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All things are difficult before they are easy.
-- Thomas Fuller, 1700
To keep other pages less cluttered, I am putting on this page articles I note on my travels around the web that are relevant to this course. They will be in roughly reverse chronology.
725 more file sharers sued; 10,037 total (!)
RIAA Watch, April 29, 2005
Making up for March's skipped litigation, the RIAA filed a second round of April
lawsuits this week against 725 file sharers for copyright infringement. Perhaps
answering my question from earlier this month, the latest press release no
longer mentions that only university students are being sued.
The total number of file sharers sued has now broken the five-digit barrier,
coming in at 10,037 people sued by the RIAA since September 2003. This is an
astounding figure. I just checked the Federal Judicial Caseload Statistics and
found that this one wave of litigation represents 2.3% of all civil cased filed
in federal court. (The average number of civil lawsuits filed per month for 2003
and 2004 was 21,363; in the 20 months since the RIAA began suing file sharers,
the recording industry filed 502 lawsuits on average each month.) And given the
news reports of $3,000 average settlements, this means the RIAA's probably
collected over $30 million from individual file sharers.
Tempe 1st major city going fully wireless
Wi-Fi Internet access should be up by fall
by Stephanie Paterik
The Arizona Republic, April 28, 2005
It's official: Tempe will become the first major metropolitan area in the United
States to deploy citywide wireless Internet access.
The City Council has approved a contract with MobilePro Corp. and Strix Systems,
and staff members are wrapping up negotiations this week. The companies will
install hundreds of access points throughout Tempe in phases, starting this
summer with south Tempe.
The "mesh network" will cover the entire city by late summer or early fall,
allowing subscribers to fire up the Internet on laptops, cellphones and PDAs
anywhere within Tempe's borders. ...
Monthly subscriptions are likely to be $20 for dial-up speed and $30 to $40 for
high-speed wireless, although prices have not been set.
Only 29 U.S. cities have gone completely wireless, mostly rural or remote
regions without traditional high-speed Internet access, according to a March
report by muniwireless.com. Eight urban areas in addition to Tempe plan to join
the trend, including Philadelphia, Cleveland, West Hollywood, Calif. and
Madison, Wis.
Verizon pulling plug on free Wi-Fi
by Bruce Meyerson
AP on Business Week, April 28, 2005
Verizon Communications Inc. is turning off the free wireless Internet access it
beams from New York City telephone booths for DSL subscribers who use laptops
away from home or the office.
The company revealed the decision on Wednesday as its Verizon Wireless unit
announced plans to accelerate the deployment of a fee-based cellular Internet
service in the New York area.
The free service, which will be phased out over the next two months, was
provided by installing short-range Wi-Fi transmitters in hundreds of telephone
booths starting in May 2003.
NYSE makes first move toward computerized trading
by Jenny Strasburg
SF Chronicle, April 21, 2005
Purchase of electronic network would revolutionize investing ...
The New York exchange's gambit reflects a broad shift in the way stock is traded
in the world markets. The trading-floor-based system that the exchange is noted
for -- with its throngs of milling and gesturing wholesalers and brokers -- has
become all but obsolete in the digital age. Increasingly, trading is moving to
computerized networks, such as Archipelago's, that eliminate wholesalers and
directly link buyers and sellers. Now, the New York Exchange, long the citadel
of resistance to the electronic world, has been breached, observers said.
"The New York Stock Exchange has grabbed at the life preserver," said Junius
Peake, a University of Northern Colorado finance professor and past
vice-chairman of the National Association of Securities Dealers.
It's a shift the Big Board has fought for decades but could no longer resist,
experts said Wednesday afternoon after the surprise announcement. Exchange
officials did not provide specific information on whether or when its venerable
trading floor might shut down in favor of an all-electronic system. But experts
said it was just a matter of time.
NYSE's Thain Pulls Rabbit From Hat With Archipelago Takeover
by Philip Boroff
Bloomberg, April 21, 2005
When New York Stock Exchange Chief Executive Officer John Thain arranged the
takeover of Archipelago Holdings Inc., a nine-year-old electronic exchange, by
the 212-year- old Big Board, he pulled "a rabbit out of his hat.''
That's the view of William Harts, who worked for the NYSE's chief rival, the
Nasdaq Stock Market Inc. In one stroke, the NYSE will be able to extend its
operating hours, provide clients with options trading and access to Nasdaq-listed
stocks, and cut about $200 million of expenses.
