June

Music:
Fopps, Britain's largest independent music retailer, closes down due to pressure from downloads and supermarkets (30th June): http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2115377,00.html

Music:
HMV announces a 73% slide in pre-tax profits to £21.6m in the year to April 28th (29th June): http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2114558,00.html

Music:
The music industry attacks the decision by The Mail on Sunday to give Prince's new CD away in July (29th June): http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2114557,00.html

Mobile Phones:
On the New York camp out for the launch of the iPhone (30th June): http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2115349,00.html

Future technology:
Plans for robot cops ... (30th June): http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2115271,00.html

Television:
BBC unveils its iplayer catch-up service, to launch on 27th July (28th June): http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2113098,00.html

Mobile Phones:
An article on the current state of the mobile content market, including ringtones (28th June): http://www.guardian.co.uk/mobile/article/0,,2112733,00.html

Internet: Research on social networking sites and their battle for users (28th June): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6249520.stm and their class divide (25th June): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6236628.stm Plus a story about the use of GPS in social networking sites (19th June):

Television: A defence of Public Service Broadcasting in the BBC's digital switchover (25th June): http://media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,,2110327,00.html

Internet/War: 'When computers attack', article on cybercwar by John Schwartz (24th June): http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/24/weekinreview/24schwartz.html?ex=1184299200&en=e1123761662817d8&ei=5070

Security: A report on the latest techniques to overcome software piracy (22nd June): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/6227364.stm

Internet: A story about phishing sites and the attempts being made to stop them (21st June): http://money.guardian.co.uk/scamsandfraud/story/0,,2107951,00.html

Television: New research by Ofcom on the take-up of digital TV in the UK. 88% of homes now have digital access on their main set (20th June): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6221758.stm

Video Games: Manhunt 2 becomes the first game to be banned in the UK for a decade (20th June): http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2106836,00.html

Internet: Youtube to launch nine national sites and target every mobile phone (20th June): http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2106921,00.html

Internet: Undercover police smash paedophile ring posting live abuse online (19th June): http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2106177,00.html

Internet: China overtaking US for fast internet as Africa gets left behind (14th June): http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2102517,00.html

Television: New Virgin TV channel to help it compete with Sky (12th June): http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2100806,00.html

New technology: How Somalian pirates depend on GPS (12th June): http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2100605,00.html

Internet: Japanese MP opens up an office in Second Life (11th June): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/6739857.stm

Television: On the problems of the digital switchover (11th June): http://media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,,2099762,00.html

Internet: On Iranian control of bloggers and censorship of the web (7th June): http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,2096662,00.html

Internet:
Youtube sued by UK premier League for hosting copyrighted football clips (7th June): http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2097320,00.html


Future Technology:
On a new robot capable of carrying wounded soldiers (7th June): http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2097021,00.html



Internet:
On the development of voice technology in Second Life (7th June): http://media.guardian.co.uk/newmedia/comment/0,,2097334,00.html



Internet:
On music social networking site Last.fm's CBS sale (4th June): http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2094857,00.html



Internet:
On the launch of Google 'Street View' and the privacy issues it has raised (3rd June): http://www.guardian.co.uk/humanrights/story/0,,2094311,00.html




Internet:
The Swedish virtual world Entropia Universe announces it is to open a virtual world in China able to handle 7m users at once (2nd June): http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,2093757,00.html



Internet:
Google launches new software, 'Google Gears' to help people use its services even when they're not connected to the internet (in a challenge to Microsoft's desktop dominance) (1st June): http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2092788,00.html




Music:
Personal data discovered in 'DRM-free' iTunes tracks (1st June): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6711215.stm see also Bill Rosenblatt's essay (7th June): http://www.drmwatch.com/ocr/article.php/3682111 and his earlier discussions of developments in DRM (19th April): http://www.drmwatch.com/ocr/article.php/3672856 and (5th April): http://www.drmwatch.com/ocr/article.php/3669946




Internet:
Jacques-Alain Miller on Google, from Nouvel Observateur (April):

'Google serves a meta-function: that of knowing what there is to know. Our query is without syntax, minimal to the extreme; one click… and bingo! It is a cascade – the stark white of the query page is suddenly covered in words. The void flips into plenitude, concision to verbosity. Every hit a winner. Organising the Great Enormity, Google follows a totalitarian maxim: voracious and all-consuming. In the project to scan all the books, plunder all the archives – cinema, television, press, and beyond – the logical end of “Googleisation” is the universe: an omniscient gaze, traversing the world, lusting after every little last piece of information about everyone. It puts everything in its place, turning you into the sum of your clicks until the end of time.Is Google Big Brother? How can you not think so? Hence its need to make an axiom [“Don't be evil”] of its essential goodness. Is it wicked? What is certain is that it is stupid. Meaning evades Google, which is able to codify, but not to decode. It is the word in its brute materiality that it records. Finding the result that makes sense for you is therefore like looking for a needle in a haystack.Google would be intelligent if it could compute significations. But it can’t. Like a shorn Samson, Google will blindly churn out information until the end of time'.[trans. J. Miller & D. Miller]