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No, people won’t pay for online news: survey

Technology Expert — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 15:27:00 +0000

The Pew Research Project's State of the News Media 2010 report shows some dismal news for newspapers, like the New York Times, that plan to charge for online news. Of those surveyed, only 7 percent said they would be willing to pay for access to any news site.

While the Wall Street Journal stands out as a pay-for-access site, requiring a subscription for much of its content, the New York Times would be the first general newspaper of size to do so. It announced its plans in late January of this year, and scheduled the change for the beginning of 2011. The plan will essentially be metered: users will be able to view a certain number of stories per month, before being prompted to pay.

If you're not going to pay for news at a site, a consumer should expect ads. And 81 percent say they do not mind ads if it means they can get the content free. However, that could be because a) they simply ignore them, b) they use some sort of ad blocker. 79 percent said they never or rarely click on ads.

Additionally, loyalty isn't a big deal among online news readers. Only 35 percent of online news readers have a favorite site, with most consumers using multiple sites. However, of those, 57 percent rely on just two to five sites.

That loyalty equation extends to the "paywell" that some sites are thinking of putting up, requiring pay-to-view. 82 percent of those with a favorite site said they would switch if a paywall was erected.

The report also discusses other media sources, such as cable news. For the portion of the survey focused on online news, the project surveyed 2,259 people from Dec. 28, 2009, to Jan. 19, 2010. The margin of error is plus or minus five percentage points.

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SEX WORLD — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:38:00 +0000

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SEX WORLD — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:29:00 +0000

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Shyama Prasad Cast Nayanthara and Manisha Koirala as Heroine For Next Movie ‘ Electra’

Tharadas179 — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 11:31:00 +0000

Nayanthara the South Indian Dream girl and Bollywood old hottie Manisha koirala Joins for the latest expedition of his next movie.The next movie Shyama Prasad is planning to titled as 'Electra'.South Indian Hot Sizzler Nayantara doing the lead role. And along with Nayan, there would also be Manisha Koirala, who had captured our hearts with her sensational performances in several films, doing a chief role in the film.In all probability, Manisha would be playing Nayantara's mother in the film. Prakash Raj and Nishan would also be seen in other key roles.
As the title itself suggests, the film is based on a Greek play and would have music by Ouseppachan. Produced by Vindhyan, 'Electra' would go on the floors shortly.

Tags:Shyama Prasad next movie,Shyama Prasad movie cast and crew.Nayanthara with Shyama Prasad,Nayanthara and Manisha Koirala,Nayanrhara latest news,Nayanthara movies

Sneha Super Hot Blue picture from video

Indian Film City — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 09:07:00 +0000

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Indian Film City — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 09:06:00 +0000

The iPhone: forbidden fruit at Microsoft’s campus

Technology Expert — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 07:05:00 +0000

This is a story that should surprise no one, but the Wall Street Journal still made it "news" on Saturday: Apple's iPhone is "forbidden fruit" on the Microsoft campus.

Numerous past stories point to the iPhone being an embarrassment for those caught with it at Microsoft, at least by a senior executive. After all, Bill Gates' children can't get an iPod or iPhone, Microsoft will only pay for the data plans of Windows Mobile phones, and CEO Steve Ballmer "confiscated" an iPhone at Microsoft's annual private company meeting in September of 2009.

Long ago, before the iPhone was launched, it was poor form to be using an iPod at the campus, as well.

While the disdain of Microsoft's execs at the iPhone is well-known, what might not be is the following incident:

At a retreat last March for dozens of senior Microsoft executives at its corporate campus, someone asked about employee use of iPhones in a question-and-answer period.

According to several people present, Andy Lees, a Microsoft senior vice president who oversees development of the mobile-phone software business, and his boss, Robbie Bach, explained that Microsoft workers often use rival products to better understand the competition (yeah, right).

Kevin Turner, chief operating officer, scoffed at that explanation, these people said. Mr. Turner said he discouraged Microsoft's sales force from using the iPhone, they added. "What's good for the field is good for Redmond," Mr. Turner said, recalls one of the people who heard his comments.

Meanwhile, Steve Ballmer told a story about how his father worked for Ford, and that his family always drove Fords. Of course, let's not forget that at the time Ballmer was a child, Ford was a dominant car company globally, not like now, and let's also not forget the discount employees would get for buying from "the company."

Meanwhile, some employees have taken a "better safe than sorry attitude."

One Microsoft worker said he knows several colleagues who try to disguise their iPhones with cases that make them look more like generic handsets.

"Maybe once a year I'm in a meeting with Steve Ballmer," said this employee. "It doesn't matter who's calling, I'm not answering my phone."

In January, Bill Gates appeared on "The Daily Show," and was asked by host Jon Stewart if he can have an iPhone since leaving full-time duties at Microsoft in 2008. "I'm a very loyal Microsoft user," Gates replied.

Watch a video of that appearance below:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Bill Gates

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show
Full Episodes

Political Humor

Health Care Reform

Blogger (finally) adds a Template Designer

Technology Expert — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 07:04:00 +0000

Blogger has made its first major update in some time. For those tired (really, really tired) of the limited selection of templates available, it's (finally) launched a template designer, as of last Thursday.

Of course, there were a number of sites that you could access to customized templates that went directly into the actual source code of templates to create new ones, and you could even muck with the HTML yourself. Still, none of those were supported by Blogger, and some of them caused issues.

With the template designer, currently only available by logging Blogger's "experimental" login site, Blogger in Draft, you can start with a number of newly designed templates, customize them further, even down to (finally) being able to alter widths of columns, use stock photos for backgrounds, and more. You'll find the Blogger Designer when you login at Blogger in Draft and go into your Layout tab (as above).

