Thursday, September 03, 2009
Comments from "Photo hobbyists snapping up more business''
There's been many interesting, thoughtful comments posted on my story today on how shots from digital photography hobbyists are getting discovered on Flickr or other photo sharing sites and getting published in magazines, newspapers and books.
It's an interesting topic for online debate, like this one about the photographer who received just $30 for a Time magazine cover.
Some of the comments on my story gave more examples of how the use of "microstock" photography (for more on that, go to the end of this post) is spreading. One commenter received $200 from Newsweek magazine for a Flickr photo.
BobMac: Last week, I had the Wall Street Journal ask me about using two of my pictures they saw on Flickr for a special wine section.
wvdirtboy: I have been contacted by publishers four times now about pictures on my Flickr page. One offered to pay me and I suggested $50 ... But I'm just glad to see my stuff out there and who cares if it takes $ away from a professional photographer? Should we ban posting stories on the Web because professional writers may lose readers? It's an evolving world and some people will lose and some people will win - even if they don't win money.
Other comments delve into aspects of the story that the people I interviewed talked about, but I didn't have enough room to explore in the paper. Here are some excerpts from our reader's comments:
califlefty: For those of you who posted that you get a thrill having your picture published for no payment would change their tunes if you found out your boss just brought in an intern to do your job for the learning experience. Guess what, the thrill is that much better when you get a check and the photo credit. Don't give your work away to massive corporations!
amousepotato: I've got maybe 20000 photos of New York and San Francisco I want people to see. This is a great way - a real dream for amateur photographers for their work to be seen.
Daveinthecity: This is a bad thing for everyone. Yes, it's killing the profession by taking work away from the pros, but also by preventing any chance of ever becoming a pro. There's no way for anyone to make a career out of photography if all the publishers are just going with cheap amateurs. So the profession's dead and everybody loses. Read More »
| Sep 03 at 12:45 PM
AT&T;: iPhone MMS messaging coming Sept. 25
Well, the wait for MMS multimedia messaging on the iPhone is finally coming to an end.
AT&T; said today that the feature, which has been a glaring omission on the iPhone 3G and new 3GS, will arrive on Sept. 25. It's not quite the "late summer" launch that AT&T; promised but we'll take it.
Why the delay? Well, AT&T; said earlier that it was because the company was "finalizing internal system upgrades." Other has speculated that AT&T; is just overwhelmed with data traffic on the iPhone and is racing to catch up to it.
At any rate, it's nice to see that it's finally almost here. Now what about that iPhone tethering promise?
| Sep 03 at 11:14 AM
HTC Hero headed to Sprint next month
I've yet to lay my hands on the HTC Hero but the wait will soon be over. The powerful Android device is headed to Sprint for an Oct. 11 launch, the carrier announced today.
This gives Sprint its first Android phone and it allows U.S. phone lovers a chance to try what I think is likely the best Android phone out there this year.
The device resembles the MyTouch 3G with Google from T-Mobile but it should include a new feature called HTC Sense, which allows you to personalize your home page, set up profiles for work, weekends and play and also organize more content according to the people in your life.
The HTC Hero's got a 5 megapixel camera and a 3.5 mm headphone jack. It's also got multi-touch for that cool pinching maneuver to zoom. The European version of the Hero also sports Flash support for watching web videos though it's unclear if the Sprint model will get that feature.
The HTC Hero will go on sale Oct. 11 for $179.99 with a two-year contract and after $150 in rebates.
This is more good news for Google as it rolls out more devices based on its Android operating system. There was supposed to be at least 18 devices by year's end. Expect to hear more news on Android devices including possibly the Hero showing up on the AT&T; network by year's end.
| Sep 03 at 07:24 AM
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
Google Books: I like them Sam I am
Google Inc. pointed out today that the estate of Dr. Seuss intends to file a letter in support of the pending legal settlement that would allow the search titan to forge ahead with plans to make millions of books searchable online.
"The settlement may offer a new opportunity for authors of out-of-print books to find new audiences and new sources of income for their works," the letter drafted by law firm DLA Piper LLP reads. "We believe this is likely to be an important benefit for the authors' community, for readers and for researchers."
Since the Mountain View company has been spreading word of this -- the New York Times also mentioned it in a blog post today -- it clearly views the news as a bit of a public relations coup.
