There have been a lot of tech news bits and pieces that have been covered in detail elsewhere, so I won’t rehash them completely, but here’s the major announcements from the industry in the last few days:
- Man denies hacking Palin’s Yahoo Account – The man accused of hacking Governor and VP-hopeful Sarah Palin’s Yahoo Mail account plead not-guilty in court. David Kernell, 20, is the son of a prominent Democratic politician.
- New Gmail Labs feature: Mail Goggles – Ever send a late-night e-mail when you were tired, stressed out, or drunk? Since Gmail doesn’t feature a “recall message” function, they’ve come up with something arguably better: During a specified block of time of day, you have to solve a series of math problems to send your message. This will hopefully keep you from sending a regrettable e-mail when you’re not feeling like yourself.
- Google Adds Click-to-Buy Feature to YouTube – In an effort to monetize the ever-growing video clip web site purchased for a hefty sum, Google is adding more advertising to the YouTube site, and also a Click-To-Buy option to every video. This should allow you to purchase full TV episodes, movies, and songs (when you watch a music video). Will people actually buy this way?
- From Reuters: Judges Put an End to RealDVD DVD-copying Software – Not-so-popular dvd-ripping software from RealNetworks was set to make copying your home DVDs a legitimate and DRM-encumbered process (probably why it wasn’t so popular), until the court found it in violation of DMCA and other copyright-related laws. So long, RealDVD, we knew ye not.
- From Reuters: Netflix Raises Rates $1 for Blu-Ray Subscribers – This is pretty self-explanatory. I just put my account on hold, it appears it was just in time, since my account was set for Blu-Ray as my preferred medium.