Google has decided that it will postponed a planned online advertising deal between it and Yahoo to allow the US anti-trust regulators to consider the ramifications of the deal. The anti-trust investigation is the first of its kind, as the Department of Justice (the regulators) usually perform investigations in an event of a merger.

The new deal, according to Microsoft’s senior vice president and general counsel Brad Smith, would put Google “unprecedented” control of the world’s internet advertising market, after acquiring Double Click in early 2008; telling to a Senate subcommittee: “If search is the gateway to the Internet, and most believe that it is, this deal will put Google in a position to own that gateway and the information that flows through it.”

However, Yahoo’s president Sue Decker wrote in a blog post titled Myth-busting and the Yahoo!-Google agreement, “It’s simply a contract that gives Yahoo! the right, but no obligation, to show Google AdSense ads on Yahoo!’s own network.”

“It’s important to note that the agreement is non-exclusive and gives us the option to “backfill” with Google ads if and when we see fit. The reason we structured the deal this way – rather than a more typical exclusive deal with revenue commitments to us and traffic commitments to Google – was precisely to avoid the issues the critics are raising.”

But eleven California state political leaders are urging with the Justice Department not to interfere with the proposed deal, saying that the internet market growth and innovation “could be stifled” by blocking the alliance.

"We are deeply concerned that the Department of Justice may be considering a preemptive lawsuit to block Yahoo’s non-exclusive online advertising agreement with Google," the eleven leaders wrote in the letter.

RealNetworks’ RealDVD has been temporarily shut down until Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT), after a court order so the judge can review all the papers filed from Real’s lawsuit against the motion picture studios. A visit to the site will now feature a message from the company saying “RealDVD is currently unavailable.”

“Due to recent legal action taken by the Hollywood movie studios against us, RealDVD is temporarily unavailable. Rest assured, we will continue to work diligently to provide you with software that allows you to make a legal copy of your DVDs for your own use,” the company posted on the homepage.

The software allowed users to make personal copies of DVDs, by keeping the original DRM intact, but also added more DRM to make sure that pirates won’t use the software to distribute the film over the web. After bringing out the software, less than an hour later, Real sued the Hollywood movie studios, who then counter-sued Real.

Yesterday, however, saw Real score a small victory by having the case moved from Central District Court of California in L.A. to a Northern District court, according to NewTeeVee. Real hopes that this would give them a more favourable setting to argue their case.

Now, we have to wait and see if RealDVD blocked for an extended period of time on Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT).

The revamped MySpace Music portal has now said that it has now streamed over 1 billion songs after launching on September 25. This is a pretty impressive milestone, especially when it took iTunes 3 years to get to 1 billion. But, it isn’t fair to make them compete, since songs on MySpace are free to stream, while on iTunes they cost $1.69.

As well, MySpace Music’s streaming service is US-only (for now) for most of its catalogue, except for those few songs that have been already uploaded. And while MySpace aren’t saying who streamed the 1 billionth song, nor saying what was the 1 billionth song – the billionth stream happened a few days at launch (or last week).

The Nokia 5800, its answer to the Apple iPhone, will not launch in Australia or most developed markets during the Christmas shopping season. Instead, it will launch in India, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Russia and Spain before the end of this year.

The phone will cost €279 (AU$498) before operator subsidies and taxes, making it cheaper than the Apple iPhone. Nokia is also hoping that it can ship more than 10 million touchscreen phones in 2009.

The delay has been said to be because of the interface adjustments for different operators; and since it uses a touchscreen interface, adjustments are much complex than other phones.

The Motion Picture Licensing Company (MPLC), collecting royalties on behalf of the Hollywood studios in Ireland, has demanded payments from kindergartens in Ireland; requesting that 3 Euros (or AU$5.36), plus 17.5% VAT, per child per annum just so the children can watch DVDs legally.

It recently wrote 2,500 kindergartens (or preschools in Ireland) saying that it was illegal to show the movies in public without the correct license. It was sent with the approval of the Irish Preschool Pay Association (IPPA), which represents the preschools.

The MPLC initially wanted the preschools paying 10 Euros (AU$17.86), but the IPPA managed to get that reduced. However, one has criticised the move, asking how could this be legal in Ireland and has no intention to pay the 3 Euros just they can have an “umbrella license” which “gives you access to 1000s of films.”

“I don’t think too many judges would come down hard on a playschool over this,” she said. “We would rarely show DVDs anyway because it’s frowned upon — kids get enough TV at home. The odd time we would pretend to go to the cinema. We give the children tickets and they watch 20 minutes of Snow White, Fireman Sam or SpongeBob,” she said to The Sunday Times.