For the NYSE, the transaction is a "a giant step toward eliminating their
massive infrastructure costs by adopting Archipelago's technology,'' said Harts,
the Nasdaq's former head of strategy.
What infrastructure? Paper and the human exchange of paper.
NBC Chief Mulls Blogs for Top News Anchors
by Reuters
Yahoo News, April 19, 2005
NBC could create Internet blogs for its top news anchors and celebrity
interviewers as it seeks to maintain the appeal of U.S. network news, its top
executive said on Tuesday.
NBC Universal Television Group President Jeff Zucker said entering the generally
opinionated world of blogs might be one way television networks could keep their
grip on viewers who increasingly use the Internet for news.
Verizon Touts Its TV Plan
Red Herring, April 18, 2005
Chairman Ivan Seidenberg asks broadcasters to back Verizon’s video-over-fiber
offering.
Looking to woo TV broadcasters with its latest weapon to combat cable, Verizon’s
chairman told the National Broadcasting Association on Monday that the phone
company wants to carry programming from local stations.
The plan is all part of Verizon’s desire to run digital content over the
company’s fiber-to-the-home deployment. As the cable industry uses its network
to run video, voice, and high-speed Internet services to consumers, the telcos
are playing catch up.
Verizon’s Chairman Ivan Seidenberg calls the company’s video plans a “compelling
alternative to cable television.”
So the cable companies are offering phone service and the phone companies are offering TV. What industry are these companies in?
It's A
Holiday Wrap
Center for Media Research, January 10, 2005
Online shoppers in the U.S. spent $23.2 billion during the 2004 holiday season, excluding travel. This reflects a 25 percent increase from the $18.5 billion spent online during the same timeframe in 2003.
Artists,
Musicians and the Internet
by Mary Madden
Pew Internet Project, December 5, 2004
They have embraced the internet as a tool that helps them create, promote, and sell their work. However, they are divided about the impact and importance of free file-sharing and other copyright issues.
Checking the
Mall’s Prices at Home
by Bob Tedeschi
NY Times, November 1, 2004
Hopping comparison sites let consumers check prices and products across tens of
thousands of online retailers. But what if they want to see the prices at the
local mall that day?
A trio of new online companies -- Cairo.com,
ShopLocal.com and
StepUp.com -- are trying to fill that need.
For example, Cairo.com, which introduced its Web site late last month, scans the
Web sites of about 25 national merchants to cull sales data from the retailers'
weekly circulars. Consumers enter their ZIP code and can search the database for
particular items, or register to receive an e-mail message when the price of an
item drops.
iTunes aside, Web is changing the music industry
by Reuters
CNET News, October 31, 2004
In one measure of their success, chart-topping rockers The Darkness have sold enough song downloads, T-shirts and thongs on their official Web site to nearly finance their next recording.
FCC Chair
Advocates Hands-Off Approach to VoIP
by Tim Greene
PC World, October 19, 2004
U.S. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell says that after
the presidential election he will try to wrest regulatory control of voice over
IP from the states because to thrive as a business, the technology needs a
single, easy-handed regulator. ...
The FCC proposal will start from scratch with as few VoIP regulations as
possible, he says, not just modify current ones. "It's easy to get regulations
on the books and impossible to get them off. We should be careful until we need
them." Heavy regulation will stifle innovation and perhaps limit desirable
services by unintentionally throwing up barriers for VoIP. "Do we really even
know what it is yet?" he says.
This is important while VoIP is young, before dominant VoIP providers emerge,
build power and entrench themselves in the regulations that got them there, he
said. "(The FCC) wants proof that you need us," he told an overflow crowd of
VoIP providers, vendors, and users, "not make you prove that you don't."
He says state resistance to this may be caused by public utilities commissioners
trying to defend their turf rather than trying to encourage new services. "To
allow this is to dumb-down the Internet to match the vision of regulatory
minds," he says.
Web radio gets $1.7 billion boost
by Matt Hines
CNET News.com, October 18, 2004
The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers announced Monday that it has reached a $1.7 billion deal with the Radio Music License Committee to let stations legally stream their on-air content over the Internet.
