 |
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
(via -
Mashable! )
I read it on 03/18/10 at 06:36 PM
Posted on 03/18/10 at 10:01 PM
|
   Universal Music Group will drop the prices on the majority of its new CD releases to between six and 10 dollars. This plan dubbed the Velocity program will go into effect in the second quarter of this year.
UMG hopes this plan will at least slow the serious decline in CD sales that has been going on since MP3s and other digital music downloads came on the scene. While UMG has its hands in music downloads and streaming, too, the profit margins are usually better with CDs. UMG claims that its cheaper CD plan will maintain a 25% profit margin. Up until now, most new CDs have actually been more expensive than their download counterparts. If the price comes down, consumers will be more likely to purchase the goods. It's a simple economic principle. But to try to incentivize music fans even further, UMG plans to load the jewel cases with deluxe content that you won't usually get with online purchases. We're not going to complain about lower prices. We welcome anything that reduces consumers' expenses. But do you think this will actually make a difference? A couple of us in the Mashable office haven't bought a CD in years if you're the same, will UMG's plan turn you around?
Will you buy deluxe CDs for under $10?polls
[img credit: lrargarich]
Reviews: MashableTags: CD, CDs, digital downloads, music, umg, universal music group 
Tags: music   umg cds cd plan
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
(via -
Firedoglake )
I read it on 03/18/10 at 06:40 PM
Posted on 03/18/10 at 09:00 PM
|
 (photo: Evil Erin) Matt Yglesias analyzes the failure of the progressive block strategy, and chalks it up to progressives not picking issues that centrists care about.
He doesn't note his own role in that failure, vilifying the leader of the progressive block Raul Grijalva as the world's greatest monster unless he backs down. (Our own whip effort started to back Grijalva's efforts, which were already underway in the House when we started in June of 2009.)
I've said many times that it's impossible to expect progressive members of Congress to hold together if they don't have the backing of their natural fiscal constituencies the liberal interest groups and the unions. Without that support, they're left to raise money from PACS and other corporate sources to sufficiently fund their campaigns. That's why they take turns championing progressive bills that ultimately fail so they can pretend they do something, and then vote for bad bills that ultimately pass so someone else can be the failed hero. When Tammy Baldwin votes for one PhRMA-friendly bill after another, progressives can say hey, but she's so good on LGBT issues! Which never actually pass either, but the kabuki keeps activists sufficiently docile and donating to large organizations who fundraise off amping up outrage.
But it's also worthy to note that it's hard for them to withstand the assault of liberal pundits who sneeringly derided their efforts as naive, futile and purist. They should be proudly taking credit for their role in delegitimizing progressive opposition to the bill in liberal intellectual circles, much the same role that the same people played during the Iraq war. After all, it's TNR's stock in trade.
I'll leave it to others to analyze how corporate cash was laundered through foundations to underwrite the efforts of various opinion leaders in the health care debate, but it definitely deserves more scrutiny. . .
Monday, June 1, 2009
Kaiser Family Foundation Launches New Non-Profit Health Policy News Service
Kaiser Health News Will Provide In-Depth Reporting on Major Health Policy Issues
Menlo Park, CA In the midst of a major federal health reform debate and the ongoing financial turmoil in the media industry, the Kaiser Family Foundation officially launched Kaiser Health News (KHN) today to provide a new source of in-depth reporting on major health issues. KHN is staffed by experienced health policy journalists and editors, and will feature contributions from a wide array of leading health policy commentators and independent journalists.
[]
At the heart of KHN will be in-depth, explanatory stories about complex health policy issues and major developments in Washington, D.C., and around the country in the health care marketplace and health care delivery system. The news service will cover policy stories like health care reform, developments in major public health coverage programs like Medicare and Medicaid, and complicated ongoing policy challenges like the financing of long-term care, and it will examine the nation's health care system from a consumer perspective. KHN will also provide a synthesis of health policy news coverage through a daily health policy report, original programming from Kaiser's broadcast studio, and regular columns from contributing writers and experts. Jonathan Cohn, senior editor of The New Republic, and Howard Gleckman, senior research associate at the Urban Institute and former senior correspondent at Business Week, will be writing bi-weekly columns. Among others who will contribute occasional columns are: Michael Cannon of the Cato Institute, Jim Capretta of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, Judy Feder of the Center for American Progress, and Mark Pauly of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
The development of Jonathan Gruber's much-vaunted model, which formed the justification for econo-wonks and politicians alike to support the Senate bill's voodoo claims about the excise tax, was originally paid for by the Kaiser Family Foundation in 1999 according to Gruber. It was given a facelift this year courtesy of the Small Business Majority, whose money comes from foundations including the Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation. (h/t spanishinquisition)
And recall that Kaiser Permanente was the original sponsor of the Washington Post pay-to-play salons.
