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Filed under: Audio, Business, News, Web

TechCrunch vs. Last.fm vs. the RIAA, Round 2


Remember the panic a while back about social music site Last.FM supposedly leaking listener data to the RIAA? TechCrunch sure does, because they started the rumor, and then faced accusations of shoddy reporting from basically the whole Internet when it turned out to be false. Well, now TechCrunch have uncovered some new information that shows they were right after all ... sort of.

Last.fm's parent company, CBS, was the source of the leak to the RIAA. Last.fm didn't know about it at the time, having just turned over the data to CBS, which explains their vehement denials. TechCrunch isn't saying Last.fm lied, but they are saying that CBS duped them during the reporting for their original story, asking TC to attribute a CBS quote to Last.fm.

The reason for the link, according to Techcrunch's source at CBS, is that the requester (it could have been the RIAA, or an individual label) had the ability to hurt CBS/Last.fm on streaming rates. The source also claims that Last.fm premium accounts aren't making any profit, and the leak was made with the intent of protecting Last.fm from increased rates that could put it out of business.

No comment from Last.fm yet, but it's still early (and a three-day weekend) at their headquarters in the UK. We'll know more when they've had a chance to respond.

Filed under: OS Updates, Windows, Microsoft

Dell rep indicates that Windows 7 could cost more than Vista, XP

Windows 7 box?Microsoft has yet to announce the pricing for Windows 7, which is on track to launch before the holiday season. But according to a Dell official, the new operating system could be more expensive than earlier versions of Windows including Vista and XP.

In an interview with CNet, the Dell marketing executive said the average selling price of Windows 7 will be higher, which could affect adoption rates of the new operating system. But I'm not putting too much stock in that statement for two reasons.

First, the average selling price includes the higher end versions of Windows 7 including Windows 7 Ultimate and Enterprise editions, while most consumers will likely be interested in Windows 7 Home Premium. And second, there are always a ton of rumors floating around before the launch of new operating systems. Some turn out to be true. Other don't. It's possible that what this particular Dell executive got his information wrong, or that it's based on one possible scenario and that Microsoft hasn't actually set the pricing for the operating system yet.

There's one thing that is clear though. Installing Windows 7 on a machine that's already running Windows Vista or XP will cost more money than leaving your existing operating system in place. So there's pretty much zero chance that you'll be able to pick up Windows 7 without incurring some costs. Whether that's going to slow adoption in any way remains to be seen.

[via Laptop Magazine]

Filed under: Internet, Web services, Microsoft, Social Software

Facebook and Microsoft getting cosy?


There's been persistent rumours for as long as we can remember about Facebook being the object of Yahoo!'s desire, with founder Mark Zuckerberg reportedly turning down offers in the region of $2 BILLION. Yes, two billion dollars. However Microsoft, apparently keen to make inroads with their some-what floundering Windows Live initiatives, is rumoured to be wanting Facebook, and badly. So badly that the price being whispered is around three times the price Yahoo offered: a whopping $6 billion dollars.

As InsideMicrosoft mentions, it makes a lot of sense for Microsoft to be interested in Facebook, however they also fail to mention one other small thing that this might, just might, be about: adverts. Facebook's audience is vast - it's not just University students using Facebook - and the Facebook site would provide an easy way to expand Microsoft's Advertising network onto one of the most popular sites on the web. No doubt it would please a lot of Microsoft Advertising folks to have the massive Facebook network on their books, providing them with an inroad into Google's dominance in web advertising, not to mention a huge exclusive audience for Microsoft to offer advertisers.

As ever, this is all rumours but one thing to note is that, if the Microsoft warchest is opened to buy Facebook, the deal will make a large dent on Microsoft's cash reserves, if these April 2007 figures are anything to go by.

Filed under: Web services, Social Software

How to build a website with $12,000 and lots of bad PR

TruemorsWhen it comes to web 2.0 startups, it may be that there really might be no such thing as bad press.

Last month Guy Kawasaki launched Truemors, a Reddit-like site that lets users submit rumors, which any user can vote on. The most popular rumors are pushed to the top. When we first told you about Truemors, we pointed out that it was severely lacking in quality control, and most of the rumors on the first day were spam. But the things is -- we did tell you about the site.

Now Kawaski has written a post that breaks down the site's launch by the numbers.
  • Kawasaki spent just $12,107.09 on software development, legal fees, logo design and domain registration.
  • He spent $0 on PR.
  • TechCrunch wrote about the site 3 times (twice before it launched, and once to pan it when it opened).
  • The Inquirer called Truemors the "worst website ever" two days before launch.
  • Truemors got 14,052 visitors on its first day.
  • The site got 261,214 page views on its first day.
  • There were 405 posts on the first day.
  • 218 of them were spam, which administrators deleted.
The site actually seems to have more "legit" rumors than spam today. Of course, you have to take everything you read on the site with a grain of salt, but salt is cheap.

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So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

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