Corel
acquires Jasc to draw home office crowd
by Neil Sutton
ITBusiness.ca, October 14, 2004
"Corel's definitely back on track," he said. "Graphics has
been a very strong area for Corel for a very long time. There was a CorelDraw
long before Corel acquired WordPerfect."
By adding more consumer products to its graphics line, Corel may be able to
capitalize on the boom in home digital photography, said Wilcox. According to
Jupiter, 52 per cent of U.S. households own a digital camera.
"How do you help consumers discover the capabilities? Well, by providing robust
but approachable products. With Jasc, (Corel has) not only photo editing but
photo management," he said.
The Jasc acquisition is "a really good confirmation" that Corel is ready to
focus on its strengths again.
There's More to Marketing Than Cattle Prods and Car Batteries
By Jim Meskauskas
Online Spin, September 30, 2004
As you can imagine, some publishers are going to
surreptitiously implement these new technologies to satisfy their business
objectives. But what they are also doing is undermining the will of their
consumers.
I appreciate a company doing something that it thinks is in its own best
interest (Standard Oil and IBM doing business with the Nazis comes to mind), but
isn't the subversion of consumer will antithetical to good marketing?
Online Grocery Shopping, Take Two
Associated Press
Wired News, May 17, 2004
After the spectacular crashes of big-name Internet grocers
in the late 1990s, the dream of a grand new wave of online food stores appeared
to fizzle. But with intentionally meager fanfare, grocers have made Internet
shopping available to tens of millions of consumers nationwide, and upcoming
expansions will expand it to millions more.
Industry watchers say it's no longer a question of whether Internet grocery can
be successful, but rather of how big it will become.
"Our business has doubled the last two years, and we expect it to double again
this year," said Safeway.com head Mitch Rhodes, who labeled the growth
"relatively explosive" for an industry with notoriously low profit margins.
Video Gamers Get Older, Get Online - Survey
Reuters
Waqshington Post, May 13, 2004
Contrary to a popular stereotype, the average video game player is not a teenage skateboarder but a more mature fun-seeker old enough to be his dad, according to a survey released on Wednesday.
Commercial Search Engines Threaten Newspapers' Livelihood
AIM Group news release, 11 May 2004
Newspapers face a greater threat of revenue erosion from
online local-search products than they do from online job listings like
Monster.com, according to a new study by The Neil Budde Group and the Advanced
Interactive Media Group. "For local publishers, which have already been fighting
the 'new monsters' eating away at their classified advertising, this may be a
far greater challenge than the first Internet wave. Well-funded competitors like
Yahoo and Google are only starting to target the local market, so local media
still have time to respond," says study co-author Neil Budde.
The report notes that local advertisers like car-repair shops, plumbers and
restaurants could migrate to local search pages, leaving newspapers' bottom
lines bleeding red ink. "The ability to directly target advertising at
consumers, and to determine exactly what the response to those ads has been,
gives local advertisers more power than ever before to focus their spending
where it works," says co-author Peter Zollman. "Few local publishers have
realized yet how this will endanger their business, and even fewer have
responded with effective local search tools for their advertisers."
Note the window of opportunity: "Well-funded competitors like Yahoo and Google are only starting to target the local market, so local media still have time to respond."
AT&T Wireless New Music ID Service Gets Put to the Test
by james
Daily Wireless, April 15, 2004
This morning AT&T Wireless announced the availability of
their new music recognition service, which allows their customers to identify
songs just by holding their phones next to a speaker. AT&T claims that it is the
industry's first service of its kind in the U.S.
The new service is perfect for music fans who are on-the-go, or anyone who just
wants to know the name of a song they've been dying to figure out. All customers
have to do is dial "#ID"--or "#43"--and hold the phone near a speaker when
instructed to do so. Within a few seconds, a text message is sent back to you
with the name and author of the song.
Downloading music gets more expensive
by Ethan Smith
Wall Street Journal, April 7, 2004
Unburdened by manufacturing and distribution costs, online
music was supposed to usher in a new era of inexpensive, easy-to-access music
for consumers. In many cases, buying music online is still cheaper than shopping
for CDs at retail outlets. But just a year after iTunes debuted with its 99-cent
songs and mostly $9.99 albums, that affordable and straightforward pricing
structure is already under pressure.
All five of the major music companies are discussing ways to boost the price of
single-song downloads on hot releases - to anywhere from $1.25 to as much as
$2.49. It isn't clear how or when such a price hike would take place, and it
could still be months away. ...
