Also: Factiva adds multimedia | Friends Reunited to cut jobs service? | iPhone = 29 June | Google's latest ad deal | Shiny new blogs | Tiscali's music bit | AQA
It sounded so simple: EMI and Apple would partner to make some "open" tracks available on the iTunes store that can be copied to and played on any device. But has Apple snuck in a secret way to track users of P2P networks?
Ars Technica have flagged up that the new DRM-free tracks still contain the name and email of the person that downloaded them - so you can be identified if you chose to plonk them onto Limewire.
It's not just DRM-free tracks, but all iTunes tracks that contain this information. Ars Technica point out that this information could be spoofed, so it is hardly an exact way of tracking people to prosecute, if we think that's the most extreme scenario.
No response from Apple to my query about this, quelle surprise. (Ars Technica)
Factiva adds multimedia
Research tool Factiva - which is now fully owned by Dow Jones - has added video and audio to its search tool under a deal with PodZinger. The new content goes live in August and this is Factiva trying to ride what it says will be a 30% increase in multimedia viewers in the new 12 months. The eight-year-old site has 1.6m paying subscribers that generate around £155m each year paying for access to archives of newspapers, magazines, journals, and newswires.
Friends Reunited to cut jobs service?
Friends Reunited's job section could be given the chop, reports Media Week, because performance hasn't lived up to expectations. The same could be said of the entire site since its ITV acquisition, now usurped by more sexy networking sites like Facebook and Bebo. FU bought Top Dog Jobs in March 2005 but ITV is thought to be considering a partnership with Monster.com, and might cut jobs. (mad.co.uk)
iPhone = 29 June
The iPhone will be on sale on 29 June in the US, so say posters for the launch across the States. No word on a Europe launch yet, although they did initially announce it would be October. (Reuters)
Google's latest ad deal
Google has been signed up as the broker for web advertising on the American fashion and beauty network Glam, which runs about 300 sites and blogs. The value of the deal wasn't disclosed, but this is part of the search giant's strategy to attract big brand advertisers. (Wall Street Journal)
Shiny new blogs
The blog network Shiny Media has launched a new batch of blogs: availableinpanto.com on reality TV (the insanity has begun for yet another year...), lostweekend.tv on stag weekends, kerching.tv on personal finance and mychemicaltoilet.tv to cover music festivals. We approve of creativity in web domains.
Tiscali's live music bits
MTV is doing live-ish tinterweb music, T-Mobile partners with Channel 4 and Tiscali too is also on this live-music-on-the-web bandwagon, also partnering with Channel 4 on a series of performances from the Reading Festival last year. Tiscali has screened various Reading shows on its website for a couple of years but the latest shows will be late night on Channel 4. Last Friday was the Fratellis: the next performances are Guillemots, The Automatic, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Sway and Tapes n Tapes.
What's the number of that text thing that you send questions to?
Ever been in the pub and had a random question, and then someone mentions that service you can text questions to, except no-one can remember the name? Well it's AQA, and they reckon that their mobile short code 63336 has become one of the top ten most valuable phone numbers in the UK after hitting one million questions customers yesterday. Anyone actually used this? I've asked it: "If you fire a gun into the sky, what happens to the bullet and can it kill someone when it comes down?" No reply as yet. (AQA)
Update: "Bullets fired into the air fall back down with sufficient force to cause injury and death. Although rare, two people in Puerto Rico die each year in this way."
