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All the entries posted on August 01, 2007.
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Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Are You an MP3 Kind of Person or an MS Word Kind of Person?
comScore, measurer of many things digital, is now tracking and profiling the hardware and software configurations of Internet users. More than 2 million people have signed up to allow the company to peek over their online shoulders. One goal is to help marketers understand tech trends so they can do better at selling you stuff.
The inaugural April results revealed today show that 39 percent of U.S. computers now have at least 70 GB of hard drive space and the typical computer contains 880 mp3 files.
So what are people with all those music files like? The survey finds out by linking software profiles with Web surfing habits.
Those with the most mp3s on their computers are far more likely than the average Internet user to visit Web sites involving gaming, gambling, humor, tech news and socializing.
Heavy Microsoft Word users have favorite site topics, too. They include: shopping, politics, business news, travel, religion and taxes.
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100 MPG? Austin Inventor, Other Contestants Get Their Motors Runnin’
The X Prize Foundation, which sponsored the $10-million contest to build the world’s first private manned spacecraft, just announced the entrants in a competition to build a 100 MPG car or its electric equivalent.
Among the 30+ entrants is Austin inventor Jerry Roane, who claims his tubular TriTrack electric vehicle can do that easily.
Roane has been trying to convince the Texas Department of Transportation, the city of Austin and just about anybody else who’ll listen to take a look at his vehicle ever since he started working on it back during the 1970s oil crisis. The X Prize contest, he said in an brief interview, is a high point that he thinks he can win.
Roane will face some tough competition during the contest, which will run through 2010. Other entrants announced Wednesday include university researchers and private groups from Athens, Georgia to Munich, Germany.
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Big Apple to Jobs’ Apple: iPhone for Consumers not Consumer-Friendly
Do people who slapped down $500 or more for a shiny new iPhone mind that Apple charges $79 to replace the battery? The New York State Consumer Protection Board thinks so.
In a letter to Apple CEO Steve Jobs, the N.Y. board says consumers should not have to pay that fee and a solution could be for Apple to embrace “a redesign to allow a consumer to replace the battery instead of sending it away for a new power supply.”
The board also thinks Apple should think different about a $29 fee charged for a temporary replacement phone, a 10 percent restocking fee for iPhone returns and a 14-day trial period that clashes with the 30-day trial given for the phone’s AT&T service.
“A high-end cell phone shouldn’t have to have low-end customer service,” said board Chairwoman Mindy Bockstein.
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