a blow to the open source community, the state of Massachusetts has added Microsoft's Office Open XML standard to its list of potential standards it will allow for government use The inclusion of Office Open XML came in the latest version of Massachusetts' Enterprise Technical Reference Model (ETRM), a r...