Click into the Template Designer and you'll see the above. Below it will be a live preview of your site. From there you can drop into one of the sub-categories, even to Advanced where you can modify individual portions of your blog.

Here's what Blogger said:

Here’s what we’re launching today to Blogger in Draft:
15 new, highly-customizable templates from our design team, split into four families: Simple, Picture Window, Awesome Inc, and Watermark
One-, two-, and three-column layouts for each template, with complete control over the size and arrangement of the columns
Hundreds of background images and patterns from iStockphoto, the leading microstock image marketplace
Tips from the Blogger Team
Get your links to match a background image quickly by using the Background panel’s “Main color theme” to adjust all of your blog’s colors at once. This works particularly well with Simple’s second design.
With a three-column footer, you can fit in several gadgets to interest your readers after they’re done reading your post. For inspiration, read Derek Powazek’s post, “Embrace your bottom!”
If you’re using our new Pages feature, put the Page List gadget in the wide section at the top of your blog. We’ve added unique tab designs to all of the new templates.
Many of the patterns in the background image picker are semi-transparent, to let your blog’s background color show through. Look for the “transparency page curl” to see which patterns these are.
The Attribution gadget (added to the footer by all new templates) is there to give credit not just to the designer and artist of the background image, but to you as well. Edit its settings by clicking “Edit” on Layout > Page Elements to add your own authorship or copyright information.

Additional information: IE6 is not supported in either the Template Designer or with the new templates. Based on recent announcements by Google with regards to IE6 and some of its services, this is not surprising. Frankly, those still using IE6 really need to move on.

Blogger will be adding more templates, images, features, and images as the Designer works out its kinks. Remember that Blogger in Draft is basically Blogger in Beta. One thing of note is that the gadgets (such as advertising widgets) you may have carefully placed on your blog will probably appear after using the Designer, but most likely not in the same location, even if the design appears close to the original. You'll have to relocate them manually, but at least, probably won't have to recreate them.

The War Between Google and Apple

Technology Expert — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 07:01:00 +0000

The New York Times has an interesting piece on the falling out between Google and Apple. The rancor has reached the point where, according to once unnamed source, "It’s World War III." What brought the two companies to this point, such that we may even see Microsoft's Bing replacing Google on the iPhone, if things work out as rumored?

After all, when the first-generation iPhone was launched, Google CEO Eric Schmidt was on-stage with Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Schmidt joked that the collaboration between the two, necessary to get Google's services on the iPhone, was so close that companies should be merged and called “AppleGoo.” He added, “Steve, my congratulations to you. This product is going to be hot.”

Of course, the iPhone was, and is, hot. Then came Google's Android platform, which Jobs feels was a stab in the back.

During an all-hands meeting shortly after the iPad was introduced in January, Jobs went on a rant about Google: “We did not enter the search business. They entered the phone business. Make no mistake: Google wants to kill the iPhone. We won’t let them.” He also added, “Don’t be evil is a load of crap” (originally reported as Jobs saying it was "bullsh*t").

It is doubtful the Android platform will "kill" the iPhone. However, many analysts believe that Android will eventually overtake the iPhone. The reasons should be common sense to anyone watching the industry:

The iPhone, because of its App Store and rather draconian policies over what can and cannot be installed on the device, is a closed system. Android is not. The singular example of Google Voice is obvious.

The iPhone comes (at least so far) in one form factor per year. Android phones are shipping in many varieties, with more to come. To consumers who like differentiation, this may eventually be an issue.

While the iPhone's App Store far outstrips Android in terms of the sheer number of apps, exactly how many of those are truly useful? The better-known apps will show up on Android, if they haven't already. Of course, there are apps that may never show up on Android, such as, say, an app for your favorite bank. Many of those are simply an easy way to get into the web site of the company involved, and can still be done via Android's browser, which is just as capable as the iPhone's, at least for now.

Therein lies the rub, of course: "at least for now." While Apple has not sued Google over the Android platform, it has sued one of Google's hardware partners, HTC. Google, quite naturally, said it will back its partner. Multi-touch, for example, is at issue in the fight, and that allows pinch-to-zoom functionality, something highly valued by consumers. Loss of such features to iPhone exclusivity will surely hurt Android adoption.

It's not just Google that's "picking on" Apple. Its Android partners are as well. Verizon, which reportedly passed on the iPhone, has made no bones about AT&T's coverage issues, which many iPhone users are aware of. They also were quick to point out that things the iPhone can't do, the Droid can.

It's not just about smartphones, either. The NYT points out that Apple made an offer of $600 million for AdMob, the mobile ad company, but after requiring a 45-day routine clause that prevented the start-up from shopping itself to others, Apple inexplicably let the 45 days pass. Once the period expired, Google immediately pounced.

Within three days of the no-shop provision's expiration, Google announced it had agreed to buy AdMob, for $750 million, a 25 percent premium over Apple's offer. In addition, Google made sure to point out that it, unlike Apple, was an old pro in advertising, and thus better suited to AdMob. Finally, the company also promised that AdMob employees would be able to cash out stock options sooner than Apple’s deal would have allowed.

An unnamed source told the NYT:

“There is no way AdMob would have gotten $750 million if he (Eric Schmidt) wasn’t worried that it would end up in the hands of Steve. Are they going to get $750 million in cash flow back? No way.”

Apple settled for seconds, signing a deal with Quattro Wireless, an AdMob rival, for close to $300 million in January. Of course, AdMob was the prize fruit in all this pursuit. This, and the contentiousness over Android and HTC, signal that Apple and Google's World War III is nowhere near an end.

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RSK — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 05:17:00 +0000

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