The Inquisitr » Dominic Rivera

LimeWire to release LimeWire 5.0 with social sharing network features

Dominic Rivera — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 04:22:29 +0000

LimeWire 5.0 will soon be available before the end of this year, Kevin Bradshaw, LimeWire’s CEO revealed. With the new version, users can choose to set up personal networks based on existing contacts and exchange information selectively with their friends.

“When Lime Wire was launched in 2000, we were pioneers in the peer-to-peer file sharing world, and we have seen that world change as our users have grown with us,” Bradshaw said. “The peer-to-peer world has always had an inherently social aspect to it, and with our next version, we are bringing social sharing to the forefront. We see Lime Wire 5.0 not only enhancing our current users’ capabilities, but the new program has the potential to create a new generation of Lime Wire users who are interested in connecting, sharing, socializing and discovering.”

LimeWire 5.0 will allow users to:

Set up secure personal sharing networks based on existing contacts; users can choose to limit distribution to personal network only

Integrate buddy lists from Jabber-compatible services

Provide better virus protection

Interface with The LimeWire Store

Easier navigation with a new visual design of both website and application allowing users more security and better ability to manage shared files, download, search and connect with friends

LimeWire is the largest free P2P file-sharing software with over 70 million unique monthly users (and this includes me). It has been downloaded 350,000 times everyday and boasts approximately 5 million active users at any moment.

Obama’s Flickr

Dominic Rivera — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 05:50:38 +0000

You’re Barack Obama. It’s November 4. You’re in the final moments of of the Presidential election. Polling places have closed. Canvassing of votes have started. You, together with your family are eagerly awaiting the final results. Network stations are cautiously announcing final counts from different states. You got Pennsylvania, Virginia, Florida… You are are the President-elect.

Thanks to the Obama campaign for being so Flickr-savvy, aside from using the Internet to its limits (especially in soliciting $5). Here’s how it was during the anxious moments leading to Obama speech as President-elect.

More photos from Obama’s Flickr account.

Craigslist working with law enforcement authorities to prevent illegal activities

Dominic Rivera — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 18:24:48 +0000

Craigslist is working with attorneys general of more than 40 US states and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), to prevent online communities and classified ads from being misused for the facilitation of human trafficking, child exploitation, and other illegal activities.

Craigslist recently implemented a telephone verification system for the “erotic services” section of the site, requiring a working phone number for advertisers, and enabling blacklisting of phone numbers for those who post inappropriate ads. Phone verification resulted in an 80% reduction in ad volume, and significantly increased compliance with site guidelines.

Craigslist will soon require credit card verification and a small fee per ad for posting in “erotic services,” to further encourage compliance with site guidelines. Paid ads that violate site guidelines will be removed without refund. The company intends to donate 100% of net revenue generated from these ads to charity, with net revenue to be verified by an external auditor.

The end goal should be to avoid this, this, this, and this.

Yahoo! Music tops most visited music site in Japan

Dominic Rivera — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 18:01:39 +0000

A study by comScore revealed that nearly 40 percent of the Japanese online population visited an entertainment site in August. Yahoo! Music led as favorite with 7.3 million visitors, followed by Sony Connect with 3 million visitors, and Sony BMG Music Entertainment with 2.7 million visitors. Sonny Connect is expected to drop

The study also revealed that Japan recorded the highest penetration of users of Apple iTunes software during the month, when compared with the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany.

“The Internet and other digital media have become key platforms for music consumption and clearly represent the future of the music industry,” said Maru Sato, managing director of comScore Japan. “With so much consumer music activity occurring in the digital space today, it is increasingly important to capture the available audience now and get them engaged with your service.”

Somehow, Japan’s love for music is understandable. Remember, the first karaoke machine was invented by a Japanese.

Google bids goodbye to Yahoo

Dominic Rivera — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 15:50:11 +0000

Google has terminated its advertising services agreement with Yahoo! Inc. that was first announced in June. Yahoo is broken hearted that Google chose to withdraw from the agreement rather than defend the partnership in court.

Google notified Yahoo of its refusal to move forward with implementation of the agreement following indication from the Department of Justice that it would seek to block it if the parties were to proceed.