You have to wonder if any of that Kaiser cash underwrote other efforts at the Post after the parties fell through.
HCAN's efforts were funded by Atlantic Philanthropies, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and George Soros foundations, among others.
So, come on, pundits. Don't let the lameness of progressives in Congress get all the credit for shooting down the public option, rolling back choice, and teeing up constitutional amendments to overturn the health care bill around the country.
Stand proud.
Tags: Blogosphere, Jonathan Gruber, Kaiser Family Foundation, Matt Yglesias, Media, new media, Raul Grijalva, Robert Wood Johnson, The New Republic, TNR, veal pen
Tags: health policy kaiser care foundation
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
(via -
docs.google.com )
I read it on 03/07/10 at 08:58 PM
Posted on 03/08/10 at 01:56 AM
|
This documentation is for TwitterOAuth library verision 0.1.x.
If you are using trunk (0.2.x) these instructions will be wrong! Try it out live: http://twitter.abrah.am Twitter OAuth is in beta and could change at any time. Feel free to contact me with bug/questions. A full TwitterOAuth lib will be released soon. Currently the code is hacked together and should not be used in production without proper testing. IndexDefinitionsConsumer: the application you are building. registered with twitter. Sometimes referred to as application
User: the user using your application. Token: there are several different sets of tokens usually in key/secret pairs. Consumer token: the token pair Twitter gives you when you register an application. Request token: the first token pair Twitter returns. used to build an authorize URL used to request the access token. Access token: unique to user. Used to access users data. Get the codePull code from http://github.com/abraham/twitteroauthgit clone git://github.com/abraham/twitteroauth.git Process overviewThis is a very simplistic overview of authenticating with Twitter's OAuth. - Build TwitterOAuth object.
- Request tokens from twitter.
- Build authorize URL.
- Send user to Twitter's authorize URL.
- Get access tokens from twitter.
- Rebuild TwitterOAuth object.
- Query Twitter API with new access tokens.
ProcessFor this example we will be using the the index.php from the example folder and it will be located in the web root. public/index.php
public/twitteroauth/
Go to https://twitter.com/oauth_clients and register a new application. Fill out what the form. For a callback URL we will be using http://example.com/index.php. Once registered you will get a consumer key and a consumer secret. Those go in index.php Now we create a TwitterOAuth object. The class constructor chooses HMAC-SHA1 as the signature method, and builds a OAuthConsumer object with the app consumer key/secret. $to = new TwitterOAuth($consumer_key, $consumer_secret); With that object we use curl to request a token from twitter. The API URL we hit is https://twitter.com/oauth/request_token. getRequestToken() pulls the tokens from twitter, parses it into an array, and creates a new OAuthConsumer object. $tok = $to->getRequestToken();
Save the tokens for when the user returns from Twitter. Set up the authorization URL. This is the URL the user will visit to tell twitter the application can access their data. https://twitter.com/oauth/authorize is used. $request_link = $to->getAuthorizeURL($token); Once the user tells twitter yes and returns we request the access tokens. The access tokens can be thought of the users passwords and will be used to authenticate as them for future API calls. https://twitter.com/oauth/access_token is used. $tok = $to->getAccessToken();
At this point you can check https://twitter.com/account/connections and the application should be listed. Build a new TwitterOAuth object using consumer key/secret and access key/secret. $to = new TwitterOAuth($consumer_key, $consumer_secret, $user_access_key, $user_access_secret);
Now to interact with the API as the user to verify their credentials. This should return their profile. You can now save the access key/secret as being associated with the returned user info. $content = $to->OAuthRequest('https://twitter.com/account/verify_credentials.xml', array(), 'GET');
To send a status update change the API URL and add a key/value array. $content = $to->OAuthRequest('https://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml', array('status' => 'Test OAuth update. #testoauth'), 'POST'); There you have it. Basic interaction with Twitter's OAuth beta. To run other commands just change the API URL and array() keys/values in the last call. LinksMy website: http://abrah.amTwitter: http://twitter.comOAuth: http://oauth.netTwitter API docs: http://apiwiki.twitter.comTwitter API discussion: http://groups.google.com/group/twitter-development-talkFire Eagle OAuth docs: http://fireeagle.yahoo.net/developer/documentation/php_walkthru
Tags: twitter access token oauth key
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
(via -
Liliputing )
I read it on 03/02/10 at 09:32 AM
Posted on 03/02/10 at 02:13 PM
|
It's been well over a year since Asus first showed off its Eee Keyboard concept, which packs a complete Windows computer into a keyboard that you can connect to a TV over a wireless HDMI connection. The idea is that you can surf the web, stream video over a home network, or do just about anything you can do with a PC on your TV. The keyboard also has a built in touchscreen panel for interacting with certain elements of the computer while you're watching a video or doing something else with the TV display.
