meditma.org

Walt Disney is eyeing acquisitions, but AOL is not one of them, according to the Associated Press.

Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger, speaking at a media conference on Wednesday, said the company is interested in purchasing other companies, but not Time Warner’s AOL.

Time Warner Chief Executive Jeff Bewkes has said his company would consider selling off or spinning out AOL.

Regarding reports that Yahoo is looking to partner with another company to thwart a takeover bid from Microsoft, Iger said: “We watch these things from afar.”

Look out multinational employers, Glassdoor.com is also going multinational.

Glassdoor, a site that gives insider reports on salaries and the zeitgeists of more than 11,000 companies, plans to announce Tuesday that has added multi-currency information for more than 100 countries. Basically, that means a Google employee in the search company’s terribly cool offices in Zurich, Switzerland, can see salaries in the local Swiss franc–probably more useful than seeing it in the American dollar.

Launched in June, Glassdoor says it has received more than 60,000 salary reports and company reviews. It was founded by veterans of Microsoft and Expedia (Rich Barton, the CEO of real estate site Zillow, is non-executive chairman). The idea was to make salary and workplace-quality information as public as possible. The service is free, but in order to get information, users have to provide information.

Glassdoor has added two other features: The first allows users to more finely filter the information they’re looking for. The second is an “employer” feature that allows a representative for one of the many companies being reviewed to have the ability to comment on reviews (fair’s fair, after all) and talk with Glassdoor employees to make sure their information is accurate.

After months of testing, the FCC’s engineering office released a report two weeks ago essentially giving the green light to the FCC to allow unlicensed users to access this spectrum.

Parton is just one of several performers who in the past week have joined the fight against opening up so-called white space spectrum. In addition to Parton, Neil Diamond, the Dixie Chicks, Clay Aiken, and Guns N’ Roses have also joined together in signing a letter to the FCC asking it to delay a vote on white spaces.

Technology companies, which say opening up white space spectrum could create new wireless broadband services, say the time for comments is over. And it’s time for the FCC to move the matter forward.

Google has even mounted an online petition campaign to show support from consumers on the issue. On Tuesday, the company noted that more than 20,000 consumers support its FreeTheAirwaves.com petition online. Nearly 2,000 of those petitions supposedly were submitted to the FCC since Thursday, which was when the company posted a call to action on its Official Google Blog.

The report noted that geo-location technology, which uses a database to help devices identify and avoid spectrum bands known to already be in use, worked very well in avoiding interference. But the report’s results were less conclusive about the use of sensing technology that would help prevent interference between white space devices and wireless microphones.

Earlier this week, country western star Dolly Parton sent a letter to the FCC asking the agency to delay its vote to open up the unused spectrum for unlicensed use.

Several religious leaders including mega-church pastor Joel Osteen have also sent letters to the FCC asking for a delay as has the chairman of the MGM Mirage hotel and casino in Las Vegas.

The big question now is whether the FCC will be swayed by singers Parton and Diamond’s pleas for more time, or if the five-person commission will listen to Schmidt and Gates. At this point, I suppose it’s anyone’s guess. But my bet is still with Google and Microsoft.

When Dolly Parton speaks people listen. At least that’s what opponents to an upcoming Federal Communications Commission vote on opening up “white space” spectrum hope.

“As someone who uses the white spaces and knows the value of them for the work that I and many of my friends around the country, I ask the FCC to recognize the entertainment industry’s valuable contribution to the cultural life,” Parton wrote in her letter. “I can unequivocally confirm that the importance of clear, consistent wireless microphone broadcasts simply cannot be overstated. This industry relies on wireless technology and is in jeopardy of being irreversibly devastated by the commission’s pending decision.”

This flood of opposition comes one week before the FCC is expected to vote on a proposal that would open up unused white space wireless spectrum that is currently used to buffer broadcast channels for unlicensed use.

