Wired: Top Stories

Analysis: FCC Comcast Order is Open Invitation to Internet Filtering

The Federal Communications Commission officially sanctions Comcast for throttling BitTorrent traffick, which the internet service provider denies. The 67-page order, however, is a clear endorsement of internet filtering so long as it is does not single out a user protocols.

20.08.2008 21:53:00 - Wired: Top Stories

Copy and Paste on iPhone Here at Last

According to the gripes of iPhone users, if there's anything missing from the basic functionality of Apple's mobile OS, it's the lack of copy and paste. Luckily, developer Zac White has programmed around Apple restrictions and provided a technically legal framework for iPhone developers and enabled copy and paste at last. Now, we wait until we hear what Apple has to say about it.

20.08.2008 21:30:00 - Wired: Top Stories

The Fat That Can Make You Thin

Scientists discovered two different genes that can turn white fat into brown fat, which helps burn calories. The discovery could lead to a new way to stay thin.

20.08.2008 21:05:29 - Wired: Top Stories

American Airlines Ushers in WiFi-Friendly Skies

American Airlines breaches the last refuge from your boss by bringing in-flight wi-fi access to 15 nonstop flights. Don't forget a cover sheet on that TPS report he wants sent from 36,000 feet.

20.08.2008 19:35:43 - Wired: Top Stories

Flash Attack Hijacks Your Clipboard

Don't recognize the URL you just pasted? Don't follow it. It might have been inserted into your clipboard via a Flash vulnerability. Adobe says they're on it, but so should you.

20.08.2008 19:30:00 - Wired: Top Stories

Microsoft, Novell Extend Controversial Partnership

When Microsoft first announced their contract with Novell, the community thought it was just to protect SUSE Linux service from being sued. Now, Microsoft has acknowledged the potential of building in Linux support in its server software, and are leveraging a better contract to take advantage of it.

20.08.2008 17:47:46 - Wired: Top Stories

Yahoo Upsets NBC as Winner of Online Olympic Coverage

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The Beijing Olympics were supposed to be a boon to NBC Universal. After shelling out over $1 billion in broadcast rights and production costs, the company announced with much fanfare that it would air an unprecedented 3,600 hours of Games coverage this summer, utilizing eight NBCU platforms including its cable networks, the broadcast channel, and a special website, NBCOlympics.com.

But it's been on that website, where videos of lesser-known sports like weightlifting, wrestling, and equestrian events are streamed, that the media giant has run into some technical difficulties. The video player, which is required to do anything more than view pictures or read news stories, is not available for installation on computers with firewalls.

Even if you can access the videos, many clips are streamed without accompanying commentary. Viewers are left staring at an event apparatus, often before an athlete appears, with no contextual information.

The most popular sports aren't streamed on the web until after they air on NBC, in order to boost the network's prime-time ratings. And the video quality is often poor, with grainy resolution or jerky images.

Most embarrassing, NBC's competitor site Yahoo Sports, which has its own dedicated Olympics website, has announced that, for the first three days of the Olympic Games, its Olympics site generated over 8 million unique users, 1.3 million more than NBC's site received, according to comScore Media Metrix, a company that measures internet use.

To be fair, those numbers only reflect online viewers for the first three days of the Olympics. Numbers for the second, full week of the Olympics are due in a day or two. But since Yahoo's site doesn't even have videos of sporting events—just news and analysis from Beijing—the comScore numbers suggest that, at the beginning of the Olympics anyway, viewers bypassed NBC's site for Yahoo's, sacrificing streamed events in the process.

As a result, NBC's TV audience for the Olympics is overwhelming its online audience. NBC's own TAMI, or Total Audience Measurement Index, indicates that internet users have never comprised more than 8 percent of the total viewing audience for any single day since the Olympics started.

Still, NBC is proudly touting the 830.1 million page views, 56.1 million video streams, and 38.9 million users that NBCOlympics.com has so far garnered.

"These record numbers validate our multiplatform strategy," says Gary Zenkel, president of NBC Olympics. "They drive viewers to share in the Olympic experience on network television in record numbers. And as a result of this unprecedented digital effort, consumers have a destination to watch thousands of hours of video and relive the great moments of these Olympics."

According to an NBC representative, the five most popular videos streamed from the site so far are all men's swimming or women's gymnastics. Meanwhile, a Yahoo spokesperson said that human-interest stories—such as one about a Swedish wrestler who sacrificed his bronze medal in protest over his judging—have been among the site's most popular.

For NBC, the news is better for TV viewership. Through the first 10 days of the Games, over 196 million people tuned in, making these Olympics the fourth-most-watched television event in U.S. history, according to the network. On Saturday evening alone, 40 million viewers watched Michael Phelps win his eighth gold medal.

But until NBC figures out how to make its online-viewing experience more user-friendly and tech savvy, the company's television audience will probably continue to trounce the online one.

That's one Olympic event we can call right now.

20.08.2008 17:00:00 - Wired: Top Stories

Little Lenovo Notebook Acts a Bit Like Big Brother

Don't call it a netbook! Lenovo's newest laptop is a full-featured powerhouse, with a light weight and plenty of horsepower under the hood. Just try not to get too freaked out by the visual-recognition program.

20.08.2008 17:00:00 - Wired: Top Stories

I'm American, Surf Me

American Airlines beings offering e-mail, Web and other online services on some of its longer, nonstop flights. The move is a bid to create a new stream of revenue as the aviation industry faces high fuel prices and other challenges.

20.08.2008 15:12:00 - Wired: Top Stories

Podcast: HipTrax #12 — Goodbye, Optimus Rhyme

The GeekDads bid a fond farewell to the pioneering Seattle nerd-core bad that has announced its pending dissolution.

20.08.2008 13:30:00 - Wired: Top Stories