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Miliband goes mad for Web 2.0
by
Andrew Orlowski
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David Miliband, the environment minister tipped to be the next Labour Party leader by a friendly Westminster press, says “a new spirit” is afoot in the UK, brought about by Web 2.0. Miliband said the web had polarised debate into competing extremities, where the truth was decided by whoever shouted the loudest. Traditional engineering values,…
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Why we hate the modern mobile phone
by
Andrew Orlowski
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Brendon McLean wrote to me with such a succinct summary of mobile phone angst, I invited him to elaborate. Read the result, How the mobile phone biz lost the plot, here.… Read More
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Paid video has look and feel of dead duck
by
Andrew Orlowski
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Forrester Research has predicted that video download services such as iTunes will peak this year, unless consumers change their habits. Forrester analyst James McQuivey calls them a “temporary flash” but a “dead end”. He forecasts a sharp ramp in revenue this year, from $98m to $279m, powered by what he calls “media addicts”. But these…
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Govt IT 2.0: self-nominated for glory
by
Andrew Orlowski
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Although the New Statesman magazine’s annual New Media Awards (NMA) don’t quite match up to the EFF’s annual Nepotism Award – nothing quite does – they’re still a rich source of humour and embarrassment. Getting an NMA is the equivalent of getting an orange at half time from the coach of your village football team,…
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Free music has never looked so cheap
by
Andrew Orlowski
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For the major record labels, yesterday’s deal between EMI and Apple doesn’t herald a new beginning, but the beginning of the end. From next month, EMI will distribute much of its repertoire without DRM through Apple’s iTunes store. Independent labels have been distributing DRM-free songs for three years, avoiding the lock-ins created by competing hardware…
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‘Please read this important email: you are being shot’
by
Andrew Orlowski
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These days, no major tragedy is complete without ambulance-chasing technology boosters muscling in on the aftermath. The Asian tsunami and the London 7/7 attacks both provided a tasteless excuse for evangelists to hype their favourite cause: instant real-time communications in general, and blogging in particular. But with the Virginia Tech massacre, the reliance on technology…