Most music-company executives believe that the download market is still in a
critical early-growth stage, which could be disrupted by raising prices. "For us
right now the issue is not, 'Do we make another $300,000 by raising the price
five cents?"' says a music company executive. "It's making sure the market
grows."
Revenues in the music industry have been dragging in recent years, in part
because of the rise of illegal downloading services. Raising digital-music
prices could spur additional illicit downloading. Weaning people off those
illegal services by giving them an alternative that they consider viable is
critical to the industry's future profitability.
Music Choice TV Channel to Expand to PCs
by May Wong
Associated Press, April 1, 2004
Television network Music Choice will soon give cable broadband customers access to its content and a song download service through their computers - a move that will thrust the cable industry into the young but highly competitive online music market.
Futurist Fears
End of Innovation
by Leander Kahney
Wired News, April 24, 2003
Author Howard Rheingold believes the freedom of
technologists to innovate is under attack as never before.
Delivering the keynote speech at the
O'Reilly Emerging Technology
Conference, Rheingold warned that vested interests, flexing their political
and economic muscle, are stifling technological innovation.
Rheingold said the explosive growth of Internet-connected PCs, handhelds and
cell phones had dramatically altered the cultural landscape. Thanks to connected
computers, passive consumers have been transformed into active users, who create
as well as consume content.
But vested interests -- the music and movie industries, telecommunications
companies and governments -- are starting to clamp down politically and
economically to protect their interests.
"They would very much like to get us back to the days when there were three
radio stations and one telephone company," he said. "We're going to have to
fight to remain users and not be turned back into consumers."
The Bandwidth
Capital of the World
by J. C. Herz
Wired, August 2002
At first glance, Seoul seems like just another sprawling metropolis ... —
nothing to indicate that Seoul is the most wired city on the planet.
Burrow a bit, though, down the alleys, up flights of stairs, or into the corners
of malls, and you find something that sets Seoul apart and fosters its passion
for broadband: online game rooms, or PC baangs, as they are called here. There
are 26,000 of them, tucked into every spare sliver of real estate. Filled with
late-model PCs packed tightly into rows, these rabbit warrens of high-bandwidth
connectivity are where young adults gather to play games, video-chat, hang out,
and hook up.
They are known as "third places" — not home, not work — where teens and
twentysomethings go to socialize, to be part of a group in a culture where group
interaction is overwhelmingly important. As elsewhere, technology scratches a
cultural itch. It is the social infrastructure, as much as the hardware and
software infrastructure, that's driving the statistics.
And the numbers are impressive — South Korea has the highest per capita
broadband penetration in the world. Slightly more than half of its households
have high-bandwidth connections, compared to less than 10 percent in the US. The
growth in broadband has surged in the last three years from a few hundred
thousand subscribers to 8.5 million.
Expanding Exchanges
by Jon Surmacz
Darwin,
April 9, 2003
Covisint claims individual users logging on to its network jumped from 21,796 in December 2001 to 77,058 in December 2002. Roughly 14,000 of the 30,000 companies in the automotive industry have access to Covisint’s network.
Intel, SAP
shop 'store of the future'
by Michael Kanellos
CNET News.com, April 23, 2003
A German retailing chain next week will open a "store of the
future" that will feature radio frequency tags for inventory management and a
scale that can identify different types of produce as retailers try to use
technology to reduce costs.
The Metro conglomerate will cut the ribbon Monday on an electrified version of
one of its Extra stores in Rheinberg, Germany, in an effort to acclimate the
public to electronic store management. Metro is the sixth largest retailer in
the world; the Extra stores are urban general stores that sell groceries and
household items.
noCards.org - CASPIAN - Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering
An information clearinghouse and resource for community and
national action.
Supermarket "loyalty" programs reward submission and compliance with the
registration, numbering, and surveillance agenda -- not loyalty.
Scientists Fabricate Pliable Electronic Display
Scientific American,
May 8, 2003
For some people, nothing can replace the joy of cracking the
spine of a new book or spreading the Sunday paper across the breakfast table.
But researchers hope to one day replace traditional ink and paper with
electronic displays that bend and fold like paper, yet can also be erased and
reused again and again.
A report published today in the journal Nature moves scientists one step closer
to electronic newspapers and wearable computer screens. It describes a flexible
electronic ink display just three times the width of a human hair that can be
viewed from almost any angle.