Sensing the public relations circus that is mounting around the opposition to this issue, several technology luminaries gave voice to their cause this week. Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Dell founder Michael Dell, and Microsoft founder and former CEO Bill Gates, have all sent letters and made calls to the FCC this week to encourage the agency to move forward with its planned vote.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has already crafted a proposal in support of opening up the spectrum. But opponents say that the public should be given more time to review and comment on the report. /p>

Gefen is adding hard-drive encryption to its High-Definition Personal Video Recorder to ensure that it won’t become an easy avenue for video piracy. Doing so will bring the product into line with other commercially available set-top recorders and DVRs, all of which encrypt video recordings to ensure they won’t be played back outside of the device.

The product is brand new, so it’s unclear how many of the pre-encryption models are already in the wild. But if you see one of them on eBay going for more than the $1,000 list price, you’ll know why.

When contacted for comment last week, Gefen specified that the device was “preserving HDCP [High-Definition Copy Protection] on output.” But a subsequent communication from the company’s representative has since clarified the issue:

Gefen's HD video recorder still has HDMI inputs, but the recordings will now be encrypted.

Gefen did not anticipate that users would void warranty to crack the unit and use the internal drive in this fashion. The company is currently in the process of encrypting every internal drive of every HD PVR so this situation will be corrected.

(Credit:
Gefen)

The addition of encryption follows a dialogue with CNET that was initiated after the Gefen HD PVR was highlighted on Zatznotfunny. Blogger Dave Zatz noted that the Gefen was a unique product: not only did it have HDMI inputs–a usually unseen rarity–its recordings were completely unencrypted. That meant that enterprising techies such as Zatz (and fellow enthusiast “AVeNVy”) who were willing to crack open the Gefen and yank out the hard drive were able to view high-def recordings from their cable box as standard (albeit undoubtedly massive) H.264 video files when they connected the drive to a PC. Such unencrypted/non-DRM video files are the holy grail of video pirates, who could take those files and put them on file-sharing networks. Imagine, for instance, a whole month of high-def HBO movies as Pirate Bay torrents, and it’s easy to see why Hollywood studios tend to demand tough encryption standards from hardware manufacturers.

The Pirate Bay continues to come under siege.

The latest blow came on Monday when a Danish court ordered one of that country’s Internet service providers to block access to the BitTorrent search engine, according to Danish IT magazine Computerworld.

Hollywood studios have long considered The Pirate Bay an outlaw organization. The site’s founders say they operate in accordance with Swedish law.

Last week, a Swedish prosecutor charged four men connected to The Pirate Bay with conspiracy to violate copyright law.

The Pirate Bay, based in Sweden, is one of the world’s most popular piracy tools. The company, founded by three Scandinavians, doesn’t host any copyright films or music. Instead, visitors use the site to find pirated material available on torrent files.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry brought a civil case against Tele2 Denmark after the ISP refused to filter the Web sites its customers visited.

About three years ago, at a CES show in Las Vegas, a PR flack handed me a Cellboost disposable battery for my Treo smartphone. “You never know when you might need it,” she winked.

Ick! Did I actually just write a headline with the words “disposable” and “battery”?! Let’s see…yep, I did. But before you get your environmentalist dander up, consider: one, I recycle; two, I use compact fluorescent lightbulbs, and three, I have a relevant story to share.

Flash-forward to three weeks ago, when my phone (it’s a Centro now, but same difference) ran out of juice and I desperately needed to make a call. I pulled the Cellboost out of the glove compartment, where it had sat, untouched, for three years. No way will this thing have a drop of power left, I thought, not after three boiling summers and three harsh winters.

(Credit:
Cellboost)

Long story short: I plugged it into the Centro and presto, instant power. So when I spied an iPod-compatible Cellboost at Buy.com for just $5.99 (shipped!), how could I resist passing it along? Granted, it’s an eco-unfriendly solution, but it’s compatible with all dockable iPods and promises eight hours of play time. Toss one in your travel bag; you never know when you might need it.

Find more deals, coupon codes, and bargains on CNET’s Shopper.com.

This year, the Web site in question is ours. Today CNET launches its new Green Electronics Guide. There you can check out our top green products, from cars to desktops, as well as power efficiency guides on laptops, desktops, TVs, and monitors.

