February 6, 2001
Adweek: The Peacock Portal.
But is that enough to keep them coming back? Neither his critics nor analysts are convinced that his portal is a peacock and not a turkey. For all its changes, NBCi's biggest battles are still ahead of it. Its image, its revenue stream, even its relevance are still in question.
Internet World: Deconstructing NBCi.com.
Peter Merholz and Jennifer Fleming. Fox focuses on its prime-time programs. Warner Brothers serves up entertainment. How can NBC differentiate itself in this crowd of network players? The plain-vanilla portal available at NBCi.com is not likely to be the winning strategy.
News.Com: Amazon debuts Honor System.
Dubbed the Amazon Honor System, the new payment method will allow Web sites to solicit small donations from visitors or charge for content on a pay-per-view basis. The system will tie into Amazon's one-click payment feature and Amazon's customer database...
Wired News: Is Amazon's Honor Plan Honorable.
The box will be delivered "on the fly" from Amazon's own servers. This means that, whether or not the donation box is clicked, Amazon will be able to detect when one of its customers visits an honor system site.
MSNBC: The coming digital patent disaster.
Charles C. Mann. The answer, some legal experts say, is that patents are being awarded to ideas so obvious — and so fundamental to the process of putting music, film and other content online — that patent-holders could hold the digital media world hostage.
Computerworld: The Interface Revolutionary.
Q&A with Jef Raskin. It's a human issue. I have yet to meet a computer user who is happy with the way computers treat them. And most of their pain is caused by bad interface design. That includes overcomplex software, nonexistent manuals and help systems that themselves need help.
ZDNN: A better way to type on your cell phone?
Gutowitz has unleashed a program he claims can accurately predict words as they are being typed on a cell phone keypad, even after just one digit is struck. He claims it cuts in half the number of keystrokes on those tiny keypads that big fingers have to push.
Financial Times: EU copyright compromise reached.
MEPs in the influential committee passed changes to the copyright rules that would tighten up restrictions on private copying of music and films, but voted against extending the current system of levies on CDs and videotapes to the Internet.
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