The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has launched an online “All Access” pass for Oscar night on Oscar.com. Beginning at 3:30 p.m. PT, Sunday, February 27, visitors to Oscar.com will be able to view red carpet arrivals of actors and celebrities via multiple camera angles. During the broadcast on ABC, users can view the backstage “Thank You Cam” where winners make their acceptance remarks.     For $4.99 … [Read more...]

Five months ago, Microsoft announced that Hotmail users in Brazil, France, Germany, Russia, the U.K., and the U.S. could begin to chat with their Facebook friends while checking their email.  Now the integration of Hotmail and Facebook Chat is complete in every place where Facebook is available. We'll admit: this may not sound like a big deal insofar as it's pretty simple to toggle between a Hotmail tab and a Facebook tab.  But the … [Read more...]

Anyone who would like to invest in Russia's most successful search engine may want to start saving pennies and talking to his (or her) stockbroker.  Reports indicate that Yandex, which has had little trouble fending off Google in its home market, will go public and try to raise $1 billion this summer. A post on the Quintura Blog stated today, "The leading Russian search engine and contextual advertising company, Yandex plans $1 billion IPO on … [Read more...]

According to reports, Alibaba CEO David Wei and COO Elvis Lee have both resigned, following findings of fraudulent activity among thousands of sellers. Neither executive was found to be actually involved in the fraud, but the company found a significant increase in claims against particular sellers over the last year. In a statement, Alibaba said it "confirmed that Mr. Wei and Mr. Lee and other members of senior management were not involved … [Read more...]

Apple's subscription policy has been the subject of a great deal of controversy since it was introduced a week ago. It has been heavily in the spotlight this week, with app developer Readability having posted an open letter to Apple, In the letter, Readability creator Rich Ziade wrote: We're obviously disappointed by this decision, and surprised by the broad language. By including "functionality, or services," it's clear that you intend to … [Read more...]

Google has made video available of CEO Eric Schmidt's speech at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last week. At the event, he discussed the company's current operating system focuses: Android Gingerbread and Honeycomb, and Chrome OS. "We've got an OS for phones called 'Gingerbread' and one for tablets called 'Honeycomb'. G and H. You can imagine that the next will begin with I and will be named after a dessert, and it will unite them," he … [Read more...]

Skype has broken a new record, hitting 29 million people online. On Skype's "Big Blog", Peter Parkes writes: We've passed another milestone – at approximately 1800 GMT yesterday, there were more than 29 million people online on Skype. Another record broken, and an opportunity for us to remind you that you can get Skype in all sorts of places – on your computer, on your mobile and even on your TV. According to ComputerWeekly, Skype … [Read more...]

Amazon has announced the launch of an unlimited, commercial-free instant streaming movie and TV show service for Amazon Prime members. The service will give subscribers access to 5,000 movies and shows. Prime members will not be charged any extra. The price will remain $79 per year for the membership. The service also provides members with "all-you-can-eat" free 2-day shipping, which the company says has already attracted … [Read more...]

  has introduced a finance app for the iPad called MarketDash. MarketDash allows iPad users to manage views of stock charts, scroll across hours, days or months of market activity; plot points in time; and compare multiple stock tickers in one chart.     The Yodel Anecdotal Blog offers more details. “Want to take a look at how your portfolio is doing today without booting up the computer? MarketDash makes it fast and … [Read more...]

Google's attempts to "do no evil" and defend Wael Ghonim may have raised the Russian government's ire.  Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin has been quoted blaming more than one executive for contributing to the Egyptian revolution. According to a new Reuters article, Sechin said, "Look what they have done in Egypt, those highly-placed managers of Google, what manipulations of the energy of the people took place there." Assuming that quote's … [Read more...]