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Google's Street View cars venture inside TARDIS
Dr Who fans the world over know that one of the few surviving Police Boxes on which the TARDIS is modelled can be found outside the entrance to Earl's Court tube station.
Google seems to know this too and has created a lovely Easter Egg for Doctor Who fans on its Street View mapping service.
The fun starts if you visit this …
Netflix dares UK freetards: Watch new Breaking Bad NOW or torrent it?
Video-on-demand service Netflix will give viewers on both sides of the Atlantic near instant access to one of the most anticipated TV drama climaxes: the final episodes of Breaking Bad.
Streaming the brand new, hotly awaited programmes to UK fans within hours of their premiere in America is seen as an industry first and a clear …
Students, rejoice ... and squint! Google rents out textbooks to mobes
Google is offering fanbois and fandroids the chance to borrow academic textbooks on their smartphones.
The update to the Chocolate Factory's Google Play app to allow the lending of textbooks, which often prove prohibitively expensive for students.
Its iOS update adds the ability to borrow rental books, something that fandroids …
Werner Herzog's latest film warns drivers not to text while driving
Famed German filmmaker Werner Herzog has teamed up with US mobile carrier AT&T to produce a short documentary film, warning of the dangers of texting while driving.
The 35-minute film (embedded below) features frank and occasionally heart-wrenching interviews with drivers who were responsible for traffic accidents after texting …
Study finds online commentards easily duped, manipulated
Internet forums often use reader moderation to determine which comments are the best, but new research suggests that tallying up and down votes for online comments is a poor measure of those comments' actual quality.
Oh, you may think you know who's brilliant and who's a troll in our forums, dear Reg reader – but according to a …
Apple returns to courtroom once again to contest ebook shafting
Analysis Apple is back in court this Friday to contest the punishment it received in the US ebooks pricing trial.
The government has tried to show how serious it is in several ways. Firstly, it ruled that Apple had to end its contracts with the five publishers and be prevented for five years from entering contracts that the Justice …
Facebook to get IN YOUR FACE with video ads
Facebook has signalled it will become more annoying, by letting The Wall Street Journal know video ads are coming to the social network quite soon now.
The Journal's report says Facebook has been on the cusp of introducing video ads for months now, but has been held back by valiant champion-of-the-users Mark Zuckerberg's …
Internet giant you may still remember (AOL) gobbles vid ad biz Adap.tv
AOL has bought advertising company Adap.tv in a bid to future-proof its online video services.
The internet giant claimed the acquisition will make it the second biggest player in the online "video space", presumably behind Youtube.
Adap.tv specialises in programmatic advertising, which allows media buyers to avoid the bulk …
Yahoo! announces! plan! to! change! logo! 30! times! this! month!
Web portal, search and ads firm Yahoo! is set to change its logo no fewer than 30 times over the next month.
If anyone is worried about the possible loss of Yahoo!'s "fun, vibrant and welcoming" image, the firm announced it will be "keeping the colour purple". And yes, the exclamation mark is here to stay.
Over the next 30 days …
Sony refuses to flog off Spider-Man lab and other entertainment wings
PlayStation giant Sony has rejected activist investor Daniel Loeb's call to partially sell off its entertainment arm to prop up its electronics business.
The Japanese firm said in a letter to Loeb's hedge fund, Third Point, that the board had unanimously voted to hang onto the entertainment business, which includes subsidiaries …
Can't agree on a coding style? Maybe the NEW YORK TIMES can help
For decades, dour broadsheet the New York Times and its style guide have presided over the world of posh writing: its English usage manual serves as both a bible for upmarket writers and a blunt instrument with which to beat sensationalist tabloid hacks such as your humble correspondent.
Now the Grey Lady has turned her hand …
Arrr! Comcast working on new tech to nudge PIRATES to go straight
Comcast, the largest US cable operator and one of the nation's leading broadband providers, is reportedly working on a new approach to copyright-infringement prevention that would favor the carrot over the stick.
Under the proposed plan, customers spotted engaging in illegal downloads would be sent notifications in real time, …
Amazon founder Bezos snaps up Washington Post
Along with funding the creation of a clock that will run for 10,000 years, recovering the rockets from the first moon mission, and trying to shake up the commercial space industry, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos today put his dosh into another tricky, long-term enterprise: a print newspaper.
The $250m cash acquisition for The …
Paid-for stuff likely to triumph over free – shock report
Over-the-top (OTT) video services such as Netflix, LoveFilm and Sky's Now TV are likely to win out over free and ad-supported services, according to a recent report on streaming media.
Pay TV broadcasters, meanwhile, are already feeling the pinch as viewers cut back on subscription packages.
The report also notes that internet …
Peter Capaldi named as 12th Doctor Who
The next Doctor Who has been named.
