Friday, March 4, 2011

Movie Trailer: That Means We Ride

Unlimited Music Re-Downloads May Come As Part Of MobileMe Revamp

By Jacqui Cheng, ars technica

March 4, 2011

iTunes music buyers may soon be able to re-download their purchased music tracks to all of their devices if Apple’s latest negotiations are successful. According to unnamed music industry sources speaking toBloomberg, Apple is currently in talks with the Big Four music labels — Sony Music, Universal Music Group (UMG), Warner Music Group (WMG), and EMI — to allow customers to download purchased music multiple times, and a deal could be reached as soon as mid-year.

Long-time iTunes users know that one of the more obnoxious differences between music and app downloads on the iTunes Store is the fact that apps (yes, even paid ones) can be re-downloaded a seemingly infinite number of times. In contrast, users can only download music tracks once — if you find yourself without backups and your music disappears, you must beseech the iTunes gods to let you re-download all your music — a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, should they hear your prayers.

The music limitation is due to the licensing restrictions on music sold through iTunes; the music labels charge Apple for every download (whether the user has already paid for it or not), and therefore Apple passes on the cost to the customer for each download.

This has been the case since the iTunes Store opened in 2003 — then known as the iTunes MusicStore — but it sounds like times are changing. Two people speaking to Bloomberg said that an agreement between Apple and the music labels could be announced in the middle of 2011, which may coincide with a rumored MobileMe revamp. Bloomberg’s sources corroborated previous reports that Apple was planning to allow users to store all manner of media in the cloud and access it from multiple iDevices, and that the service may end up being free.

If this is the case, it makes sense that Apple is working to renegotiate its music contracts. Users would not only need to be able to stream their purchased music from everywhere, it sure would be nice if they could download that music to different devices as well. Apple has reportedly assured the music labels that its 2009 purchase of music streaming service Lala was just “insurance,” so it sounds as if Apple is committed to continue selling music downloads for as long as it can.

"Canadian" Home prices approaching bubble territory, BMO says

Selected Comment

Canada didn't weather the recession better than other countries, it just postponed the recession - using borrowed money. Consequently household debts, mortgage debts and government debts are all hitting all-time highs right now, just as interest rates start going up. It's quite the pickle we've got ourselves into and the only road out of it is going to be a hard reckoning, just like our neighbour.

Gareth Hitchings talking about
Home prices approaching bubble territory, BMO says

Got something to say?

CTV.ca News Staff

Date: Friday Mar. 4, 2011 10:58 AM ET

The Canadian housing market could be headed for trouble if there is no moderation in prices in the months ahead, the Bank of Montreal says in a new report.

Housing prices are currently about 10 per cent above what they were before the recession, which was already an all-time record.

The bank says housing prices are rising faster than personal incomes, a worrisome trend which is making the market less stable.

Bank of Montreal economist Sal Guatieri says that a nationwide correction is unlikely, but would be possible if the price-to-income trend doesn't change, or if interest rates spike.

At the moment, the risk is not the same in every housing market in Canada, with some provinces seeing more extreme conditions than others.

The most concerning scenario is in Saskatchewan where the price-to-income ratio is 39 per cent above historic norms, followed by Newfoundland at 34 per cent; British Columbia and Manitoba, with each at 31 per cent; and Quebec at 29 per cent above normal levels.

In Canada's largest province, Ontario, this same ratio sits only 10 per cent above historic levels, which suggests its housing market may be overvalued, but is not in danger of collapse.

The good news is that the bank expects household incomes to grow faster than housing prices in the future, which would make a major correction unlikely.

The Bank of Montreal says that tougher mortgage rules and higher interest rates should help stabilize housing prices and cool down sales.

The report is the latest warning about rising housing prices and the risks they pose to the Canadian economy.

A February report from Capital Economics warned an existing housing bubble was set to burst, a potential collapse that could be triggered by rising interest rates. The economics consulting firm predicted that housing prices could fall 25-35 per cent over the next three years as interest rates increase.

With files from The Canadian Press

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Flaherty to table federal budget March 22

Budget votes could lead to minority Conservative government's defeat

CBC News

Posted: Mar 2, 2011 11:34 AM ET

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty talks about the upcoming federal budget

Federal budget talk8:51

CBC's Terry Milewski on the chances of a spring election

Election talk1:54

The Ruling Conservatives will table their latest budget on March 22, laying out a fiscal plan that could lead to their defeat and send Canadians to the polls as early as May.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's minority government could be defeated and an election triggered if the budget doesn't win the support of at least one of the three opposition parties in the House.Speaking to reporters in Ottawa on Wednesday, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said the budget will contain items that will "engender reflection" by opposition parties, although the Liberals and Bloc Québécois have already indicated they will not support it.

'Living within our means'

Flaherty said the budget will focus on "living within our means" and will propose no big spending projects, tax increases or cuts in transfers to the provinces and territories.

He also said the government remains on track to eliminate the deficit in the medium term, and the budget will help accomplish this by focusing on job creation and economic growth.

"We will not make dangerous new government spending commitments that would trigger higher taxes, kill jobs and reverse Canada's economic growth," Flaherty said outside the House of Commons.

Showdown looms over corporate tax rates

The Opposition Liberals under Michael Ignatieff have indicated they will not support the budget unless Flaherty rolls back corporate tax rate cuts to 2010 levels — a move the finance minister again ruled out Wednesday. The spending plan will have "nothing" about corporate tax cuts, he said.

