Class action nano suit expands

The class action lawsuit against Apple over the iPod nano has expanded with new complaints from international customers. The Seattle law firm handling the case tells me they have heard from disgruntled consumers in every U.S. state and 15 countries who claim the nano screen is of poor quality and easily scratched. Class action suit against Apple expands.

My nano is still holding up fine. Apple claims scratches and cracks have only affected less than 1 tenth of a percent of the iPod nanos the company has shipped and that was the result of a quality issue with a vendor that has long since been corrected.
Any nano users out there reading this who have noticed a problem?

Mainstream media’s collapse

If you want to see the stunning ways America’s entertainment and media habits have changed, check out Mainstream Media Meltdown over on The Long Tail. Besides the continuing collapse of newspaper circulating, all the other mainstream media forms are in serious decline.
The Internet, podcasting, video on demand, personal music and video players are all contributing factors but I think a changed society where we all live such jam-packed schedules is of equal cause.
Our time is too valuable to be wasted by drivel.
Take the other day, for example. I do a regular technology report for an FM radio station in Detroit. We tape the segment a few days before but I’ve never heard it air. The other day, I happened to be in the car on the way somewhere when the time for my report approached.
I tuned in to try and catch it and, for ten minutes, heard one song and two commercial breaks of seven and eight commercials each. They were loud, irritating and innane and so painful to sit through that I ended up turning the station off before arriving at my desitnation and before my spot came on.
Now if commericals are so irritating that I won’t even wait hear myself, what about others?
That’s radio. TV commercials are the same. I can’t honestly remember the last time I sat through a local TV news broadcast, that’s how irritating and irrlevant they have become with their promos and ads. Watching commercial-free video on my iPod or through Comcast’s On-Demand is much less painful.
I can understand, too, why newspaper circulation is down. In an instant, multimedia Internet world, getting news online, also on demand, is much more useful than reading day-old news in a printed newspaper. That’s why so  many newspapers are frantically trying to reinvent themselves and  beefing up their Internet offerings.
Music sales are down, too. The Internet is again the reason why.
Magazines are totally irrelevant, unless they are highly specialized and niche driven. Even then, the Net is a better outlet.
So all these trends don’t really concern me. I think the Net will fill the void in the way we get and consume news and entertainment just fine.
One thing depresses me: The drop in book sales. We just don’t read much anymore, I guess. That’s the byproduct of all these changes and one area I don’t see the Net providing a more efficient alternative.
Technology has made us too impatient to sit down and read. We’ve lost the habit.

The end of software as we know it

In effect, that’s what Bill Gates says in a memo leaked to the Associated Press describing what’s happened because of Internet-based software and services, as pioneered by Google and Yahoo.
“The next sea change is upon us,” Gates wrote to executives.
The Gates memo tells Microsoft execs to shift toward offering more free, advertising-supported online offerings and more sophisticated, Internet-based methods of delivering products.

Women love ringtones

Ever wondered who is doing all those ringtone downloads?  Nearly 70 Percent of All Ringtones Downloaded Are Purchased by Women.

On Demand craze growing

First it was Apple and it’s $1.99 on-demand release of ABC-TV Shows like Lost and Desperate Housewives. Now, CBS is partnering with Comcast and NBC with DirecTV to do the same thing, at a cheaper price. NBC, CBS to offer shows on demand for 99 cents.
This promises to be one of the bigggest shakeups in the way television programs are distributed and viewed and paid for. The culture has changed. People no longer want to be tied down to specific times to watch specific programs.
And they’re willing to pay for watching those shows when they want, not when a network decides. Add the fact that the shows are commercial-free - an hour long episode is about 40 minutes - and the on-demand habit becomes very appealing.
The question is will the revenue from on-demand fees equal the lost revenue from advertisers?

Notebooks outselling desktop computers

According to the Gartner Inc. tech research firm, 55 million notebook computers were sold in the third quarter of 2005, a 17.2% increase from last year. One reason for the surge in sales: Prices have dropped. In my Free Press column today, I look at one of the new notebooks that illustrate how useful and powerful they’ve become. MIKE WENDLAND: Notebooks push aside desktop PCs; Toshiba has example of why.

Grokster is no more

And another one bites the dust as the recording industry gets the Grokster Web site to shut down. Grokster to close in RIAA settlement.

Satellite maps to your mobile phone

We keep being able to do more and more via cell phone. Google Teams With Yahoo For Mobile Services.

Microsoft May Buy Stake in AOL

Now wouldn’t that be something? Microsoft leading AOL suitor.

Google maps a big hit

So if you started digging a hole in your back yard, where would you end up if you went straight through the earth to the other side? Those and all sorts of other questions are being explored as folks do “mashups” of the hugely popular Google mapping service. Offbeat uses for Google Maps

More TV show for iTunes?

CBS-TV says it may join ABC in releasing video content through Apple’s iTunes Music Store.
It already is posting digital versions of its “Threshold” sci-fi show on the CBS.com site. CBS-TV puts series online. Officials at the network confirmed that they are discussing a deal with Apple.
I think all the networks will soon be on board.
I know I’ve gotten hooked on watching video via iPod, in my case the ABC-TV show “Lost.” Until the video iPod, I had never watched the show. But I’ve been eagerly snatching up each episode as its released on the Apple site.
I suspect I’m not alone.

New digital TV date

You’ve got a little over three years before you have to dump that old analog TV and get a new digital one. HDTV really is coming. Senate Sets 2009 Digital TV Deadline

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