Protesters denounce Google plan for 'two-tier internet'

"They are talking about producing a fast lane, essentially a higher tier, for premium content that means if you want to play in the 21st Century internet you will have to pay."

The proposals unveiled this week by the search giant and telecom titan Verizon champion an open net for wireline services but suggest loopholes for wireless and what they called "differentiated" content.

Critics have said this would undermine the principle of net neutrality where all web data is treated equally and no-one is given preferential treatment or discriminated against.
"Whether you are a blogger, an entrepreneur, a journalist or someone trying to organise a community, the internet is precious," said Mr Rucker.
"We all want to stand together to ensure it is protected for the future. We would expect Google to take leadership in making that happen, not be on the front line of undoing that."

'In mourning'

Google and Verizon made their announcement after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ended closed-door talks with service providers and internet companies to find a consensus on the principle of net neutrality.

The FCC is trying to navigate what it has called a "third way" to resolve the issue after its authority was called into question when a court ruled it had no power to sanction Comcast for slowing some net traffic.

Net neutrality is seen as central to the government's broadband plan to provide high speed access to every citizen by 2020.

Protestor Christine Springer criticised the lack of leadership coming from the agency.

"The FCC is sitting on their hands. They are hoping nobody will notice but unless we make a lot of noise the corporate giants will prevail. The job of the FCC is to regulate not negotiate with giant corporations."

Those taking part in the rally agree and chanted slogans like "net neutrality is under attack, stand up and fight back" and "we demand our internet rights, together we stand together we fight".

There was also some singing to the tune of "Clementine" organised by a group of senior citizens calling themselves the Raging Grannies.

"We want to raise awareness about this issue and shine a light on how important it is to keep the internet free and open to one and all," said Raging Granny Gail Sredanovic.

Martha Champion donned a heavy black Victorian costume to drive home her concerns.

"I am in mourning for the death of the internet and believe this plan will lock out those that can't afford to pay a premium for their content to load faster or for their site to go quickly."

The rally also attracted the very young. Seven year old Alexis Buggs said she took part "to help save the internet".

Apple Japan offers to replace overheating iPod nano

Apple's Japanese unit has offered to replace its first-generation iPod nano music player in the event of it overheating after reports of fires led to criticism from the government in Tokyo.

Apple confirmed "very rare cases of overheating" in the battery of the iPod nano sold between September 2005 and December 2006, which distorted the shape of the device or made it unusable, the company said on its Japanese website.

It offered to replace affected units, adding that concerned customers using the first-generation iPod nano can now get the battery replaced, it said.

The company noted the fault had been traced to a particular battery supplier, adding that other iPod nano models had no such recharging problems.

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has said the recharging problems caused 27 overheating incidents, including six fires, which left four people with minor burns.

The ministry last week said Apple had separately notified it of 34 other "non-serious" overheating accidents related to the device. The ministry called Apple's delay in doing so "truly regrettable."

The Japanese unit had put information on its website about the problems, including recommending battery replacements. However, the lack of prominence given to the warnings provoked criticism.

The company has since promised to improve its website.

On Wednesday, the ministry said it was "aware of the amendment" on the Apple site.

"But we have yet to receive any formal report from the company about it. So we cannot make any comment at this stage," said Naotake Fujushiro, a product safety official at the ministry.

Apple has sold about 1.8 million units of the 2005 iPod nano in Japan since September 2005.

The latest setback for Apple follows the launch of its iPhone 4, which has been dogged by reception problems linked to its new design and manufacturing issues that have led to the delay of the white version.

Advertisers flocking to Facebook: eMarketer

Internet research firm eMarketer on Thursday reported that advertisers are flocking to Facebook and will spend more than a billion dollars at the world's top online social network.




"Brand advertisers are making Facebook a core buy," said eMarketer senior analyst Debra Aho Williamson.
"Ad spending is building quickly and the mass audience is one that marketers cannot ignore any longer."
Facebook membership topped 500 million people in July and it is not unusual for users of the service to spend hours weekly, if not daily, at the website.
Research by eMarketer indicated that advertisers will spend 1.28 billion dollars worldwide trying to get pitches to Facebook members.
Facebook's success in luring ads is due in part to a "self-serve" software tool that lets advertisers create their own virtual pitches and target them based on basic demographics such as age or gender.
The tool accounts for half of the ads placed at Facebook, according to eMarketer.
Meanwhile, advertising revenue at News Corp-owned social networking service MySpace was expected to slip to 297 million dollars, a 14 percent drop from the 347 million dollars taken in worldwide last year, the market tracker said.

PayPal hopes to make micropayments easier online

PayPal wants to make it easier to buy low-cost digital goods online, whether it's a single article on a news website or virtual items in a video game.

Scott Thompson, the online payment service's president, said Thursday thatPayPal plans to roll out a payment product by the end of the year that helps businesses collect "micropayments" on the Web.

Generally, if you want to buy, say, a virtual sword in an online game, you need to first purchase a chunk of credit - perhaps $5 or $10 - that you can then spend on a 49-cent virtual sword on a game on Facebook or other websites. That's because the costs associated with credit card transactions quickly eat away at the profit a merchant would make on something that costs a few dollars or less.

Thompson thinks consumers want to be able to buy items one at a time, though. And with this in mind, he said PayPal intends to allow purchases in small increments.