Perhaps the underlying message is that, a la "Green Eggs and Ham," authors and publishers will like it if they just give it a chance.
As the Sept. 4 deadline for filing opinions or opting out of the agreement fast approaches, a growing number of opponents seem to believe otherwise. They do not like the deal in a box, with a fox, with a mouse, in a house, here or there, or anywhere. Read More »
| Sep 02 at 04:49 PM
YouTube in talks to rent movies
In what could represent yet another nail in the coffin of movie rental stores, YouTube is reportedly in talks with major studios on a plan to allow users to stream videos for a rental fee.
The San Bruno video site is in talks with Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., Sony Corp. and Warner Bros. about adding new titles to its line up of free older movies and television shows, the Wall Street Journal reported today, citing "people familiar with the company's plans."
It would be the Google subsidiary's first foray into charging for content but just the latest in a series of services allowing users to rent movies without leaving the house, including those offered by Netflix Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc.'s iTunes. Read More »
| Sep 02 at 02:19 PM
NFL tries to tackle social networks
The National Football League has become the latest sports body to try to tame the use of social networks.
The NFL, which has an official Twitter account, issued a new edict this week banning "coaches, players and football operations personnel'' or anyone representing them from updating their status on Twitter, Facebook or other social media during games and up to 90 minutes before and after.
The ban also includes halftime, but players and other NFL personnel are free to tweet on their own time.
Oakland Raiders fans may be thinking this is the league's latest slight against the Silver and Black, especially since three Raiders are prolific Twitter users - Kirk Morrison (kirkmorrison52), Thomas Howard (Mr53) and Darren McFadden (dmcfadden20).
But perhaps nobody wants to see loquacious Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chad Ochocinco score a touchdown and immediately uStream his reaction on "The Ocho Cinco Show."
Yet the league also throws the flag on the media's use of social networks to post updates during games. Here's part of a statement from the NFL:
"Internet sites may not post detailed information that approximates play-by-play during a game. While a game is in progress, any forms of accounts of the game must be sufficiently time-delayed and limited in amount (e.g., score updates with detail given only in quarterly game updates) so that the accredited organization's game coverage cannot be used as a substitute for, or otherwise approximate, authorized play-by-play accounts."
Understandably, the league is trying to protect its multimillion dollar TV and radio contracts. But critics say the policy could prevent traditional media from using live blogs, Twitter or other technologies that are fast becoming standard tools for journalists.
And it comes in an era when the term "citizen journalists" means anyone with a blog, Twitter or Facebook account and a smart phone can send game updates from anywhere at any time.
Last month, the Southeastern Conference, a powerhouse in college athletics, announced a wide-ranging policy that would have banned fans coming into stadiums from using Twitter, Facebook or texting.
That policy generated a storm of criticism and, after further review, the SEC quickly issued a revision that OK'd the use of social networks for everything except posting videos of game action.
An SEC spokesman said the conference's intent all along was to protect its lucrative new TV and online streaming contracts with CBS and ESPN.
The original SEC policy was "clearly unenforceable,'' said Jeffrey Modisett, an attorney with Bryan Cave LLP. "Are you going to ban all cell phones from the stadium? What are you going to do when you catch people on a social network site?"
"All of these entities that are thinking of banning social networking sites need to learn how to adapt instead of just reflexively banning the technology,'' Modisett said. "You can't ban Facebook and Twitter any more than you can ban the post office."
| Sep 02 at 11:39 AM
Tuesday, September 01, 2009
Gmail: And we're back
Gmail appears to be up and running again.
Google Inc. hasn't yet responded to an inquiry about how long the service was down and how widespread the outage was.
Analysts say these sort of technical glitches underline one of the major challenges to cloud computing. Businesses and consumers will only full heartedly adopt online applications and data storage if they are assured they can access them whenever they need to. Technical snafus like today (and February 24, March 11, April 16 and May 8) undermine that confidence. That's especially true for businesses, which Google is increasingly targeting with its online e-mail and office applications.
"This is one of the reasons that corporate e-mail has not moved to the cloud," said Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies in Campbell. "Under no circumstances do they want to have the system taken down."
