CBC does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of external sites. Links will open in new window.
Google unveils new stock search
Google released its latest "whoa-that's-cool" online tool Tuesday: Google Finance. It promises to do for stock quotes what Google Maps did for, well, maps.
Enter a (U.S.) stock symbol, such as GOOG, and get all the vital bits of data, a list of headlines on the company (provided by Google News, of course) and a stock graph you can play around with. Scroll, grab-and-drag and zoom in to one day or zoom out to cover several years.
Business sites covering the launch point out that Google is playing catch-up with its competitors, Yahoo And MSN, and its offering doesn't have as many features as those. But the same could be said for Google Maps when it first came out.
Google sued over PageRank
Staying with Google, Reuters reports that the search engine has been sued by a website because the site has dropped in rank in Google's search results. Kinderstart.com is a search engine and web directory for information on children and parental advice. In the lawsuit filed March 17, the site says its traffic dropped 70 per cent and its revenues 80 per cent after Google penalized the site in its search rankings in March 2005.
Google has been known to remove websites from its listings that fool its search engine into ranking it higher that its content would deserve. Google removed the German BMW website from its index for practices Google calls "webspam."
Another iPod model "at risk"
Could Apple's top-of-the-line iPod be going the way of the do-do? Or, at least, of the iPod mini?
Apple Insider, a news and rumours site, reported March 17 that Apple has informed retailers that the 60GB version of the iPod is on its "at risk" list. According to the site, that could mean Apple may make changes to that model of iPod, or drop its price or replace it with a newer model.
On Tuesday, CNNMoney.com wrote that an analyst who follows Apple says the "at risk" memo to retailers means that the 60GB version of the iPod is on the way out. Shaw Wu of American Technology Research told clients he believes Apple is making way for an iPod capable of playing wide-screen video and that comes with wireless Bluetooth headphones.
French lawmakers approve bill to open digital music
France's National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament, approved a new online copyright bill Tuesday. The law would force Apple, Sony, Microsoft and other companies to open their proprietary music formats so that their rivals can produce products and services that are compatible.
The law, if passed, could mean French customers would be able to download music from iTunes and play it on a Sony Walkman digital music player. Or, as some analysts have speculated, it could mean Apple would pull out of the French market entirely.
This all sounds good to Cory Doctorow, of the blog BoingBoing.net, who campaigns against music formats "crippled" with digital right management (DRM) systems. But, he asks, will open-source developers be able to get licences for the formats and write programs that can play them?
CDs players make way for mp3s in economic "basket"
Another indication that digital audio players are in and CDs are out: Economists tracking inflation in the U.K. have stopped looking at portable CD players and turned their sights to the mp3 players.
The Office of National Statistics said Monday that more Britons now use digital music players than personal CD players. The office is removing them from their "shopping basket" of goods used to calculate inflation and adding more current items, such as mp3 players, flat-screen TVs, digital camcorders and music downloads.
Video games getting respect, for a change
Last week, France inducted three video-game creators into its Order of Arts and Letters, the country's highest award for culture.
This week, Wired Magazine's cover story is written by Will Wright, creator of SimCity and The Sims. In his article he argues that video games inspire creativity and problem-solving, and critics of video games, who are rarely players of video games, see only the negative aspects of gaming precisely because they aren't gamers themselves.
"Imagine that all you knew about movies was gleaned through observing the audience in a theatre – but that you had never watched a film. You would conclude that movies induce lethargy and junk-food binges. That may be true, but you're missing the big picture," he writes.
Some users of Digg, a technology news site that linked to Wright's column, wondered whether it was all a thinly veiled promotion for his upcoming game, Spore. (Speaking of which, there's a video demo of Spore, narrated by Wright, up on Google Video that makes my nerd-endings tingle.)
Menu
Technology
- Green machines
- Disk drive: Companies struggle with surge in demand for storage
- Open season: Will court decision spur Linux adoption?
- Analogue TV
- Video games: Holiday season
- Video games: Going pro
- Guitar Hero
- Parents' guide to cheap software
- Working online
- Laptop computers for students
- Technology offers charities new ways to attract donations
- The invisible middleman of the game industry
- Data mining
- Two against one
- The days of the single-core desktop chip are numbered
- Home offices
- Cyber crime: Identity crisis in cyberspace
- Yellow Pages - paper or web?
- Robotics features
- iPhone FAQ
- Business follows youth to new online world
- A question of authority
- Our increasing reliance on Wikipedia changes the pursuit of knowledge
- Photo printers
- Rare earths
- Widgets and gadgets
- Surround Sound
- Microsoft's Shadowrun game
- Dell's move to embrace retail
- The Facebook generation: Changing the meaning of privacy
- Digital cameras
- Are cellphones and the internet rewiring our brains?
- Intel's new chips
- Apple faces security threat with iPhone
- Industrial revolution
- Web developers set to stake claim on computer desktop with new tools
- Digital photography
- Traditional film is still in the picture
- HD Video
- Affordable new cameras take high-definition mainstream
- GPS: Where are we?
- Quantum computing
- What it is, how it works and the promise it holds
- Playing the digital-video game
- Microsoft's forthcoming Xbox 360 Elite console points to entertainment push
- Online crime
- Botnets: The end of the web as we know it?
- Is Canada losing fight against online thieves?
- Malware evolution
- Money now the driving force behind internet threats: experts
- Adopting Ubuntu
- Linux switch can be painless, free
- Sci-fi projections
- Systems create images on glass, in thin air
- Power play
- Young people shaping cellphone landscape
- Digital cameras
- Cellphone number portability
- Barriers to change
- Desktop to internet
- Future of online software unclear: experts
- Complaining about complaints systems
- Canadian schools
- Multimedia meets multi-literacy age
- Console showdown
- Comparing Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 networks
- Social connections
- Online networking: What's your niche?
- Virtual family dinners
- Crackdown
- Xbox 360 console game
- Vista and digital rights
- Child safety
- Perils and progress in fight against online child abuse
- Biometric ID
- Moving to a Mac
- Supply & demand
- Why Canada misses out on big gadget launches
- Windows Vista
- Computers designed for digital lifestyle
- Windows Vista
- What's in the new consumer versions
- Cutting the cord
- Powering up without wires
- GPS and privacy
- Digital deluge
- RFID
- Consumer Electronics Show
- Working online
- Web Boom 2.0 (Part II)
- GPS surveillance
- Hits and misses: Best and worst consumer technologies of 2006
- Mars Rovers
- Voice over IP
- Web Boom 2.0
- Technology gift pitfalls to avoid
- Classroom Ethics
- Rise of the cybercheat
- Private Eyes
- Are videophones turning us into Big Brother?
- Windows Vista
- Cyber Security
- Video games: Canadian connections to the console war
- Satellite radio
- Portable media
- Video games
- Plasma and LCD
- Video screens get bigger, better, cheaper
- Video games:
- New hardware heats up console battle
- High-tech kitchens
- Microsoft-Novell deal
- Lumalive textiles
- Music to go
- Alternate reality
- Women and gadgets
- High-tech realtors
- The itv promise
- Student laptops
- Family ties
- End of Windows 98
- Bumptop
- Browser wars
- Exploding laptop
- The pirate bay
- Stupid mac tricks
- Keeping the net neutral
- PS3 and WII at E3
- Sex on the net
- Calendars, online and on paper
- Google, ipod and more
- Viral video
- Unlocking the USB key
- Free your ipod
- In search of
- Xbox
- Sony and the rootkit
- Internet summit
- Electronic surveillance