Not surprisingly, Dell’s green-focused monitors, the 22-inch G2210 and the 24-inch G2410, easily earned the seal. As did the Lenovo ThinkVision 1940p, a 19-inch monitor, that, thanks mostly to its relatively low size and resolution, doesn’t require much power to function.

The DEll G2410 impresses with its power efficiency and performance.

Earth Day brings with it many things: temporary environmental consciousness, plenty of green and white design motifs, and sometimes a new green-focused section of a Web site.

In the monitor guide you’ll see the power efficiency of 21 different monitors compared, and you’ll discover ways to cut down on your current power consumption. Today also marks the launch of a new CNET rating, Power Saver. Check out how CNET tests monitors for power efficiency to see how a monitor can earn the Power Saver seal.

The G2210 and the G2410 aren’t just here to please all of us hybrid driving San Franciscans, either. They were actually two of the best overall performers we’ve yet seen, thanks in part to their LED backlights. The backlights allow the monitors to efficiently control the amount of light coming though their screens. This in turn gives the monitors a low black level, making movies, especially HD movies, look stellar. Check out the G2210 and the G2410 reviews to see what we thought overall.

(Credit:
CBS Interactive)

Since receiving the prize, Kyoto Energy has received requests from 20 countries, from Guatemala to Cambodia, for trials. A plastic version of The Kyoto Box will go into production soon in a Malaysian factory. “The cardboard version was more of a test,” Bohmer said. “It is the same thing made of recycled plastic bottles, but this one is more durable.”

A prototype of the award-winning Kyoto Box solar cooker.

Click on the video below to see the see the problems the Kyoto Box wants to solve.

In principle, carbon credits are part of a market for reducing greenhouse emissions. The company reducing its emissions gets credits to sell to those who emit more. Bundling the Kyoto Box with a solar-charged flashlight, a solar water bag, and an efficient turbo cooker to burn residues (in a package the company calls “Kyoto Family”) can help each family save two tons of greenhouse gases per year could make it a freebie for the users.

Kyoto Energy’s goal is to reach 500 million households with its products. Bohmer wants his company to stay in the family, since kin have helped develop the products. He has a
car and a house and says he doesn’t need big profits. “I have used everything I have to do R&D,” he said. “If I get more, I’ll probably do more R&D. I am obsessed with finding solutions for problems.”

(Credit:
Kyoto Energy)

The company explains its calculations: each ton of carbon credits is worth about 10 euros ($13). Two tons means 20 euros ($26) worth of credits per year per family. The cost of the Kyoto Family kit is 40 euros ($52), which means that if the family uses the kit for two years, it should be free, the company hopes.

The invention received the $75,000 FT Climate Change Challenge award last week. The competition, run by Forum for the Future with The Financial Times and Hewlett-Packard, had nearly 300 entries, which were judged on their contribution to tackling climate change.

“It feels good. It was the only finalist that was a solution for developing countries,” Kyoto Energy CEO Jan Bohmer, a Norwegian-born entrepreneur based in Kenya, told CNET News during a call on a crackling phone line from Nairobi.

It looks so simple, and that’s the key innovation.

For Bohmer, receiving the Climate Change Challenge award is an acknowledgement after years of trying to get support for his ideas. “I’ve had 200 application from governments and organizations rejected or ignored before this,” he said.

The invention was inspired by the 240-year-old “hot box,” a heat catcher by Swiss inventor Horace de Sausseur, and it could solve problems plaguing rural areas of developing countries.

The Kyoto Box consists of two cardboard boxes, one inside the other. The inner box is painted black to absorb sunlight, and the heat is trapped with a transparent acrylic lid. Captured solar energy heats up the air in the box enough to boil food and water and bake, but the stove is not powerful enough to fry food.

They named the company Kyoto Energy because of the key role the Kyoto Protocol will play in lowering the cost.

(Credit:
Kyoto Energy)

Norwegian inventor and Kyoto Energy CEO Jan Bohmer is based in Nairobi, Kenya.