'Napster effect' hits US shows
by Darren Waters
BBC NEWS, May 7, 2003
On Monday I watched the latest episode of ER just a few days
after it was broadcast in the United States.
But I was not in the US - I sat in front of my computer at home to watch the
programme, which I had downloaded from the internet in the interests of research
in about five hours.
The growing online availability of TV programmes, and films, is the latest
threat to the entertainment industry still reeling from the effect of
peer-to-peer programs, such as Kazaa and the now-defunct Napster.
After ER, I watched the latest instalment of thriller 24, a new episode of
Frasier and a new episode of Friends, again all in the interests of research.
Almost all the programmes had been broadcast less than a day earlier in the US,
many months before viewers in the UK and Europe will see them. ...
"Until now the effect of the internet on TV and film has been small because of
the speed issues involved in downloading.
"But with the increased take up of broadband, and if the quality was acceptable,
then this could be a big issue for broadcasters and programme-makers."
At the moment, the numbers using programs like BitTorrent are limited but if the
practice were to take off then it could have widespread implications, she said.
But broadcasters, especially those in the UK, remain unaware of the growing
trend of downloading programmes.
Yinka Adegoke, deputy editor of New Media Age magazine said: "No-one I know in
the industry is aware of it and it is just not on the agenda."
"The value of a programme to broadcasters will go down if the programme is
readily available on the internet," warned Ms Hurt.
Why should Channel 4 spend its money importing hit US shows when they have been
available online for weeks, if not months?
Mr Adegoke said the TV industry, like the music industry before it, would be
taken completely by surprise.
"If this goes from being a niche activity to the mainstream it will be virtually
impossible to stop.
"This is exactly what happened to the music industry.
"Once the genie is out of the bottle you can't put it back in."
picking up on how KaZaA has split itself:
Tax
Haven, Anyone?
by Robert J. Samuelson
Washington Post, April 3, 2002
In this electronic age, little guys can play big guys. If you want to be the New York Times, you can create your own Web site and see if the world runs to you for news. If you want to be Random House, you can use your desktop computer to publish novels and self-help books. If you want to be Goldman Sachs, you can start as a day trader in stocks and bonds. It now turns out that you can do something else, too: You can imitate giant multinational companies by scouring the world for a favorite tax haven.
Verizon wins!
Battle Not Over for File Sharers
by Kristen Philipkoski
December 23, 2003
Last week's court decision preventing the recording industry from forcing
Internet service providers to identify their subscribers on peer-to-peer
networks offers new hope to file traders who have been sued.
But fighting the RIAA may prove costly for anyone hoping to challenge the trade
group, which spends an estimated $17 million annually in legal fees. ...
The court said that the industry's strong-arm tactic "borders upon the silly."
Sharp decline in
music file swapping
Pew Internet Project, January 4, 2004
The percentage of online Americans downloading music files on the Internet has
dropped by half and the numbers who are downloading files on any given day have
plunged since the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) began filing
suits in September against those suspected of copyright infringement.
Furthermore, a fifth of those who say they continue to download or share files
online say they are doing so less often because of the suits.
A new nationwide phone survey of 1,358 Internet users from November 18-December
14 by the Pew Internet & American Life Project showed that the percentage of
music file downloaders had fallen to 14% (about 18 million users) from 29%
(about 35 million) when the Project last reported on downloading from a survey
conducted during March 12-19 and April 29-May 20. On an average day during the
spring survey, 4% of Internet users said they downloaded files. In the
November-December survey just 1% said they were downloading files on any given
day during the survey period.
Radio Ready
to Go Digital
Wired, January 7, 2003
In a rollout that's being compared to the birth of FM, traditional broadcasters will fill the airwaves with CD-quality audio and souped-up information services. And, unlike satellite radio, it's free.
2004 International Consumer Electronics Show
(CES)
January 8 - 11, Las Vegas
Free
Downloads? Hold the Phone
by Elizabeth Biddlecombe
Wired, January 7, 2003
Mobile phones do more than ever and they do it with increasing panache. But all that nifty technology comes at a price. At least the people creating the technology expect it to.
Intel launches $200M fund for 'digital home'
By Ben Berkowitz and Daniel Sorid
Reuters on USA Today, January 7, 2004
Intel, the world's largest microchip maker and an eager
entrant into the consumer electronics business, is backing up its vision of a
PC-centric digital home with a new $200 million investment fund.
