13th May 2012 Archive

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Samsung buys US Spotify clone, hopes to bruise Apple's eco-system

All it needs is international music rights

You don‘t have to be a genius to know that mSpot, which has just been bought by Samsung Electronics in the US, is going to go through both a transformation and a huge international upsurge in usage, if it has, or can get, international music rights. Samsung has been talking about a rival to iTunes for some years, ever since …

Music and Media 13 May 10:07
Russian upstart claims BitTorrent-killer

‘Pirate Pay’ names Microsoft as investor

A team of Russian developers is touting a technology it says can kill off BitTorrent-based P2P file sharing – and says it has attracted investment from Microsoft. According to a story in Russia Beyond the Headlines, the technology developed by Andrei Klimenko, his brother Alexei, and Dmitry Shuvaev has attracted $US100,000 …

Security 13 May 22:16
Yahoo! CEO! quits! after! CV! row!

Third Point LLC claims Scott Thompson’s scalp, wins board seats

Scott Thompson has stepped down as Yahoo! CEO and has been replaced, for the time being at least, by Ross Levinsohn. Several directors, namely Patti Hart, VJ Joshi, Arthur Kern and Gary Wilson, have also left the company. The departures are a big win for Third Point LLC, an investment company that says it is Yahoo!'s largest …

Business 13 May 22:52
Iranian firms told not to use foreign email providers

Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, MSN et al face the chop

Iran has reportedly banned some domestic companies from using foreign email services and hosting providers, as its attempts to create an autonomous, nationwide intranet gather pace. Local weekly Asr Ertebatat claimed on Saturday that Iran’s telecommunications ministry is preventing banks, insurance firms and telephone …

Public Sector 13 May 23:00
Lasers battle cattle farts!

In other news, cows with guns

It’s not exactly “cows with freakin’ lasers!”: the aptly-named Methane Research Cluster is to use lasers to measure the methane emissions from Australia’s vast herd of ruminants. The University of Melbourne-led project wants to improve “measurement and management” of methane emissions, starting with grazing lands in the north …

Science 13 May 23:30