The deal could have been highly beneficial for Yahoo, allowing the company to accelerate its investments in other priorities, given the potential earnings. With the break-up, Yahoo can only hope for other partnerships to come forward. Anyone interested?

NY perv arrested for reposting pics of nude wife online… again…

Dominic Rivera — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 01:01:17 +0000

Some people can be stupid. Others can be very stupid. This guy belongs to the latter. Thomas Gillen of New York, currently on probation for posting pictures of his nude wife on the Internet in 2006, was arrested again for… posting pictures again of his nude wife on the Internet.

In 2006, several men showed up at his wife’s job after posting her nude pictures. He pretended to be his wife and invited people to join ‘her’ in a rape fantasy. He got five years probation then. He now faces four years in prison if convicted.

By the way, Gillen initially forced the victim to pose for the photos by threatening to kill her. He should be allowed to rot in jail and let him live his fantasies there.

Even GOD is closely watching this election

Dominic Rivera — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 21:20:56 +0000

GOD is watching closely this coming presidential elections with a special line-up of shows leading up to November 4. This is the first U.S. election that GOD, is covering and will culminate with a major prayer gathering.

“We believe this is a very important election, not only for the U.S., but also for the rest of the world,” said Wendy Alec, Director of Television at GOD. “We have therefore adjusted our schedules to bring programming that urges believers to pray fervently and to vote.”

Followers of GOD can watch its special election programs through www.god.tv/stream.

If Gaians can only vote

Dominic Rivera — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 18:31:53 +0000

Gaia Online has launched its monthly According to Teens Report, a monthly survey of Gaia members that will provide a regular update on the Generation Y perspective and here’s their take on the coming elections.

The virtual world’s election poll, a survey of more than 37,000 respondents, revealed that 72 percent of teens and young adults would like to see Barack Obama as the next president of the United States.

This year’s election was a natural fit for the launch of the According to Teens Report,” said Scott Kinzie, VP of creative and user experience at Gaia Online. “At Gaia Online we have the unique ability to tap millions of Gen Yers and we believe it’s imperative to understand what’s guiding the youth vote. With this new survey program we’re hoping to serve as a trusted source on all things teen, helping relevant parties better understand this often misunderstood generation.”

If only these teens and young adults leave Gaia Online for a few precious minutes and help in educating the real world of the importance of this election…

TV viewing and Internet use go hand in hand

Dominic Rivera — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 22:25:17 +0000

The Nielsen Company’s new TV/Internet Convergence Panel, which electronically measures both television and Internet usage in the same homes, has found that television viewing and online video streaming are complementary activities.

According to the convergence panel, the heaviest users of the Internet are also among the heaviest viewers of television: the top fifth of Internet users spend more than 250 minutes per day watching television, compared to 220 minutes of television viewing by people who do not use the Internet at all.

Nielsen found that the reverse is true as well– the lowest consumers of television have the lowest usage levels for the Internet.

Nielsen also found that nearly 31 percent of in-home Internet activity takes place while the user is watching television, demonstrating that there is a significant amount of simultaneous Internet and television usage. Conversely, about 4 percent of television viewing occurs when the consumer is also using the Internet.

Now In understand why my daughter and son are not shutting off their computers even when watching TV… including me.

Netflix to stream movies and TV episodes to Tivo

Dominic Rivera — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 19:47:20 +0000

TiVo Inc. and Netflix, Inc. are teaming up to provide Netflix and TiVo Series3, TiVo HD, and TiVo HD XL subscribers with the ability to have thousands of movies and TV episodes instantly streamed from Netflix directly to their TVs.

The agreement provides Netflix with an important new technology partner to instantly stream a growing library of more than 12,000 choices of movies and TV episodes directly from Netflix to the TV.

The services will be offered for free starting December.

Obama wins in hi5.com and MySpace

Dominic Rivera — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:37:38 +0000

A global survey conducted by hi5.com among its members revealed that 83% favors Senator Barack Obama as the next president of the United States of America.