In fairness, corporate e-mail accounts, home DSL lines and traditional software have a nasty habit of malfunctioning on occasion too.
| Sep 01 at 03:05 PM
Access to Gmail: denied
UPDATE: Google says the outage has been fixed. No word on the cause of the problem.
Google's Gmail service is down.
We've been experiencing the problem for the last half hour or so. No word on when it will be fixed but Google posted an update on its Gmail blog.
"We know many of you are having trouble accessing Gmail right now -- we are too, and we definitely feel your pain," wrote David Besbris, Engineering Director. "We don't usually post about minor issues here (the Apps status dashboard and the Gmail Help Center are usually where this kind of information goes). Because this is impacting so many of you, we wanted to let you know we're currently looking into the issue and hope to have more info to share here shortly. If you have IMAP or POP set up already, you should be able to access your mail that way in the meantime. We're terribly sorry for the inconvenience and will get Gmail back up and running as soon as possible."
Earlier this year, Google had a large outage for a couple of hours on February 24. Smaller outages occurred on March 11, April 16 and May 8.
So is this causing problems in your life today? How are you dealing?
| Sep 01 at 01:19 PM
Ebay sells most of Skype in deal that values phone service at $2.75 billion
Ebay is ending its days as majority owner of Skype, selling 2/3 of the Voice over Internet Protocol service to a group of investors.
The deal calls for eBay to sell 65 percent of the company to a group of investors led by Silver Lake, Index Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) Investment Board for $1.9 billion. That values Skype overall at $2.75 billion.
Ebay will still retain a 35 percent equity stake in Skype. The sale is expected to close in the fourth quarter.
"This is a great deal, unlocking both immediate and long-term value for eBay and tremendous potential for Skype," said eBay Inc. President and CEO John Donahoe. "We've acted decisively on a deal that delivers a high valuation, gives us significant cash up-front and lets us retain a meaningful minority stake with talented partners. Skype is a strong standalone business, but it does not have synergies with our e-commerce and online payments businesses. As a separate company, we believe that Skype will have the focus required to compete effectively in online voice and video communications and accelerate its growth momentum."
The deal should be positive for eBay, letting it unload much of a company that did not provide the benefits first imagined. And it's doing so at a price that doesn't punish the company much for the controversial move.
When eBay under Meg Whitman bought Skype in 2005 for $2.6 billion, Whitman said the deal would give the e-commerce giant an important tool in its arsenal and good synergy opportunities. Others saw it as a move to keep Skype from falling into the hands of Google.
The synergies never really materialized and eBay eventually had to write down its purchase of Skype by $1.4 billion. After exploring an initial public offering earlier this year, eBay began quietly entertaining offers for a sale of Skype.
Skype is still a good success story on its own, it just didn't make much sense for eBay. Last year, Skype recorded revenues of $551 million, a 44 percent increase over 2007. Skype also had 405 million registered users by the end of 2008, a 47 percent increase from 2007.
| Sep 01 at 08:12 AM
Monday, August 31, 2009
Apple schedules music media event Sept. 9
Apple
Apple has made its upcoming iTunes music media event official.
On Sept. 9 at 10 a.m., Apple will be unveiling some music-related news, according to an email invitation sent out an hour ago. Apple is calling it a special event and is holding it at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.
This all gibes with earlier rumors of a music event for Apple on this date. And it falls in line with their general pattern of scheduling such events in the early fall.
So what can we expect to see? Well, the obvious bet would be updated iPods, this time with cameras most likely. We should also see a new social networking feature for iTunes. And we could hear about the rumored Cocktail project, a plan by Apple to bundle digital music with extras like images, videos, liner notes and more.
The latest general reports suggest that we shouldn't expect to see the much talked about Apple Tablet. That seems to be headed for a later unveiling, most likely early next year.
Could Steve Jobs take over the ring-leading duties? It would be a nice surprise and his first public appearance since returning to work after liver transplant surgery.
And though the tagline for the event, "It's only rock and roll but we like it," references the Rolling Stones, there is a very outside chance we might hear something about the Beatles catalog finally coming to iTunes. Sept. 9 is also the launch date of the video game Rock Band: The Beatles. And EMI Music is also set to release a re-mastered CD catalog of Beatles music on Sept. 9. So who knows?
Your thoughts? What would you like Apple to talk about?
| Aug 31 at 10:03 AM