He's Peter Capaldi, a 55-year-old Brit who has good form for the role, having already been on Dr Who and its spinoff Torchwood. The new Who – played John Frobiser in Torchwood's 2009 arc "Children of the Earth" – and popped up as Roman Lucius Caecilius in the 2008 episode "The Fires of Pompeii …
Big blue Avatar movie spawns THREE SEQUELS
For what are no doubt very important artistic reasons and nothing whatsoever to do with financial considerations, James Cameron and 20th Century Fox have said they'll now be doing three Avatar sequels instead of two.
A shot from Avatar
The big blue movie helmers said that they're hoping to shoot all the movies simultaneously …
Who's who: 12th Doctor has been chosen, will meet you on Sunday night
The question of who will be the 12th incarnation of Doctor Who will be answered this weekend in a live TV special, the BBC has declared.
Milking the appointment of the latest Time Lord for all it's worth, the Corporation will dedicate 30 minutes to the matter on BBC 1 on Sunday from 7pm. Fronted by Zoe Ball, the programme "will …
Wikipedians say no to Jimmy's 'buggy' WYSIWYG editor
Wikipedia editors are rejecting the online encyclopaedia's much-anticipated and hyped Visual Editor en masse.
The expensive software project, funded by donations to the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF), is a WYSIWYG editor intended to make the open-source resource more accessible. Traditionally, editing Wiki requires a knowledge of …
Zuck on this, Twitter! Now Facebook switches on embedded posts
Facebook users' status updates, videos and photos can now be embedded in websites beyond the free-content advertising network.
At present, only a small number of publishers including CNN and Huffington Post can use the feature, however. But once they've tirelessly worked the hamster wheel, Facebook said world+dog will get to …
Ministry of Fun launches news quiz - and the BBC is in its sights
The Ministry of Fun* wants to know if you're getting the news you need: and the role of social media, Google and the BBC are all up for grabs.
The Department of Media, Culture and Sport has launched a consultation (PDF) into media ownership and plurality, defining the latter as "having a diversity of viewpoints available and …
'Steve Jobs killed music biz', but Bon Jovi don't mind Google Glass
Two years after Bon Jovi accused Steve Jobs of killing the music industry, the band's keyboardist, David Bryan, let their Google flag fly when he donned Mountain View's wearable Glass computer device while playing a sold-out gig.
The world's biggest Glasshole, PR spindoctor Chris Barrett, persuaded the least famous member of the …
Chubby-chasing SEX TROLLS ran me offline, says fashion blogger
A fashionista who blogs about clothing for "beautiful, well-dressed fat women" has become the latest person to step up and slam the behaviour of misogynistic trolls.
Bronny Zigmond, a self-described “20-something fat feminist lady” from Australia, runs a blog called Fat Aus dedicated to helping chubby fashion-lovers find …
Kevin Bacon avoids slapped wrist after TV pipe-fatness claims
EE has received a stern talking to from the Advertising Standards Authority for website claims of "superfast" connectivity, though when Kevin Bacon says the same thing on TV that's OK.
The difference is the context: on TV Kevin's words are accompanied by numbers and comparisons to 3G, while the web ad just made the "superfast" …
Disney finds new way to give movies depth
Disney Research in Zürich is working on ways to improve how 2D composite images can be turned into 3D models.
The basic techniques are well known, but – according to the research the group presented at the recent SIGGRAPH conference – there are limitations. Lasers can capture data to present a 3D surface, but are blocked by …
IT pricing inquiry sparks Game of Thrones for rights-holders
Australia's recently-released report resulting from an inquiry into IT pricing has opened a can of worms beyond its intended target that should spark renewed debate on Australia's anti-siphoning laws.
The anti-siphoning laws mean pay television operators can't buy rights to broadcast certain sports until free-to-air television …
Foxtel farewells 3D TV, citing lack of content
3D TV continues its nation-by-nation slide into obscurity and irrelevance, with Foxtel in Australia joining the long list of TV broadcasters and Pay TV providers making the weary and footsore slog to the woodshed with its once-favourite pet.
The Pay TV provider has decided that its 3D channel 201 will run down the curtain and …
Music licensor seeks to block Pandora from running a radio station
Updated The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) has filed a petition with the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to block Pandora from running a terrestrial radio station, claiming that to allow the streaming music service to do so would not serve the public interest.
Pandora acquired the radio station …
Google menaces Apple's 3-year-old toddler with its cheap stream tech
Comment For years in PCs, Apple was the R&D lab for the entire industry, and Microsoft would roll out similar operating system features long after Apple users had them as standard.
As a result, Microsoft users would get a feature late. It would also usually be offered in a less adventurous manner – and while sometimes it was weaker than …
Sky falling: 119,000 Brits flee O2, Be after Murdoch broadband gobble
One in five O2 and Be broadband subscribers abandoned the home internet service after it was bought by BSkyB - according to figures shown to the City this morning.
