Zune swoon: Microsoft player starts showing TV hits
Finally, iPod owners aren’t the only ones who can watch TV on the go. Zune owners can now catch some of their favorite shows on the portable media device, albeit more than two years after Apple made it possible on iPod players. And Microsoft’s Zune has a slight advantage over the iPod: a stable of TV shows from NBC Universal, which includes cable channels USA Network and Bravo. Apple and its iTunes store stopped selling NBC shows last year after a disagreement between the two over pricing. Shows including “Friday Night Lights” and “30 Rock,” as well as a handful of MTV and Comedy Central programs, can be purchased for $1.99 from the Zune store using Microsoft points, which have to be bought in advance. Until yesterday, Zune owners could only play back music videos.
Hitwise: MySpace remains top social networking site
Facebook is growing faster, but MySpace still rules the social networking jungle. That’s according to the latest figures from internet monitor Hitwise, which show that MySpace.com had 74 percent of the market share of U.S. visits last month among social networking websites compared to Facebook’s 15 percent. MySpace’s market share of visits is down 5 percent compared with last year, while Facebook’s is up 32 percent, according to the Hitwise survey of 10 million U.S. internet users. But the real growth story is MyYearbook.com, which saw the largest gain in market share -- 475 percent last month compared to April 2007 --although it only has 1.3 percent of total market share. The survey found that the average amount of time spent on social networking sites is up 73 percent year-over-year but the market share of U.S. visits to the social networking custom category, while up 3 percent in April 2008 compared to March 2008, has declined 16 percent year-over-year.
With text messages, Pope goes digital Down Under
He hasn’t signed up on Facebook yet, but the Pope is going high-tech. In an attempt to connect with young Catholics, Pope Benedict will send thousands of people attending July’s World Youth Day in Sydney a text message on their cell phone. The Pope plans to shoot out inspirational text messages each day of the six-day Australian event that is expected to attract some 225,000 faithful. The Catholic Church also plans to create a social networking site as well as erect digital prayer walls at event sites. Telstra, an Aussie telecom firm, is providing data, voice, mobile, broadband and broadcast services for the pilgrims as well as 8,000 volunteers, 2,000 clergy and 3,000 media at more than 700 locations around Sydney. Among Australia’s 21 million residents, the Catholic Church has the highest membership of any religion with about 5 million compared with 4 million Anglicans.
Listen up: Study says web radio users at work soar
Look for more bandwidth woes at work: The number of U.S. workers who listen to internet radio on their desktop or laptop computer has grown to 20 percent this year compared to 12 percent last year, according to new data from Arbitron/Edison Media Research’s Internet & Multimedia studies. Eighty percent of workers listened to a non-computer radio receiver compared with 88 percent in 2007. Education appears to play a role in who listens to online radio streams, with 30 percent of college graduates saying they listen most often to radio stations over the internet. That’s compared with 12 percent of non-college graduates. The results are from a telephone survey of 1,857 Americans between Jan. 18 and Feb. 15.