Speaking to reporters shortly after Flaherty's announcement, Liberal MP Dominic LeBlanc acknowledged his party "has a lot of work to do" in light of recent polls suggesting the Conservatives are well ahead of the Liberals in voter support.

LeBlanc also insisted those who decide whether to support a budget based solely on poll results aren't taking a "good approach."

"There’s a long list of people who decided to start an election and ended up in a different situation from what the polls said three weeks earlier," he said.

Meanwhile, Jack Layton's New Democrats have presented measures they would like to see in this year's fiscal plan.

The NDP asked the Conservatives to take the GST off home heating bills, restore the EcoEnergy Retrofit program and increase the guaranteed income supplement for seniors. The party also wants changes to the Canada Pension Plan, as well as a plan to increase access to family doctors.

iTunes: Top 10 singles and albums

By admin on March 2nd, 2011

iTunes’ top 10 selling singles and albums of the week ending Feb. 28, 2011:

Singles:

1. “Born This Way,” Lady GaGa
2. “Forget You,” Cee Lo Green
3. “On the Floor (feat. Pitbull),” Jennifer Lopez
4. “S&M,” Rihanna
5. “E.T. (feat. Kanye West),” Katy Perry

6. “Rolling In the Deep,” Adele
7. “I Need a Doctor (feat. Eminem & Skylar Grey),” Dr. Dre
8. “F(asterisk)(asterisk)kin’ Perfect,” P!nk
9. “Blow,” Ke$ha
10. “Grenade,” Bruno Mars

Albums:

1. “21,” Adele
2. “Sigh No More,” Mumford & Sons
3. “My World 2.0,” Justin Bieber
4. “Never Say Never (The Remixes),” Justin Bieber
5. “19,” Adele

6. “Loud,” Rihanna
7. “Lasers,” Lupe Fiasco
8. “Truant Wave,” Patrick Stump
9. “Lungs,” Florence + The Machine
10. “Recovery,” Eminem

http://musicindustryreport.org/?p=30842

Rain Turns Soccer Stadium Into Swimming Pool

Is Apple’s New IPad Worth the Price?

Navigating Search in China

Adaline Lau | March 2, 2011

The Chinese government has launched a new search engine called Pangusothat aims to not only become a top search engine in China but lead in the international market.

The new search engine is a joint venture between the state-owned mobile operator China Mobile and Xinhua news agency.

Considering that Panguso is operated by China Mobile, the leading carrier in the country with 70 percent market share, one would expect the government-owned engine roll out a mobile friendly search service or mobile Internet search engine to capture the mobile search market in the country.

However, it seems the only mobile aspect of Panguso is that Internet users could send search results from computers to cell phones by SMS, according to Xinhua.

If you navigate Panguso, that mobile feature is available under the buzz category showcasing hot topics aggregated from various microblogging sites in the country.

Panguso isn’t the first state-owned search engine in China. In December 2010, People’s Daily, the official newspaper for the Communist Party in China, launched the People Search Engine, Goso with the goal to break Baidu’s monopoly.

But Goso is more realistic in grabbing a large portion of the search market share in China. Gong Yuguo, vice president of Goso, was quoted in local media that the People Search Engine would seek different ways to win over market share and not wage war against commercial search engines.

Navigating Goso, it looks like the search engine continues to add features since its launch two months ago, including app versions for Android and iPhone. Comparing Goso’s mobile feature to Panguso, it seems Goso understands the importance of making its service user friendly for Chinese Internet mobile users more than China Mobile’s search engine.

In a Nielsen report by Shan Phillips, vice president, Greater China, telecom practice, he said mobile Internet is more popular in China than in the U.S. — 38 percent of Chinese mobile subscribers use mobile devices to access the Internet compared to 27 percent of American mobile subscribers, despite less advanced networks.

With consolidation of the telecom market in China in 2009, three carriers dominate the market, Phillips said. China Mobile is in the lead with more than 70 percent market share, followed by China Unicom and China Telecom.

He pointed out while almost 40 percent of Chinese phone users access mobile Internet, they don’t use as many data intensive applications such as mobile video and content uploads. A number of reasons include 3G was only launched in 2009, smartphones such as iPhone and Android penetration is still low, and the mobile app ecosystem remains fragmented.

As an established mobile carrier in the market, there’s still a high possibility for China Mobile to deploy Panguso on its network in the near future.

Putting the mobile aspect aside, SEM practitioners I spoke to off the record are underwhelmed with yet another state-owned search engine launch. The general sentiment is while these government entities are established they aren’t necessarily experts in the area of search.

Baidu’s search dominance in China continues to soar. Its market share by search queries rose 6.5 percent to more than 83 percent in Q4 2010 compared to the previous year while Google slid more than 11 percent in the latest report by China research firm iResearch.

In Baidu’s latest financial report, ad revenue for the fiscal year of 2010 increased 78 percent compared to 2009 at more than $1 billion. The increase in ad revenue is driven by a rise in both the number of active online marketing customers and revenue per customer.

Baidu had about 412,000 active advertisers in 2010, representing a 30 percent increase from 2009 with revenue per advertiser also increased up to more than 35 percent. With a focus on social networking this year in a statement from Baidu’s chairman and CEO Robin Li, several media reports speculate apossible collaboration with the Paolo Alto headquartered social networking giant Facebook.

Although Baidu is clearly leading in the search landscape in China, search marketers continue to look to Google and increasingly Sohu and Soso for their paid search campaigns. It remains to be seen if state-owned search engines such as Panguso and Goso will be in their list of consideration anytime soon.

This article was originally published March 1, 2011 on SearchEngineWatch.com.