Deforestation is a huge problem in Africa, note the inventors of the Kyoto Box, who hope the stove could halve firewood use, saving trees and preventing carbon emissions. The Kyoto Box is targeted at people who currently use firewood, a fuel that takes the rural poor hours of hard labor per day to collect, and can cause health problems when the fumes from the often primitive stoves are breathed in the home.

While the design of the stove and manufacturing is simple, the business model is advanced. The box costs just $5 to make, but the goal is that it will be given away for free. How? The cooker could be eligible for carbon credits, which could finance the production of the boxes.

But for the business model to work, the relatively new carbon trading system must continue to improve. Bohmer hopes the U.S. finally will join this carbon trading system, and recent signs suggest it might. The White House needs to offset its emissions from all their flying, Bohmer joked, adding that the president has a great opportunity to show the way: “President Obama can buy these carbon credits from his own grandmother here in Kenya.”

The U.S. is the only country without a national policy to promote high-speed Internet access, noted the report. But that may be about to change.

Signed earlier this year, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act includes a provision for a national broadband plan by spring of next year and grants of $7.2 billion to bring high-speed Internet to rural and remote locations across the country.

In the report, the CWA called for such measures as an Internet infrastructure with enough capacity for 10 mbps downstream and 1 mbps upstream by 2010, tax incentives for businesses to provide faster speeds, and grants to provide computers and broadband equipment to low-income households.

(Credit: Communications Workers of America)

The average Internet download speed in the U.S. is slower than that in 27 other countries, according to a new report by the Communications Workers of America.

Web surfing in the U.S. averages around 5.1 megabits per second (mbps), lagging far behind top-ranked South Korea, where speeds average more than 20 mbps. In 2007, the U.S. download speed was 3.5 mbps, inching up only 1.6 mbps since then. At that rate, notes the report, it will take the U.S. 15 years to catch up with South Korea.

The report discovered that Internet users who live in the Northeast or Mid-Atlantic regions enjoy faster speeds than those in the South or West. The five fastest states included Delaware (9.9 mbps), Rhode Island (9.8 mbps), New Jersey (8.9 mbps), Massachusetts (8.6 mbps), and New York (8.4 mbps).

“Every American should have affordable access to high-speed Internet, no matter where they live. This is essential to economic growth and will help maintain our global competitiveness,” said Larry Cohen, president of the Communications Workers of America. “Unfortunately, fragmented government programs and uneven private sector responses to build out Internet access have left a digital divide across the country.”

The CWA’s 2009 Report on Internet Speeds also compared Internet performance throughout all 50 U.S. states.

That’s a step in the right direction, said the CWA. But the organization would like to see more specific improvements.

The 2009 report was compiled using data from the CWA’s latest Speed Matters test, which measures the time it takes to communicate with the nearest server on the Net. Gathered from May 2008 to May 2009, the test tracked the speed of more than 413,000 Internet users.

States on the slow end were Mississippi (3.7 mbps), South Carolina (3.6 mbps), Arkansas (3.1 mbps), Idaho (2.6 mbps), and Alaska (2.3 mbps).

So it boils down to style over substance. If you’re in the market for a flash player and want a sexy status symbol, pony up for the nano. If you want more features and a bargain price (Buy.com has the Zen V Plus for $119.99 shipped after a mail-in rebate), get Zen.

(Credit:
Creative)

The nano has a slightly larger screen (2 inches, versus 1.5 on the Zen), a way sexier design, and vastly superior software for managing music, podcasts, and the like. But for $80 less, the Zen nets you an FM radio, a voice recorder, compatibility with subscription-music services like Napster and Rhapsody, and even line-in recording.

Find more deals, coupon codes, and bargains on CNET’s Shopper.com.

It’s worth noting that Creative actually has the same model on sale for $129.99, no rebate required, but it’s out of stock at the moment. I can understand why: that’s a pretty sweet player for the money.

Here’s a simple math exercise: should you spend $199 on an 8GB
iPod nano or $119.99 on an 8GB Creative Zen V Plus? Answer: a big fat “that depends.”