The fund, to be operated by Intel's venture capital arm, will focus on
technologies that allow content such as movies and music to travel wirelessly
between electronic devices around the home, Intel said Tuesday.
Device for DVD Movies Raises Legal Issue
Dow Jones Newswire, January 7, 2004
Hollywood's bid to control how its movies
are copied, stored and played is being tested by an unlikely source: a former
French oil engineer in an out-of-the-way Paris suburb, Wednesday's Wall Street
Journal reported. ...
Mr. Crohas and his 150-employee team at Archos
present a fresh headache for Hollywood because they show how the industry's
campaign to keep control of its films could be challenged by small players.
This device holds 160 two-hour movies at near DVD-quality using MPEG-4 compression. You can easily transfer the movie to your PC and then to the world via a P2P client. Note the final phrase, "... could be challenged by small players" meaning small companies, start-ups, not just the current industry giants.
ATF
Director to Head Music Industry's Anti-Piracy Efforts
by Associated Press, December 9, 2003
The director of the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (search) is leaving his post next month to lead
the recording industry's efforts to stop music piracy.
Bradley A. Buckles, who served ATF for 30 years and was named director in 1999,
will become head of the Anti-Piracy Unit of the Recording Industry Association
of America, the trade group announced Tuesday.
Canada
deems P2P downloading legal
by John Borland
CNET News.com, December 12, 2003
Downloading copyrighted music from peer-to-peer networks is
legal in Canada, although uploading files is not, Canadian copyright regulators
said in a ruling released Friday.
In the same decision, the Copyright Board of Canada imposed a government fee of
as much as $25 on iPod-like MP3 players, putting the devices in the same
category as audio tapes and blank CDs. The money collected from levies on
"recording mediums" goes into a fund to pay musicians and songwriters for
revenues lost from consumers' personal copying.
Singers bridge troubled water
by Sean Piccoli
Orlando Sun-Sentinel, December 14, 2003
With tour economics driving the Simon and Garfunkel reunion,
the windfall for fans is more nostalgic than artistic. ...
Touring brings in revenue that has become harder to collect through record sales
in the age of Internet file-sharing and reissue fatigue. For artists of a
certain vintage, the general decline in back-catalog income -- documented by the
album-sales ticker Nielsen SoundScan -- compounds the tendency of a body of work
to recede into history.
Hitting the road can give a nudge to album sales. But arena concerts
increasingly are their own reward for the Baby Boom generation's surviving
idols.
Tickets for Simon and Garfunkel, who perform on Wednesday in Miami and Thursday
in Sunrise, fetch between $45 and $251.50 at face value. Whatever their
guarantee -- the fee the band charges the promoter, who in turn sets the ticket
price -- they have joined the Rolling Stones, the Eagles and Paul McCartney on
the price-up escalator for personal appearances. The two old friends known for
long stretches of mutual hostility will, by some estimates, gross $50 million
for a 30-city, 42-show tour that concludes on Dec. 21 in Tampa.
Let's say they net $25 million touring. By comparison, if they netted a 15% royalty (highly unlikely) on a $20 CD sale, they would get $3. They would have to sell over 8 million CDs to equal that amount, which they never did even at the height of their popularity, long before file-sharing. And they can tour again long before they'd be able to produce a new CD selling another 8 million units.
Granted, there aren't many groups that have even one-tenth the drawing power of Simon and Garfunkel. There are, however, many many groups that would be happy to net one-tenth of $25 million for a 42-show tour. That's $2.5 million, only $60,000 per show.
As another comparison, Alex Rodriguez, shortstop for the Texas Rangers, gets almost $18,000 per inning over a 162-game Major League Baseball season. But A-Rod has to hit a curve ball.
Game
industry leads race for digital 'uberdevice'
by David Becker and John Borland
CNET News.com, December 9, 2003
One of the most heavily touted concepts of the Internet boom
was "convergence"--the notion that practically all consumer technologies, from
television to instant messaging, would be housed in a single box.
Digital soothsayers spent years debating whether this all-in-one device would
look more like a TV or a PC, the two most obvious contenders. To date, neither
side appears to have been right. Instead, to the likely surprise of most
shoppers this holiday season, the box of the future may end up being the humble
game console.
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