06
July
2007
|
02:02 AM
America/Los_Angeles

Newswatch 7.6.07: iPhone dev camp hopes to post first apps this weekend

iPhone too expensive for Vodaphone

[Guardian] Apple is demanding that its European mobile phone partners hand over a significant proportion of revenues generated by the iPhone and restrict the content that users can access. The portion of network revenues demanded by Apple is believed to have been behind Vodafone's decision not to sign up as the exclusive partner for the iPhone in the UK. That contract is understood to have been won by O2.

Germany to GOOG: Get over Gmail trademark loss

[Ars Technica] Google has been barred from pushing any further its fight for the Gmail trademark in Germany. Daniel Giersch emerges victorious in his clash with the Internet giant and gets the dubious distinction of keeping a trademark that makes everyone think of Google.

eBay launches hard-to-type Craigslist competitor Kijiji

[USA Today]Since February 2005, eBay has been operating an international classified forum called Kijiji, which means "village" in Swahili. The site allows users in more than two dozen countries to buy and sell goods and services that are difficult or impossible to ship or sell on eBay, such as baby-sitting services in Montreal or a leather recliner in Beijing. EBay's U.S. classified site, which launched last Friday, covers 220 cities in 50 states.

iPhone dev camp this weekend in SF

[Computerworld] After this weekend, if everything goes according to plan, you'll be able to download the first Web 2.0-based applications optimized for the Apple iPhone. The apps will stem from the collective brainpower of developers, designers and testers who turn out for this weekend's iPhone Developers Camp in San Francisco. "The focus is on people who are developers, designers and testers," said organizer Raven Zachary. "It'll be a great place for them to learn and work with their peers. [Participants] will work in teams over the weekend to build and launch applications for the iPhone. On Sunday, our goal is to have on our site, iPhoneDevCamp, links to a number of applications for the iPhone."

Bloggers say company tried to entrap movie downloaders on behalf of MPAA

[Computerworld] According to ZeroPaid, a file-sharing Web site, Miivii.com ostensibly offered users complete downloads of movies such as Batman Returns, along with free client software for speeding up the downloading process. The only problem, according to ZeroPaid was that Miivii.com is owned by Media Defender Inc. -- the Internet piracy prevention company. According to ZeroPaid, the custom client software being offered on the Miivii site downloaded video, but also scanned the contents of the user's hard drive for other copyrighted material.

How green was my iPhone?

[Greenpeace] So the iPhone is out. Not a single word from Apple about any green features. Nothing about reducing toxic chemicals or encouraging recycling for old phones dumped for the iPhone. Maybe it's just another case of Apple 'failing to communicate' its environmental priority? What is for sure is the iPhone appears far behind greener phones from Nokia and Sony Ericsson.


YouTube guitar lessons pulled in copyright spat


[NPR] Thousands of guitar students lost a valuable resource last week. The most popular guitar teacher on YouTube saw his more than 100 videos yanked from the site. The reason: a music company accused him of copyright infringement for an instructional video on how to play a Rolling Stones song.

UK Conservatives to music industry: Cut the misogyny and we'll extend copyright terms

[The Times] David Cameron yesterday offered the music industry a unique deal – cut the glorification of materialism, misogyny and guns in hits and the next Conservative government would back an extension of the copyright on sound recordings from the current 50-year period to 70 years. Cameron said: “Most people think these are all multimillionaires living in some penthouse flat. The reality is that many of these are low-earning session musicians who will be losing a vital pension.” ... Sir Cliff Richard, The Who and Sir Paul McCartney backed the campaign to extend the 50-year term.