online

An online music company is launching a new take on the MP3 business model: it's offering unlimited listening (from any Internet-enabled device) to a track for 10 cents. For LaLa, the group offering the deal, this is the third different method it's ... tried. LaLa, which launched in 2006, began as a music business based on members trading physical CDs (originals, not copies), with LaLa charging a dollar to both parties as middleman. Last year it changed the focus to online music, with streaming music available with permission of the publishers (though this feature didn't last long) and the ability ... (view more)

Touchless Touchless enables touch without touching by using a webcam to track color based markers. There are 4 fun demos: Snake, where you control a snake with a marker; Defender, with up to 4 player version of a pong-like game; Map, where you can ... rotate, zoom, and move a map using 2 markers; and Draw, which is pretty self-explanatory. http://www.officelabs.com 150 Best Online Flash Games It was a long and exhausting task: playing hundreds of online games for hours in a row, day after day. A tough job, but the people at techcult.com have an exhaustive list for those of you looking for a ... (view more)

As part of its Trustworthy Computing Initiative, based on building the concept of "End to End Trust" proposed by Microsoft in April at the RSA Security Conference, Microsoft reportedly wants to create "digital playgrounds", sites where visitors have ... to prove their age using digital identity credentials. Microsoft is hoping its measures will make the Internet safer for children and adults wanting to conduct business, make transactions, and communicate confidently with people who are who they say they are. Part of the challenge concerns how to add more identity authentication without ... (view more)

It's one of the first rules of Internet 101: visiting questionable websites leads to viruses, which entices hackers to access your hard drive and monitor your every click. But can someone still be monitoring your web activity even if you're extra ... careful when selecting online destinations? The answer may just depend on which Internet provider you use. A few months ago, The U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce sent out an open letter to 33 companies inquiring about their online targeting practices, or in other words, the extent to which the web activity of their customers is being ... (view more)

With most national newspapers experiencing record-low subscriber rates, many are starting to wonder if newspapers (at least in printed form) are on the brink of extinction. California start-up company Verve Wireless has come forward with a tempting ... offer that could save many newspaper companies. That's not to say that people are not reading newspaper content. Online newspapers, whether coming from national news sources or reputable newsletters like Infopackets.com, are being read by millions of people on a daily basis. In fact, after search engines and email services, newspaper content ( ... (view more)

Reading, at least in the conventional way of leafing page by page through a book, is at risk and the blame is being placed squarely on the shoulders of the Internet and (of course) television. The decline of reading has fueled a massive national ... debate not only about 'if' we read but 'how' we read. The debate began in 2002 when the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) found that the number of non-reading adults had increased by 17 million to 89 million adults, roughly one out of three adults. According to the NEA, only 47% of American adults read 'literature', including poems, plays, ... (view more)

Jupiter Research has recently published the results of an exhaustive research project meant to determine the actual growth of worldwide usage of the worldwide web. Their findings confirm that the Internet is increasingly becoming more accessible to ... the global population, although a vast majority still have not enjoyed the online experience. Jupiter estimates that nearly 1.8 billion people will be online by 2012, representing just under a quarter of the world's population. The most significant growth is expected to be in rapidly-developing countries like China, India, Russia and Brazil. These ... (view more)

Major recovery organizations have been using the Internet to help individuals recovering from drug and alcohol addiction. An increasing number of support groups are springing up all over the web with one goal: to provide online, 24/7 assistance to ... people recovering from some form of substance abuse. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, almost 2 million people this year will find themselves entering some kind of rehabilitation for abuse of various drugs or alcohol. In the past 70 years or so, these alcoholics and addicts would have left various rehabilitation ... (view more)

It seems every polling day sees pundits hyping up "the first real Internet-era election", but the 2008 US Presidential race really has brought us close to that point. A study of 2,251 adults suggests that 46% of Americans have followed the elections ... either through the Internet or via text message. That's up from around 33% in 2004. However, that figure is a little vague as it incorporates gathering information, sharing opinions and influencing others -- three activities which most likely cover very different numbers of people. (Source: cnet.com ) And yet, the study did also find 35% of adults ... (view more)

The Warner Brothers Television Group has announced that "The WB Network" will be returning shortly as an online video site. The WB, which started out as a broadcast network in 1995 and went off air in 2006, experienced an early surge in popularity ... due in large part to the number of compelling television series it offered (7th Heaven, Dawson's Creek) and having an identifiable mascot (The WB Frog). In addition to opening TheWB.com, Warner Brothers is also launching a sister web site dedicated to children called KidsWB.com. The complementary sites are a part of the new "digital destination" ... (view more)