Episode 0081, 12/27/2008
Title/Description: 2008 in Review, News Briefs
Welcome to Course Technology's CourseCast of the week, Episode 81, recorded December 27th, 2008. This is Ken Baldauf bringing you this week's technology news and information along with a year end review of the top technology stories of 2008. This CourseCast is brought to you by Course Technology. Check out www.cengage.com/coursetechnology for innovative textbooks and creative electronic learning solutions.
We begin with this week’s News Briefs.
[drumroll] AND NOW the TOP TEN COUNTDOWN of the technology events of 2008 that have most impacted our lives.
10. Apple iPhone 3G. The 2nd generation iPhone was snapped up by eager customers around the world and climbing to the number 1 ranked handset in the U.S.
Apple's
new iPhone snapped up [Reuters]
iPhone 3G crowned
most popular phone in U.S. [cnet]
9. The FCC auctions 700 Mhz wireless spectrum. $19.12 billion was raised by the auction with Verizon and AT&T taking the bulk of the spectrum. Google was also a winner in that, through strategic maneuvering, it was able to restrict a portion of the spectrum for open use clearing a path for its Android mobile platform.
Verizon
and AT&T dominate airwaves auction (Reuters)
Bids
Total $2.78 Billion in Opening Day of Auction for Airwaves (NYTimes)
8. FCC Tells Comcast to Stop Throttling. Comcast was caught interfering and blocking bit torrent traffic on its network. It claimed that it was a necessary move to provide better service to its customers. The FCC ordered Comcast to cease and desist.
Comcast Admits and
Defends Network Throttling (News Factor)
Comcast
Ordered by FCC to Stop Blocking Web Access (Bloomberg.com)
7. DRM'ed Music Dies. 2008 was the year that DRM'ed Music, for the most part, died. While iTunes still sells DRM'ed tunes, it also offers DRM-free tunes as does Amazon, Wal-Mart, Napster, and many others. Digital Rights Management is the technology that restricts the copying and playing of downloaded music files, movie files and other digital intellectual property.
Sony BMG Plans to Drop DRM [BusinessWeek]
6. Yahoo! and Microsoft's on-again-off-again courting. Yahoo rejected Microsoft's acquisition proposal, holding out for more money and eventually frustrating Microsoft, or did they? All year Yahoo flirted with Microsoft, Amazon, and Google looking for a mate, and being spurned by all three. Now at the close of the year, Yahoo's shares are worth less than a third of Microsoft's original offer, Yahoo's CEO Jerry Yang is out of a job, and Microsoft is offering to buy Yahoo's search business.
Google-Yahoo Ad Deal Continues To Stir Antitrust Fears [NewsFactor]
5. Botnets attack! Almost every week this year provided some news of botnets and malware attacks. By issuing patches, Microsoft was able to get the Storm botnet under control, only to face a new botnet named Kraken that infiltrated 50 Fortune 500 companies and claimed over 400,000 PC zombies in its spam-spewing botnet army.
New
Massive Botnet Twice the Size of Storm [Dark Reading]
Lawmakers
See Cyber Threats to Electrical Grid [PCWorld]
Preparing
for cyber warfare: US Air Force floats botnet plan [Ars technica]
4. The Google Phone becomes a reality. Google introduces Android, an open-source mobile platform and handset. Manufacturers begin designing and manufacturing phones based on the new platform beginning with HTC's G1 handset on TMobile's network. Symbian announces its plan to go open-source as well fueling a new generation of cell phone competition in the open-source space.
Symbian Foundation Could Unleash Mobile Innovation [NewsFactor]
3. The RIAA stops suing college students! The RIAA and the MPAA are turning to a new strategy working with Internet Service Providers to warn violators prior to cutting off Internet access.
Music Industry to Abandon Mass Suits [New York Times]
2. The economy. Roughly 150,000 tech jobs were lost in 2008, as tech companies from processor manufacturers to software developers react to falling sales and a bleak forecast for 2009.
With
Sun's job cuts, tech sector layoff toll in '08 hits 140,000 [Computerworld]
Tech layoffs: The scorecard
[cnet]
1. Tech-savvy Obama wins election. Regardless of your political views, you'll agree that the U.S. presidential election was the biggest news of 2008. Our new president has already captured headlines with his Blackberry and Macbook use, his YouTube delivered weekly addresses, his change.gov Web site licensed under creative commons, his support for network neutrality, his aggressive Internet improvement agenda, and his tech-savvy cabinet appointments.
Obama
to deliver weekly address via YouTube [CNET]
Obama May Have to
Surrender His BlackBerry [Headline Watch]
Net
Neutrality Advocates In Charge Of Obama Team Review of FCC [Wired]
Barack
Obama's Internet Agenda [NewsFactor]
Rip,
Mix, and Govern [Ars Technica]
That's it for this year's CourseCasts. Links to these stories and many more news and information resources are provided at the CourseCast Web site at coursecasts.course.com. E-mail us with your suggestions for the show at course.coursecasts@cengage.com. Until next time, Happy New Year, and in 2009, be sure to take advantage of the Power -- of Technology!