Items tagged with Mer
Now they just have to get this deal past the feds.XM and Sirius' proposed merger received near-unanimous support from shareholders, as the two companies announced they had cleared the next hurdle in becoming a single entity.According to tabulations by XM, 99.8 percent of shareholders voted in favor of the transaction. The merger agreement...
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By now just about everyone has heard of the RIAA and their law suits against people who have allegedly pirated music over the Internet. The stories of the RIAA suing grandmothers, minors, and the deceased are common place, but it seems that the RIAA's latest step might have taken things too far: they're asking that a new law be passed...
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Time Warner released its Q3 earnings report Wednesday, and boy does it look sad for AOL. In terms of subcribers, numbers dropped 5.1 million to 10.1 million, over a 33% drop in one year's time.According to Time Warner the firm’s revised strategy to refocus its business from subscribers to advertising is to blame for the subscriber loss. The...
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I knew it felt crowded here on teh intarnets. They're a series of tubes, you know. According to a new Harris poll, 79% of American adults are currently using the Internet. And they report that they're spending an average of 11 hours a week online. Slackers.The results reflect a steady rise since 2000, when 57 percent of adults polled said...
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Consumer advocates, veteran websurfers, and the just plain paranoid love the idea of a "Do Not Track" list that would make it impossible for advertisers to track where you go on the web and tailor advertising to your surfing habits. The problem is, those same users hate paying for content, and like having free, high-quality ad-supported webpages...
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How many times have you been annoyed by a cell phone user, practically shouting into his or her phone on a bus or subway? Or been annoyed by someone's phone ringing in the theatre? More than you can count, right? Unless, of course, you are of the offenders. Ever wish you could rip the phone out of their hands, or just...
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In the wake of Comcast's recent decision to start throttling end-user P2P traffic consumer groups have decided to take their complaint straight to the top. By 'the top' we don't mean the supreme court, but the FCC. We can't help but wonder why nobody's taken Comcast to the FCC over their disconnecting users who use 'too much' of...
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Shell wants customers to give them the finger, at least in terms of paying for their gas. 10 Chicago-area stations are testing biometric payment systems. Ten Shell gas stations in the Windy City are testing biometric systems that let consumers walk up to the pump, scan their fingertips on a device and fill up their vehicles. The systems,...
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Monday Verizon unveiled a new new, symmetrical Verizon FiOS Internet service for consumers, featuring an upload and download speed of up to 20Mbps. Yes, you read that right, 20Mbps upload. The service went live in parts of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut on Monday.The 20/20 service is first launching in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut,...
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In a recent Web 2.0 conference, Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer declared that the company wasn't changing their acquisition strategy. The Redmond Giant will continue making smaller purchases in the $50 million to $1 billion range instead of larger, multi-billion dollar purchases.“The CEO of the world's largest software maker said it is logical...
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We know that consumers in America aren't exactly enamored with Windows Vista; there's even been a lawsuit filed over the term "Windows-Vista Ready." Apparently the Dutch Consumers' Union agrees with that opinion.In a recent meeting between the Dutch Consumers’ Union (Consumentenbond) and Microsoft Netherlands, the consumer organization asked...
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Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer recently made some interesting claims about Microsoft code appearing in various Linux distributions, especially Red Hat. Now he's made a comment that all Red Hat users 'owe' Microsoft. He hasn't put a dollar amount on what they owe, or made his claims on exactly why 100% clear. All we know is that...
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Mona Shaw, of Bristow Virginia, decided that she'd had enough of Comcast's customer service and chose to do something about it: The 75-year-old took a hammer and starting demolishing a Comcast office. Not bad for someone who lived through World War II and has a heart condition.While this obviously isn't the recommended way to settle...
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There it is, Miss America's browser ... Lauren Nelson made children's Internet security her main issue during the most recent pageant because of a disturbing online encounter she and her friends had as 13-year-olds. Now a kid-safe browser bearing her name will launch.The Miss America Kid-Safe Web Browser is to debut on Thursday. The...
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Is Microsoft bored with making office software and operating systems? Seems that way. In May of 2007, it purchased online marketing firm aQuantive for $6 billion. Speaking at a media event in Paris yesterday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer outlined a future for the company over the next decade to realize 25 percent of their revenues from online...
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The recent news that Ameritrade had been leaking sensitive customer data was enough to drive some investors away from Ameritrade for the time being, and possibly forever. If you're an investor who is on the fence deciding when you might put your faith and financial security into Ameritrade's hands again, then you might want to know that Ameritrade...
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It's possible consumers may see such rebates in the future. Right now, buy an energy efficient dishwasher, furnace, A/C unit, or something similar and you can often get a rebate from your utility company. Will utilities also give rebates for energy-efficient PCs? It's being discussed.The Climate Savers Computing Initiative, a consortium...
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Revolutionizing the Way Games Are Meant To Be Played Taipei, Taiwan, 31st August 2007) Shuttle Inc. – leading designer and manufacturer of small form factor (SFF) computers and accessories today announced the launch of its top gamers’ platform XPC Prima series – the Shuttle XPC Prima SP35P2 Pro platform for...
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A requirement for a new residence has always been, in our opinion, broadband of some type, either DSL or cable modem service. Rural America is still pretty broadband-less, and may stay that way, because of the forever mighty profit margin. As population density drops outside of metropolitan areas, it's impossible for telecommunications...
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What's a good investment nowadays? We don't give such advice here at HotHardware, but we can tell you to steer clear of offering jumbo loans on third houses right now. That's a bad investment. What's a good investment? According to Standard and Poor's Clyde Montevirgen, Intel is a five star, strong buy monster. According to market...
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A few weeks ago, news broke of an upcoming AMD technology co-developed with a couple of their IC partners dubbed G3MX, or the Socket G3 Memory eXtension. In essence, G3MX is designed to be AMD’s answer to the current FB-DIMM (Fully Buffered) memory used on Intel’s high-end server and workstation platforms. While DDR2 FB-DIMMs, that are outfitted...
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A recent poll shows that more and more Americans are turning to the Internet for information about health and health issues. In fact, according to the 2007 Consumer Medical and Health Information poll, nearly as many Americans list the Web as their primary source of medical information as do their doctor. The 2007 Consumer Medical and Health...
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