Now, after a major redesign and a lot of waiting, Asus says it will finally get around to launching the Eee Keyboard in April. The question is more than a year later, are you still at all interested in this device?
Asus has also officially introduced the DR-900 eBook reader. It has a 9 inch display, WiFi, and optional 3G. Its battery is supposed to be good for up to 10,000 page turns.
While Asus hasn't made all the specs official yet, earlier this year specs were released for a mighty similar looking machine called the DR-950, which has a 1024 x 768 pixel display., 4GB of storage, headphone jack, and support for MP3, ePUB, PDF and TXT formats.
No word on a launch date or price yet.
Post from: Liliputing
Asus Eee Keyboard due out in April, eBook Reader coming soon
Tags: keyboard asus eee tv year
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
(via -
www.businessinsider.com )
I read it on 02/28/10 at 04:22 PM
Posted on 02/28/10 at 09:20 PM
|
Shared by Kristopher
app, ipad application, ipad app, apple app, kindle app
Apple Stacks The Deck Against Amazon's Kindle App
AAPL
Feb 26 2010, 05:20 PM EST
| 204.62 |
Change |
% Change |
| +2.62 |
+1.30% |
AMZN
Feb 26 2010, 05:20 PM EST
| 118.40 |
Change |
% Change |
| +0.20 |
+0.17% |
When Apple's iPad goes on sale in a few weeks, its iBookstore will have a distinct user-experience advantage over e-book competitors like Amazon's Kindle App.
That is, the iBookstore will let you seamlessly buy books from within the iBooks reader app, with the iTunes account it's already aware of.
Meanwhile, rivals like the Kindle app and Barnes & Noble e-reader will require you to boot up their apps, then click a button to boot up the iPad's Web browser, shop for e-books in a Web store, sign in and pay with a non-iTunes account, relaunch the e-reader app, and sync up your new e-book. Not as elegant.
It's not a huge difference, but it's the kind of small simplicity advantage that has helped Apple's iTunes music store maintain a lead over its rivals, including Amazon.
People who use the Kindle app on their iPhones today will know that this isn't a new thing: Since the Kindle iPhone app launched last March, users have had to leave the app to buy e-books.
Amazon didn't built the app this way from the beginning. We have learned that when Amazon first submitted its Kindle application for the iPhone to Apple, Amazon included its own payment system within the app, so customers could just pay for e-books and download them right in the app.
When Apple spotted the payment system, it told Amazon to get rid of it, according to a source familiar with Amazon's operations.
Why? It's a rule Apple smartly instituted at the App Store's beginning, forbidding third-party e-commerce of digital goods within apps.
That is, it's okay to use an iPhone app to buy physical goods -- as you can in Amazon's main iPhone app, or the Fandango app, etc. And developers are welcome to use Apple's in-app purchasing system -- and give a 30% cut of revenue to Apple -- to sell digital goods within apps.
But Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other vendors are prohibited from using their own e-commerce systems within apps for virtual goods. Thus the trip to the Safari browser to buy books.
It's obviously a rule Apple itself is allowed to break -- it's Apple's iPhone, and it can do whatever it wants, as we've seen recently with Apple's recent raids on thousands of sexy apps. But it does put competitors like Amazon on uneven footing.
Obviously, Amazon is never going to want to give Apple a 30% cut of e-book sales, so it's not going to implement Apple's in-app purchasing system. So it's indefinitely stuck sending its customers into the browser to make purchases. (Meanwhile, on the new BlackBerry Kindle app, you can buy e-books directly within the app.)
Assuming the iBooks app and the iBookstore have similar selection, pricing, and e-reader features, this one simple step could give Apple a substantial advantage over Amazon.
See Also: 10 Burning Questions About Apple's iPad
Tags: app apple amazon e kindle
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
(via -
Mashable! )
I read it on 02/16/10 at 08:18 AM
Posted on 02/16/10 at 10:47 AM
|
  As expected, HTC has unleashed a slew of Android smartphones here at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, and I have to admit they're looking really good.