Although Obama had a substantial lead in all parts of the world, the margin was less pronounced in some regions. Europe, North America, and Africa were most strongly pro-Obama (at 87%, 87%, and 88%, respectively), followed by Asia (83%), Latin America (81%), and South Asia (85%). The region that was most sympathetic to Senator John McCain was the Middle East– where only 58% supported Obama compared to 25% support for McCain.

The survey was representative of approximately 25,000 respondents from 192 countries. The survey was conducted in eight languages, including English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Japanese, Thai, and Chinese. Out of all survey participants, 59% were male and 41% were female.

Meanwhile, MySpace revealed that its own survey showed that 60 percent of its eligible voters prefer Senator Barack Obama while 34 percent goes for Senator John McCain.

But again, as lessons of election history have taught us, anything can happen as the race tightens.

Guitar Hero World Tour with Kobe Bryant, Michael Phelps, A-Rod, and Tony Hawk

Dominic Rivera — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 17:30:20 +0000

Guitar Hero World Tour went on sale yesterday. At $189.99, it surely is not cheap. My daughter was attempting to sway me in buying her one but I stood my ground. My son who has his own small gaming blog thinks that it’s not worth it. Personally, it’s the economy that tells me not to get it.

Just kidding, it’s this advertisement that tells me not to get one. It just doesn’t seem right. We’ll just stick to Rock Band.

Kid addicted to Call of Duty 4 still missing; Microsoft offers $50,000 reward

Dominic Rivera — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 03:33:26 +0000

Microsoft is offering $50,000 for the whereabouts of Brandon Crisp of Toronto, a 15-year-old missing kid who is addicted with Call of Duty 4. Brandon apparently went missing on October 13 after a fight with his parents over not playing Microsoft’s run-and-shoot game.

His parents are now fearing that that he may have been lured by his contacts from his Xbox console. Microsoft is cooperating with police by providing information on who’s been contacting Brandon.

I can only feel for the parents. I hope the kid goes back and realizes that there’s more to life than Call of Duty 4.

Word of mouth tops online reviews as purchase influencer, survey finds

Dominic Rivera — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 02:41:29 +0000

Online reviews and comments written by users are second only to word of mouth as a purchase influence for most Americans, according to a survey of web users released by Rubicon Consulting. Among web users (who are about 70% of the US population), content on the web has moved into second place, ahead of printed reviews and advice from salespeople

The survey underlined the importance of online information in driving purchase decisions while revealing the power of the 9% of web users who produce 80% of all user-generated content.

Here are some survey insights about the Internet’s influence:

The web is the #2 resource for customer support information, after user manuals. It ranks ahead of calling the manufacturer or asking a dealer.
Website categories that get the most daily usage are search, social communities like MySpace and Facebook, general news websites like CNN.com and NYTimes.com, and online banking.
The websites that Americans value most are (in order), Google, Yahoo, YouTube, Wikipedia, and Facebook.
Young people (age 22 and under) are much noisier online than their elders. They account for about half of all the content and comments posted online.
Facebook appears to be ahead of MySpace in terms of number of users in the US, and perceived value of the site.
Despite the publicity, the community sites SecondLife and Twitter reach only a few percent of US Internet users.

[Download the full report]

Teen responsible for Job’s heart attack

Dominic Rivera — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 14:07:10 +0000

An 18-year old is now the target of a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation for spreading the false report that Apple CEO Steve Jobs had a heart attack. The false report, posted at CNN’s iReport last October 3, sent Apple’s market value down by $4.8 billion or 5.4 percent in just an hour.

“Steve Jobs was rushed to the ER just a few hours ago after suffering a major heart attack. I have an insider who tells me that paramedics were called after Steve claimed to be suffering from severe chest pains and shortness of breath,” the false report posted by the fake citizen journalist stated.

Authorities are still examining the teen’s motives, if there’s any other than playing prank. Steve Jobs has since the incident appeared to show that he is very much alive, revealing his blood pressure reading of 110/70 on the main screen during Apple’s Notebook event.

As a matter of disclosure, I own a meager number of Apple shares that almost went to dust that day.

Jupitermedia sells subsidiary to Getty Images for $96 million in cash

Dominic Rivera — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 13:22:42 +0000

Jupitermedia Corporation has agreed to sell its wholly owned subsidiary Jupiterimages to Getty Images, Inc. for an aggregate purchase price of $96 million in cash.

