In less than a week since he passed away, Michael Jackson has sold over 2.6 million digital songs. Digital sale of Jackson's song in the past week shattered the old record, making Jackson the first artist to sell more than a million downloads in a week. Jackson also currently holds twenty-five spots on Billboard's Hot Digital Songs chart of 74.
Yesterday afternoon the Obama administration unveiled its financial plan for broadband expansion. Companies interested in investing in America's broadband grid will have until July 14th to apply, however, Verizon, AT&T and Comcast, the nation's largest telecommunications company's, have yet to express interest in investing in the venture. While VP Joe Biden noted that "nation can't compete in the 21st century -- without an immediate, high-quality access for everything from streaming video to information overline", the current plan is expected to roll out low quality DSL speed.
Facebook is set to launch new privacy controls that will let users select "friends" who can and can't see specific information. For instance, if a user wanted friends to know that he/she is having a party on Friday, but not his/her boss, the new privacy controls would allow for that. Chief Privacy Officer Chris Kelly noted that Facebook wants "people to be able to share with as narrow or as broad of an audience as they choose."
In the latest turn in the Pirate Bay saga, Global Gaming Factory X announced that it plans to increase earnings by selling users spare bandwidth back to ISPs. Business Week noted that the company will resell "broadband capacity on an ad hoc basis to Internet service providers--companies like Comcast (CMCSA) or AT&T (T)--that are in need of a quick injection of cheap bandwidth." Is this a 21st century solution or merely just another problem for the Pirate Bay? Most likely, another problem.
Apple has run into a major obstacle in trying to sell the iPhone in China. While Apple registered the iPhone in China under the hardware and software categories, it did not register the smartphone in the phone category. Unfortunately for Apple. Hanwang Technology Co. trademarked the iPhone in the phone category and Chinese law will not allow the trademark to be immediately purchased by Apple.
Shelly Palmer is a consultant and the host of MediaBytes with Shelly Palmer a daily show featuring news you can use about technology, media & entertainment. He is Managing Director of Advanced Media Ventures Group LLC and the author of Television Disrupted: The Transition from Network to Networked TV. Shelly is also President of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. You can join the MediaBytes mailing list here. Shelly can be reached at shelly@palmer.net For information about Get Digital Classes, visit www.shellypalmer.com/seminars