Each weekend we highlight the most relevant stories Wired News has covered. To find out what’s coming up, click over to The Calendar of E-vents.
Cupertino on defense: Apple gave some sketchy answers to reports that it crippled its G3 computers to prevent owners from replacing the original chip with a newer G4 processor. A spokeswoman said “the G3 was never intended or designed to run the G4 chip” — but didn’t say why earlier versions of the G3s allegedly supported G4 chip upgrades, or answer accusations that Apple tricked users into upgrading to new firmware that could not be upgraded.
Not alone anymore: Microsoft said it’s launching a hotel reservation service that lets users place bids for cheap rooms. If that sounds like the kind of thing Priceline.com already does, well, it is. Priceline investors didn’t like the smell of competition, and its stock fell 6 percent the day the Redmondites made their announcement.
Console kick-off: Sega introduced Dreamcast with all the hype and fanfare it could muster, which was a lot. Among the new offerings to take advantage of the console’s graphics firepower is NFL 2K. More animations, more life-like, more everything for the sports-inclined gamer.
Same as it ever was: Except for a new attendance record, it was business as usual at this year’s Burning Man — warm days, cool nights, raging windstorms, glitter-bedecked freaks for as far as the eye can see.
Mini-Y2K: Most programmers thought Wednesday night’s rollover to 9-9-99 would be a breeze, but that didn’t stop the US Energy Department from using it as a prop “to assure electricity customers that the lights will stay on in the new millennium.” For more Y2K-related stories, check out our special section.
I got you: Some 200 ICQ users had their passwords stolen and their accounts taken over by unknown users, America Online said. For some victims it was a devastating blow, but as AOL pointed out, 200 out of 42 million users isn’t a lot. So don’t expect the growth in instant messaging, the email of the late ’90s, to slow one bit.
Ars tries on genes: Ars Electronica, the quintessential European gabfest, re-imagined itself this year, its 20th, reaching out to explore such cutting-edge life-science issues as biotechnology and bioengineering. It came off well, too; post-symposium conversations buzzed with the energy and excitement of new ideas, and old ideas freshly updated.
Among the highlights: the American author Jeremy Rifkin offered a rare combination of scientific insight and humanistic concerns, sometimes in a manner that moved, sometimes that irked; a German professor of new media (they’ve got those now) pointed out how often genetic engineering pops up in South Park; and the Plastinator and fluorescent-dog man showed just how thought-provoking the festival’s new emphasis could be.
Upgrading the VCR: Sony took an equity stake in TiVo and said it would weave the upstart’s personal-recorder technology into its VCRs. A big boost not only for TiVo — whose upcoming public offering figures to be blockbuster — and for the nascent PVR market as a whole, analysts said.
Talking straight: Record company executives gathered for the Digital Distribution and the Music Industry conference in Los Angeles, and got an earful from their foes. Tara Lemmey of the Electronic Frontier Foundation called the industry’s Secure Digital Music Initiative “a vicious lockdown” that would only encourage people to steal music. And Thomas Dolby Robertson told the suits to watch out, because after decades of abuse fans and artists are going to use the Net to heap payback on the industry.
More from down south: Jason McCabe Calacanis, the brash twentysomething entrepreneur who launched the Big Apple’s Silicon Alley Reporter several years ago, has moved west — but to LA, not Silicon Valley. He’s started Digital Coast Reporter magazine and Digital Coast Weekly Web site, which this week sponsored a sold-out conference aimed squarely at Hollywood programming executives.
One message the came out of the conference — that brand beats tech every time — wasn’t exactly new. But it was given new currency by Viacom’s proposed acquisition of CBS, a deal that could give Viacom properties like MTVi the ability to reach a whole lot more folks.
Another hot topic at Digital Coast was TV’s technological future, as executives with visions of broadband dancing in their heads hawked new interactive TV, TV-on-your-PC, and digital TV recording devices.
The skinny on computing: Thin clients — low-cost, no-frills boxes that offer a minimum of computing power and instead rely on a network connection to a server — were back in the news. Sun introduced one, called Sun Ray; and IBM unveiled the new Network Stations 2200 and 2800, targeting inexpensive Net connections for stores, banks, travel agents, and public kiosks.
That pesky First Amendment: Ford Motor Co. tried to stop a Web site from publishing internal documents, but a federal judge said no. US District Judge Nancy Edmunds denied Ford’s request for an injunction barring BlueOvalNews.com from disclosing confidential company papers, arguing that to do so would be an illegal prior restraint of free speech.
Picture this: Newly obtained documents showed that a New Hampshire company began planning two years ago to create a national identity database for the US government. In February, after its contract with the Secret Service to digitize driver’s licenses was first reported, the company had downplayed privacy concerns that were raised.
Keep your distance: Jaguar began selling XKR coupes with technology that adjusts the car’s speed in order to maintain a constant, pre-set distance from vehicles in front of it. Adaptive Cruise Control works by using microwave radar to measure the distance to traffic ahead, and feeding the data to the car’s throttle and brake, which adjust the speed to maintain spacing.
Ratings redux: Government representatives worldwide, non-governmental organizations, and advocacy groups gathered in Munich to ponder two initiatives seeking to create a Web content ratings systems for Europe. Such efforts have run into trouble before, for a lot of reasons — not least of which, free speech activists believe ratings are the first step toward a homogenized Internet dominated by commercial interests. Imagine that.
Sharing your info: A consortium of technology companies is contemplating a rule that would force vendors to provide complete transaction details — including the purchaser’s name and address — to every company involved in an item’s production. Not good, said privacy advocates, noting that in the case of a PC — which uses a cornucopia of components — the details of who you are and what you buy would automatically be added to as many as a dozen or more different marketing databases.
A lot of hot air: Entropy Systems, a seven-person startup based in Youngstown, Ohio, said that by early next year it would launch an engine that requires no fuel, produces no pollution, and is free to run. It works — says its inventor — by absorbing heat from the atmosphere and converting it to power. One expert’s quick assessment: “That you can create power from heat at ambient temperature — that flies in the face of the basic laws of physics.”
Behind the camera: Filmmaking is more accessible than ever, thanks to more sophisticated recording and editing tools available to the general public. No surprise, then, to hear that the just-opened Resfest in San Francisco reported a jump in entries from 350 in 1998 to 650 this year. Hey, The Celebration was made using a single Sony PC7 digital video camera — so why not give it a shot?
That’s the week that was. For information on ongoing goings-on, click over to The Calendar of E-vents. -30-