PayPal, which is owned by eBay Inc., plans to make that work by compiling consumers' transactions. Someone might buy $10 worth of news articles, or goods in an online game, before getting billed by PayPal. PayPal thinks this will appeal more to consumers while benefiting merchants and PayPal, too.

Online micropayments are not new. They emerged in the 1990s but never really caught on, in part because early attempts often had people spend tiny amounts of money - a dime here, a quarter there - instead of the currently popular model where you buy a bunch of credits up front and use them a little at a time.

But consumers are now much more used to the idea of buying virtual goods in online games and downloading content like songs and videos, and this change in behavior could benefit PayPal.

PayPal is already involved in the digital payment space. Last year, $2 billion of its total $71 billion in payment volume came from digital goods such as downloads of music, videos and software people bought online. And it seems to be growing: In the first half of this year, the company processed $1.3 billion in digital goods payments, Thompson said.

The company has gotten its feet wet in the world of micropayments, too, offering merchants a micropayment option that websites can use, charging a fee of 5 percent plus 5 cents for small transactions, which it sees as generally less than $10 apiece. This way, a $3 micropayment for a news article would cost the merchant 20 cents in transaction fees; under PayPal's normal fee schedule for items that cost up to $3,000, it would cost about 39 cents.

Still, Thompson thinks the upcoming payment product will be better, and hopefully more convenient, too. Right now, if you use PayPal to buy items in an online game such as Zynga's popular FarmVille, you're still prompted to leave the game mid-session to make the actual payment. Thompson wants to change this with PayPal's upcoming offering.

"The whole intent is to keep you in the experience, don't force you to do anything else ... and keep it economical for all parties," 

4 million pornsites blocked in Indonesia

Jakarta, Aug 11: To protect the nation's youth, Indonesia government blocked four million pornography sites on the Internet from Wednesday, Aug 11.

According the country's anti-pornographic laws that were passed on Oct 30, 2008, Indonesia had taken the step in conjunction with the holy month of Ramadan, said Communications and Information Minister Tifatul Sembiring.

"Right this moment, around 90 per cent of such sites are being blocked, we will carry out the blocking exercise in stages until all are blocked," said Sembiring.

Indonesian public blamed the pornsites as the cause of the moral decay currently taking place among young Indonesians.

The censoring is across the board and encompasses any material deemed pornographic, including nudity, explicit sex whether heterosexual or not, sex organs and pornographic symbols.

Nokia Launches Ramadan Mobile Applications

Nokia Launches Ramadan Mobile Applications

Nokia has come with new mobile applications with the content tailored for the holy month of Ramadan. The new Nokia mobile applications are available in the Ovi store. The updated mobile applications tailored for the Holy Month can now be downloaded on the well-matched Nokia devices for free directly from Nokia’s Ovi Store.

“The overwhelming response and feedback that we received from last year’s offering allowed us to improve and expand this year’s application offering. Nokia users have now a single and easy access to many of the cherished experiences that Muslims like to be close to, and keep them connected to the Holy Month. The applications this year also support a wider range of devices including both touch and non-touch Nokia devices, and are available in more languages” said Haseeb Ihtisham, Head of Marketing, Nokia Pakistan and Afghanistan.

This year’s Ramadan applications are feature packed, and include the Holy Quran, Prayer Times, Hadith, Boyoot Allah, Arabica, Mozzaker, and Makkah and Madinah. New features include Quran recitation from multiple recitors from which users can choose to download in MP3 format. Arabica is a great new feature for non-Arabic speaking Muslims to help them learn and understand the message of Allah in Arabic. The new mobile services also feature locations of major mosques in Saudi Arabia, such as the two holy mosques, Masjid Al Haram in Makkah and Masjid Al Nabawi in Al Madinah. Additionally users can also find locations of mosques all around the world using free Ovi maps available on Ovi store.

“Ramadan applications for 2010 are free and offer a variety of content from a range of global and local content providers ready to be downloaded for the widest range of devices.” Haseeb added.

The Ramadan applications are developed by ASGATech, a Forum Nokia Premium Partner in the Middle East, with all content reviewed and approved by Al Azhar Al Shareef.

Ramadan applications for 2010 are compatible with a range of Nokia devices including Nokia N97 mini, Nokia E72, Nokia E52, Nokia X6, Nokia 5230,Nokia 5530,Nokia C5,Nokia 5235, Nokia 5800, Nokia E5, Nokia 6700 slide, Nokia 5233, Nokia X3, Nokia 6303i, Nokia 2710, and Nokia C3. The user interface for the applications is available in English, Arabic, Farsi, French and Urdu.

Pakistan Zong Telecom Ramzan Call Offer For 2.99/hr

Pakistan Zong Telecom Ramzan Call Offer For 2.99/hr

ZONG came up with a new offer named as Zong’s Ramzan Value Time Offer, Through this offer you can avail calling rates of 2.99+tax/hour throughout the holy month of Ramzan.

How to subscribe/unsubscribe:

• To subscribe you can dial *711# or write sub in a text message and send to 711.
• To unsubscribe the offer Send unsub to 711.

Note:

• This offer is valid from 1st – 29th Ramzan.
• There is a one-time subscription charge of Rs 10+tax.
• Ramzan value time Offer subscribers can call any ZONG number at Rs 2.99 + tax/hour from:
  Midnight – Sehri (12am – 4am)
  Afternoon – Post Iftari (2pm – 8pm)
• Offnet calls will be charged as per tariff plan.
• Terms and Conditions apply.