online

If you're scared off by big crowds, then scurry over to your cable modem and unplug it STAT. If you don't, you'll be sharing cyberspace with one billion, nine-hundred and ninety-nine million, nine hundred and ninety-nine other people by the end of the 2010, according to a report by International Telecommunications Union.

That's a lot of people, and if crowded elevators have tought us anything, it's given someone's going to fart. Eww.

"It seems only yesterday that NBC was annoying people, especially those on the West Coast, with its coverage of the Beijing Olympics. The peacock network takes pride in being able to censor your ability to watch Olympic events as they happen. It has done it for so many years, crowing that its so-called evening packages, featuring recorded highlights and potted documentaries of athletes, their loved ones, and their heartaches are what viewers really want.

While at Beijing, NBC at least allowed you to enjoy many Silverlight-enhanced events online--live, as they happened. In fact, there were more than 2,200 hours of live action shown online from Beijing.

However, not merely content with biting the hand that ultimately feeds it, NBC has, for the Vancouver Games, decided to take that hand, chop it into 2-inch pieces, slip it between pieces of bread, and eat it as if it were a succession of hot-diggity dogs." source

"Microsoft has announced it will "discontinue" Xbox Live for the original Xbox and its games on April 15, including Xbox Originals and Xbox games playable on Xbox 360.

Xbox Live launched in North America on November 15, 2002--the first anniversary of the Xbox's launch--requiring a $50 'Xbox Live Starter Kit' which packed a one-year subscription, a headset and demos for Whacked! and MotoGP." source

"The most common charge leveled at the Xbox 360 by Playstation 3 devotees is that Microsoft dares to charge for its Xbox Live service, unlike the free PSN. Not for long!

Now the question is what exactly will they be charging for. Will they charge for online multiplayer, like Xbox Live? Or will they offer up some new premium goodies to entice people to pay up while leaving the current offerings up for free? In any case, it looks like there's soon to be a little less ammo in the console wars. But don't worry, Sony fanboys: you still have Blu-ray. No one can take that away from you." source

"President Barack Obama will take questions from the public via YouTube about his "State of the Union" speech on Wednesday and answer them online next week, the White House said.

White House "New Media" director Macon Phillips said in a post on the White House blog that questions can be submitted at YouTube.com/CitizenTube after the 9:00 pm (0200 GMT Thursday) address to Congress begins." source

" Acer Inc., the world’s second- largest computer vendor, plans to boost profitability to the highest since 2004 by offering an online applications store and its first electronic book reader by mid-year.

The applications store will offer 'hundreds, otherwise you can’t call it an apps store,' Jim Wong, president of IT Products division said in a Jan. 22 interview at Acer’s Taipei headquarters. The company also plans to introduce its first netbook, or low-cost notebook computer, running Google Inc.’s Chrome operating system in the third quarter, he said." source

"Online or cloud-based storage is likely to remain a big story in 2010 as Google, Microsoft, and a host of other players vie to manage user data in the cloud.

Google will eventually bring out its much-rumored "GDrive" service (right?) and users will continue to migrate big chunks of their digital lives to the cloud via services like Box.net. Microsoft will have no choice but to re-energize its current efforts if it wants to keep up.

It's not just Google and Microsoft. There are others who want in.

Ricoh is ramping up its Quanp visual online storage service on Tuesday with the announcement of another tool for utilizing data stored online. Quanp has a long way to go, but they have been busy over the past six months." source

"How much time do you spend online each week? If you're an average Net user, a new poll shows, it's around 13 hours--excluding e-mail.

The Harris Interactive poll, released Wednesday, found that 80 percent of U.S. adults go online, whether at home, work, or elsewhere. Those who surf the Net spend an average of 13 hours per week online, but that figure varies widely. Twenty percent are online for two hours or less a week, while 14 percent are there for 24 hours or more." source

"Opera 10.5 has leaked to the web ahead of its December 22nd release. Along with a new interface, the browser offers better compatibility with Windows 7, private browsing, and a new rendering engine that should provide for faster web browsing.

A screen shot of the updated browser is posted below and provides a similar look to Google's Chrome. Opera has stated that the screen shots posted below are legitimate but are from an older build according to techie-buzz.com.

The leaked browser, while available on the web right now, is most likely far less stable than the version that will be released tomorrow. Expect to see a slightly tweaked interface with the newer version and you will be able to try out Carakan, their new ECMAScript/javascript engine, which is not present in the leaked version." Source