The MLPC only begun operating in recent months, after setting up in the UK in 2003, and begun targeting other sectors demanding that they pay for a license. However, it just could put its own staff in jail or be fined after it failed to register with the Irish Patent Office, and by demanding payments in the way that they have, they breached the 2000 Copyright Act.

The MLPC, which operates in 18 countries, has said that it has, belatedly, applied for a license to collect royalties in Ireland; and have also defended its move to charge preschool infants to watch DVDs, saying, “I don’t think too many judges would come down hard on a playschool over this,” she said. “We were able to convince the studios to [settle] for this low fee. Traditionally, film companies charge €100 or more for a single showing of one title.”

After a few sources, we can now say (though it is still unconfirmed, thus it is still a rumour) what is the Macbook Brick is! It is just a block of high-quality, aircraft grade aluminium; and is the beginning of a brand new thing at Apple.

And no, the brick is not the actual product; and so is the Macbook Brick. Wait, if it’s not a product, what is it? Well, you have to click the “Read More” link to find out.

Read More >

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said that it will be investigating whether a false report that Apple’s CEO Steve Job had a heart attack was a deliberate attempt to push down the company’s stock price.

The story, which appeared on CNN’s iReport, a citizen journalist website, claimed that the Apple co-founder had been rushed to a local emergency room following the “major heart attack”; following a series of rumours of Steve Jobs’ health after he underwent treatment for pancreatic cancer in 2004, and a more recent struggle with nutrition, according to AppleInsider, that has contributed to his visible weight loss.

Apple representative Steve Dowling has denied the report, saying that it was “not true”. In addition, CNN spokeswoman Jennifer Martin told Bloomberg that the content published on iReport is “entirely user-generated,” and once the community alerted CNN, “the fraudulent content was removed from the site and the user’s account was disabled."

The company’s stock price fell to $97.07, losing 3 percent, at closing time. It earlier fell to $94.65, after the news was reported. This is the first time since May 2007 that Apple has traded below $100.

The recent performance of its stock has been declining since the middle of August, even though the company is breaking records and its products, especially the iPhone and iPod product line, are proving more popular. The declining stock value is due to the financial crisis that is affecting all companies.

CNN is cooperating with the Securities and Exchange Commission with its investigation, handing over the details of the user who posted the story.

You can now use VoIP and Skype without jailbreaking your iPhone, thanks to Fring, a free mobile Voice-over-IP service, after releasing a brand new app for the Apple’s App Store. This means, basically, you can now make Skype-to-Skype calls on your iPhone.

As well as the Skype functionality, Fring will also allow you to chat (and call) your friends over on MSN, Google Talk, AIM, Yahoo, Twitter, ICQ and its own service. While there are many VoIP applications out there in the App Store, this one shows much promise, since it uses different services, including its own.

VoIP applications are allowed on the iPhone, but they cannot be used on the 3G network – since it uses too much data to travel the call. It supports both iPod Touch and iPhone, but we will have a review as soon as I find a pair of iPod ready headphones with a microphone.

Michael Calce, a.k.a. “Mafiaboy”, has written a memoir about how he managed to temporarily shut down a major handful of major websites in 2002 when he was 15 and led the FBI and Royal Canadian Mounted Police on a manhunt.

Due to hit the bookshelves next week, “Mafiaboy: How I Cracked the Internet and Why It’s Still Broken” is a tell all-book about the story of the now 23-year-old man who learned to hack from other “online rebels”, according to The National Post.

His attacks brought down several sites belonging to Yahoo, CNN, Amazon, eBay and several others for several hours in February 2000. Once found, he pleaded guilty to more than 50 charges.

Book cover from Amazon.

19 people will be fired from Gawker Media, publisher of Gizmodo and Kotaku, but he will also bring in 10 new people to work on his stronger titles (like Gizmodo and Kotaku). As well, according to Silicon Alley Insider, Gawker will also suspend its controversial page view bonus plan for the remaining writers at the beginning of 2009.

Among those cut include three of Valleywag’s 5 staffers and two from The Consumerist. Joining them, however, will be Gabriel Snyder, from W magazine, will be the new managing editor of Gawker.com. New contributors will be added to Jezebel, Deadspin, Kotaku and io9 (science fiction blog).

Is this signs of a trouble 2009 for the Web 2.0? Full memo is below.

Read More >