While not exactly groundbreaking, HTC Desire is the top notch phone that competes primarily with Google's Nexus One (also made by HTC), as it has similar looks and pretty much the same specifications. Here's a quick overview: it's an Android 2.1 phone with a 1 GHz Snapdragon CPU, 512MB or ROM and 576 MB of RAM memory, a 5 megapixel camera (with flash and autofocus), GPS, and the usual connectivity options: WiFi, Bluetooth, 3G. It also has a beautiful AMOLED 3.7 inch screen (multitouch is supported) with 480800 pixel resolution. What makes it different from the Nexus One is the lack of trackball, and HTC's Sense UI, so the choice between the two will be strictly matter of personal preference. I will update this post with some hands-on experiences as soon as I lay my hands on it. *Update: after trying out the HTC Desire I'm definitely a bit disappointed with the speed of the device. It's fast, but it's not exactly flying. This is not due to hardware, though; HTC's Sense UI is faster and more fluid on the new HTC HD Mini, which is based on 600 MHz CPU and Windows Mobile 6.5. However, as far as Androids go, HTC Desire is still on top of the food chain, partly due to HTC's Sense UI, which is getting better and more flexible with each new iteration. 
Tags: android, Desire, htc, Mobile 2.0, trending 
Tags: htc desire android ui sense
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
(via -
Mashable! )
I read it on 02/16/10 at 12:00 PM
Posted on 02/16/10 at 10:47 AM
|
| As expected, HTC has unleashed a slew of Android smartphones here at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, and I have to admit they're looking really good. While not exactly groundbreaking, HTC Desire is the top-notch phone that competes primarily with Google's Nexus One (also made by HTC), as it has similar looks and pretty much the same specifications. Here's a quick overview: It's an Android 2.1 phone with a 1 GHz Snapdragon CPU, 512MB or ROM and 576 MB of RAM memory, a 5 megapixel camera (with flash and autofocus), GPS, and the usual connectivity options: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 3G. It also has a beautiful AMOLED 3.7 inch screen (multi-touch is supported) with 480800 pixel resolution. What makes it different from the Nexus One is the lack of trackball, and HTC's Sense UI, so the choice between the two will be strictly a matter of personal preference. I will update this post with some hands-on experiences as soon as I lay my hands on it. *Update: After trying out the HTC Desire, I'm definitely a bit disappointed with the speed of the device. It's fast, but it's not exactly flying. This is not due to the hardware, though; HTC's Sense UI is faster and more fluid on the new HTC HD Mini, which is based on 600 MHz CPU and Windows Mobile 6.5. However, as far as Androids go, HTC Desire is still on top of the food chain, partly due to HTC's Sense UI, which is getting better and more flexible with each new iteration.
Tags: android, Desire, htc, Mobile 2.0, trending
Tags: htc desire mobile android ui
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
(via -
Mashable! )
I read it on 02/16/10 at 08:32 AM
Posted on 02/16/10 at 06:12 AM
|
  Four months ago we asked you to vote in our Web Faceoff series for your preferred social network between the two current giants: Twitter versus Facebook. The results were pretty close, although Facebook edged out Twitter in a 48% to 40% victory. Now, there's a whole new game in town.
Google Buzz is now the new shiny, and represents Google's big push into social networking meets mobile social meets location services. We know it's still the early days for Buzz, but it seems like a good time to gauge the opinion of Mashable readers thus far. Have you had a chance to spend some quality time with Buzz? Do you like the service? Are there parts about it you don't like? Does it draw you away from other social networks, or complement them? Let us know your vote for best social service in the poll below, and be sure to let us know why you picked your favored winner.
Who would win in a fight: Google Buzz, Facebook, or Twitter?(survey)
Reviews: Google, Google Buzz, MashableTags: facebook, Google, google buzz, polls, social media, social networking, twitter, web faceoff 
Tags: google social buzz twitter facebook
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
(via -
Techdirt )
I read it on 02/16/10 at 08:30 AM
Posted on 02/16/10 at 06:05 AM
|
For years, various luxury brands have been furious that others can buy text keyword advertising based on their trademarked terms, leading to a series of lawsuits. In most place, the courts have realized that just buying a trademarked term as a keyword alone is not infringing on someone's trademark. France, however, is the one exception, having ruled against Google. Now, it's also ruled against eBay for supposedly having ads that pointed to eBay whenever anyone searched on a typo/misspelling of any of LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy). Apparently, in France, you're not even allowed to misspell a trademarked brand name without official permission...
Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
 
Tags: ebay trademarked having ruled against
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
(via -
The Magical Tablet )
I read it on 02/16/10 at 08:16 AM
Posted on 02/16/10 at 03:48 AM
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_c.png?x-id=132fbc29-1242-4c4b-b1a0-73e6a64cd127)
