26
February
2008
|
08:05 AM
America/Los_Angeles

Newswatch 2.26.08: FCC gives Comcast a grilling

Apple updates laptops with multitouch trackpads

[News.com] The MacBook Pro is available with Core 2 Duo (Penryn) processors at up to 2.6GHz and up to 6MB of cache memory. Storage options have been revised to include up to a 300GB hard drive.

FCC grills Comcast, considers rulemaking

[NYT] In sharp questioning to a senior executive from Comcast, Mr. Martin indicated that the commission was considering whether to levy a fine or issue an order that would limit the company’s ability to slow down broadband traffic to consumers using file-sharing programs.

iTunes: We're No. 2!

[LA Times] Nearly half of all teenagers bought no compact discs in 2007, accelerating the music industry's painful transition from CDs to digital downloads, according to a report released today.

YHOO seeks to build some Buzz

[Wired] The site works similar to Digg and Reddit: Users "Buzz up" news stories they like, and depending on how many Buzz points the story gets, it could land on the front page of the site. The stories that receive the most Buzz points will also be submitted to Yahoo editors for possible inclusion on the Yahoo homepage. Users can simultaneously submit stories to Yahoo Buzz along with other sites including Digg, Facebook, Propeller, Reddit and Stumbleupon.

GOOG's new project: Undersea fiber cable

[Newsfactor] Google has a unique reason for investing in infrastructure, said Rob Enderle, principal analyst with the Enderle Group, in an e-mail. "Google appears to be trying to vertically integrate -- my guess is so they eventually can provide a complete Internet/phone/entertainment service which is completely ad-driven," he wrote.

Pakistan lifts its ban on YouTube

[ZDNet] Having neatly knocked YouTube off the net for several hours, exposing a key vulnerability in the BRG system and creating a small tumult within Pakistan, the government has now changed course and removed the block on YouTube.

Lightweight competition: Mac Air v. Lenovo X300

[BetaNews] Unlike Apple's lightweight offering, Lenovo's latest falls into the "full-featured" category, which means it comes with an optional 7mm slim DVD burner, a feature which many users require if only for a sense of comfort. Supplied to further ease consumers' minds, the X300 comes standard with a fingerprint scanner, I/O port disablement and 32-byte password protection for enhanced security.