At the end of last month, BSkyB's total broadband customer base stood at 4.9 million having gobbled up about 400,000 subscribers following its acquisition of O2 and …
Zynga ABANDONS ALL HOPE of opening US gambling operation
Zynga has decided to give up on trying to get a gambling licence in the US, the new revenue stream many investors were banking on to lift the gaming firm's fortunes.
The makers of "Farmville" and "Words with Friends", which recently hired former Xbox boss Don Mattrick to replace founder Mark Pincus as CEO, said it now believed …
Mozilla ponders blinkers for your browser
Mozilla Labs has outlined an experiment it's conducting in improving the personalisation web publishers can offer readers who browse their sites using Firefox.
The outfit says it's been working on the idea since last year, when it “conducted a series of experiments in which a user’s browsing history could be matched with …
Aereo streaming TV now bargaining chip in Time Warner Cable, CBS tiff
Locked in an acrimonious retransmission-fee battle with CBS Corporation, Time Warner Cable has slipped a new arrow into its negotiation quiver, saying that if CBS blacks out its content from Time Warner's service in New York, the cable company will recommend that its subscribers sign up with the internet-streaming service Aereo …
Darth Vader's old gaff awaits exogorth desert DUNE DOOM
Anakin Skywalker's home city Mos Espa, featured in Star Wars prequel The Phantom Menace, is about to be swallowed up by the desert.
The film set in the Sahara desert - situated near the namesake of Darth Vader's home world, the Tunisian city of Tataouine - will be soon buried by a crescent-shaped sand dune, or barchan. The dune …
Who will Dr Who chew in 50th TV do before Matt Smith bids adieu?
Pic Doctor Who will face a whole bunch of Daleks and a liberal sprinkling of Zygons in his 50th TV anniversary special, says the BBC.
Doctor Who to face the Daleks in 50th Anniversary episode Exterminate! Exter- I mean, extinguishate! Extinguishate!
The Doctor, in his David Tennant, Matt Smith and new John Hurt iterations, will …
Flogging mobe ads over summer? Come to us, pleads Facebook
Ad giant Facebook's latest wheeze for making dosh out of mobe users is to encourage adland to splash its cash on mobile ads during the summer, claiming that sun-seeking punters are away from their tellies and missing their vital advertising fix.
The social network reckons that summer is a "pivotal moment" for mobile ads and said …
Spotify strikes back at Radiohead - but artists are still angry
Earlier this week Thom Yorke sparked widespread debate over the rates Spotify pays artists by pulling his music from the streaming service as a gesture of protest. Spotify has now replied to artists upset by its chickenfeed payouts.
A spokesperson for the streaming service told trade mag Music Week that “we're still in the early …
Ad man: Mozilla 'radicals' and 'extremists' want to wreck internet economy
Updated Randall Rothenberg, president and CEO of industry group the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), thinks the Mozilla Foundation's policy on third-party cookies is way out of line, and he's taken to the web with a 4,000-word screed essay to make his case.
It was in February that Mozilla first said that a future version of its …
Rap for rap chap in crap rap app flap: Jay-Z blasted by privacy bods
Privacy campaigners have demanded a US watchdog halts the spread of an official app that plays rapper Jay Z's new album.
The multimillionaire hip-hop megastar, also known as Mr Beyonce, released Magna Carta Holy Grail, his latest musical effort, on 4 July as a downloadable application for users of Samsung phones. The South …
Google and fellow ad-slingers PROMISE to starve pirates of oxygen
The Internet's big brands are volunteering to try and withhold advertising dollars from piracy-related Web sites, and have linked arms with the White House's Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator to promote a no-ads-for-pirates scheme.
Microsoft, Yahoo!, AOL, 24/7 Media, Adtegrity, AOL, Condé Nast, Google, SpotXchange …
Radiohead's Thom Yorke pulls his own music off Spotify
Thom Yorke of Radiohead has become the latest artist to withdraw from Spotify in protest at their paltry royalty payments.
Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, a member of Yorke’s side project Atoms For Peace, announced the decision on Twitter, describing it as a “small meaningless rebellion.” Godrich explained that artists had …
Kick the tyres on UK's swap-shop for cat pics and other copyright stuff
A new online platform to help facilitate the licensing of copyrighted works in the UK is now being piloted.
The Copyright Hub centralises information on who individuals and businesses need to contact and gain permission from to "copy, adapt, share or distribute" music, text, images, video or other multimedia that is protected by …
Dead STEVE JOBS was a CROOK - Judge
A US judge has found Apple guilty of conspiring with major publishers to fix the price of ebooks and has called for a trial on damages.
District Judge Denise Cote stayed true to her initial impressions of the case, and ruled that Apple had colluded with Macmillan, Hachette, Penguin, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster on digital …