After the sale, Jupitermedia will continue to operate its remaining five distinct online media networks: internet.com and EarthWeb.com for IT and business professionals; DevX.com for developers; and Mediabistro.com and Graphics.com for media and creative professionals.

“We believe that this transaction will be beneficial to Jupitermedia and its stockholders, both in the near term and the long run, as it will allow Jupitermedia to pay off all of its bank debt. Upon closing of the transaction, we will continue focus on the further development and growth of our Online Media division,” Alan Meckler, Jupitermedia’s CEO, said.

Gaia Online scares me this Halloween

Dominic Rivera — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 22:20:29 +0000

Gaia Online, the virtual hangout for more than 7 million users, will allow its members to show off their spooky side during its weeklong virtual Halloween event called Halloween Hysteria.

The event will give loyal Gaians the opportunity to choose from a selection of over-the-top costumes, socialize, and treat-or-treat with friends from all over the country and play freaky Halloween-inspired games. In preparation for Halloween day, users can decorate their in-world house and even cause some mayhem in their neighborhood with virtual eggs and toilet paper.

“Halloween has always been an amazing holiday for this generation, but bringing all the festivities to Gaia Online lets our users take it even further,” said Scott Kinzie, vice president of creative and user experience, Gaia Online.

I have to be honest that nothing scares me on Halloween day than to see my kids staying at home in front of their computers, and giving away virtual candies to their friends.

The economy will slow US online holiday sales, really?

Dominic Rivera — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 22:00:59 +0000

We do not need a study to conclude that economy would slow US online holiday sales, but here’s one from Forrester Research. Sales would reach $44 billion, representing a 12 percent increase over the last year but that would be the slowest growth to date. The reason? Your guess is as good as mine– the economy.

Although US consumers are pessimistic about the economy, they remain interested with the web as venue for them to save money. Forty-eight percent of consumers surveyed, compared with 41 percent in 2007, said that they can find the best values and deals online. Additionally, 36 percent of consumers said that they would be more likely to shop online due to high gas prices, compared with 22 percent who expressed the same sentiment last year.

Forrester expects that the majority of holiday online sales will be driven by shoppers who have previously purchased online, rather than first time online buyers.

More than two-thirds of consumers surveyed said that they are planning to spend more or about the same online as they did last year. Core holiday product categories such as clothing will remain top choices for online buyers, as well as books, DVDs/videos, music, gift certificates, and toys.

Respondents also indicated that they will be seeking free shipping offers more often this year than last.

Repent! Recession is at hand!

Dominic Rivera — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:32:31 +0000

As of writing this post, stock markets from around the world have plummeted. Here in the U.S., the Dow Jones industrial average dropped by more than 480 points after opening bell. Reports had it that there lingering fear that governments, central banks, and finance ministers globally are powerless in stopping a global recession.

The Dow futures also dropped by 550 points even before today’s opening, triggering a temporary trading halt in stock futures contracts to slow the decline. If the Drop drops by 1,100 points before 2pm, the New York Stock Exchange is expected to temporarily shut down the market. With fear all over, this is not a long shot. This has not been done since 1997.

Am I scared? Of course. I have a family to feed. My kids are ready. Yesterday they were taught the topic of Great Depression in Social Studies. In any case, we can always repent and be saved.

No related posts.

Akamai acquires acerno for $95 million in cold cash

Dominic Rivera — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 14:53:17 +0000

Akamai Technologies has signed a definitive agreement to acquire acerno for approximately $95 million in cash.

The acquisition of acerno, a unique online co‐operative of shopping and purchase data for enabling more relevant online advertising, is expected to enhance Akamai’s Advertising Decision Solutions, a new service that will enable online advertising businesses to boost the performance of their online marketing investments by driving advertising decisions based on relevant audience segments.

“Akamai’s new Advertising Decision Solutions are a critical advancement in our product portfolio,
designed to stimulate the economic model of online advertising by bringing greater simplicity and
effectiveness to both ad buyers and sellers,” said Paul Sagan, President and CEO, Akamai.