Twitter Chatter During the Super Bowl
The New York Times has a completely awesome timelapse map of the US and words people were twittering all through the Super Bowl. Very neat. Check it out.
Music Industry Fears Apple and is also Subject to iTunes Popularity Rankings
Last month the music industry and Apple, long uneasy partners, seemed a picture of harmony when they agreed on new terms for pricing on iTunes, Apple’s online music store.
Behind the scenes, however, the relationship remains as tense and antagonistic as ever.
The announcement on Jan. 6 seemed to signal a rapprochement between the music industry and its biggest distributor: record companies gave up their demand for copyright protection (called digital rights management) and Apple allowed flexible pricing, so the labels could charge more for new or popular tracks.
But according to one music industry executive involved in the negotiations, Apple’s primary goal was securing distribution of music over its iPhone, as mobile phones are expected to become an increasingly important outlet for music.
Disagreements over the timing of the changes also resulted in a particularly tense conversation on Christmas Eve between Steven P. Jobs, the chairman and chief executive of Apple, and Rolf Schmidt-Holtz, the chairman of Sony Music.
A spokesman for Apple declined to comment, as did a representative for Sony Music. But chatter about Mr. Jobs’s combative tone on the call ricocheted around the music industry, and it was regarded as another display of his tough bargaining tactics, made possible by Apple’s position as the dominant seller of music.
Mr. Jobs recently announced that he would step away from his day-to-day duties because of an illness. While Mr. Jobs’s health problems have raised questions about Apple’s operations, music executives expect their tense relationship with the company to continue.
In interviews, several high-level music executives, who spoke on the condition that they not be named to avoid angering Apple, said they operated in fear of Apple’s removing a label’s products from the iTunes store over a disagreement, even though that has never happened. The labels do not have much leverage in negotiating with Apple.
“I think Steve has been smart, and he knows he has the upper hand,” said Dave Goldberg, the former general manager of Yahoo Music who is now an entrepreneur in residence at Benchmark Capital, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm. “They can’t afford to pull their music.”
One result of the dicey relationship is the increasing search by the music industry for a future in which Apple is not so dominant. Many executives say they believe the future of music buying is over the mobile phone, not from buying individual songs but by paying a monthly subscription fee to hear vast database of music.
But right now that is a tiny business in the United States. Forrester Research estimates that downloading music from Web stores like iTunes generated $1.5 billion in 2008, compared with just $70 million in wireless sales. Apple could win in this arena as well with its iPhone, but the music industry is looking to others, like Nokia, which offers its Comes With Music service, to become viable players.
“They’re still the biggest game in town,” said David Card, a digital music analyst at Forrester Research. “It’s really Apple and everyone else. I think the industry would rather have multiple outlets.”
Apple, according to a music industry official involved in the negotiations, offered to negotiate variable pricing about a year ago. Most songs cost 99 cents, of which the label receives about 70 cents and Apple receives the remainder, although the breakdown varies slightly among the labels.
Apple indicated it was willing to make the switch to variable pricing provided that the music companies — which negotiate individually with Apple to avoid colluding — would agree to license songs for wireless downloads on the iPhone, as well as drop copyright protections using digital rights management, or D.R.M., software.
All the labels agreed except Sony Music. Its chairman, Mr. Schmidt-Holtz, wanted the pricing to go into effect right after the announcement, while Mr. Jobs wanted a longer time horizon. According to a person briefed on the telephone call, Mr. Schmidt-Holtz and Mr. Jobs had a heated exchange by phone on Christmas Eve. Eventually, Sony gave in and agreed to a longer waiting period.
Even if Mr. Jobs does not get personally involved in future negotiations, music executives still fear dealing with Apple. One chit the company holds is the power of the iTunes home page, where it promotes music. They also say that the entire Apple staff, including Eddie Cue, the vice president in charge of iTunes who handles the relationships with the record labels, do their best to follow Mr. Jobs’s style in their own negotiating.
Offline, the industry has long contended with dominant retailers like Wal-Mart, which is the biggest seller of CDs but has not been the cultural tastemaker that iTunes has become.
“Whether the industry likes it or not, the iTunes chart showing the most popular songs in America is a major influencer of how kids today discover and communicate with their friends what kind of music they like,” said Charlie Walk, the former president of Epic Records, a unit of Sony Music. “It’s a very powerful thing right now in American pop culture and immediately validates a hit song.”
In some ways, the tension stems from Apple’s power over the industry, but it also echoes the traditional divide between suppliers and distributors. Several years ago, some labels withdrew their videos from the Yahoo Music service over a dispute about compensation. Before that, when MTV began in the early 1980s, the music industry eagerly provided videos in the belief that they would help sell records, though they later regretted having provided free content for the cable channel.
“They believe they created MTV, and will say they revived Apple,” said Mr. Goldberg, speaking about the music industry in general.
Mr. Card of Forrester, however, has a different take. “If it weren’t for Apple, God knows how bad the music industry would be,” he said.
Obama Gets To Work
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama began his first full day in office with a moment of solitude in the Oval Office, reading a note from his predecessor, before making phone calls to Middle East leaders.
Obama arrived in the Oval Office at 8:35 a.m., according to White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. The president spent 10 minutes alone, reading a note left for him in the desk by outgoing President George W. Bush. The note had been placed in an envelope with a note saying: "To: # 44, From: # 43."
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel met with the president 10 minutes later to discuss the daily schedule, Gibbs said.
Obama called Middle East leaders, according to a senior administration official, including King Abdullah of Jordan, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
On Sunday, Israel and Palestinian militants declared a cease-fire after 22 days of fighting in Gaza.
First lady Michelle Obama joined her husband in the Oval Office at 9:10 a.m., shortly before the first couple departed for the National Prayer Service at the Washington National Cathedral.
President Obama's faith "is a central part of his life and he will begin the first full day of his administration with a service of interfaith prayer and reflection," said Presidential Inaugural Committee Communications Director Josh Earnest.
"The National Prayer Service, which will embody the themes of tolerance, unity and understanding, is a worship service for all Americans."
Later in the day, Obama is expected to meet with his economic team and top brass from the Pentagon. He plans to tell the top U.S. officers that he wants them to plan to have combat forces out of Iraq in 16 months, as he promised during his election campaign, an adviser said.
"It's something he still believes is a responsible timetable," White House adviser David Axelrod told CNN. "But they'll discuss it. Everyone agrees that we need to be on a pace to withdraw our troops, and how that will be implemented I'm sure will be something he'll discuss."
Gen. David Petraeus, whose command oversees U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, is expected to attend the meeting, CNN learned Tuesday. Petraeus, who will have just arrived from Afghanistan and Pakistan, is expected to brief Obama on the latest developments in the troubled region.
Obama's administration was already in action Tuesday, ordering a 120-day halt to prosecutions of suspected terrorists at the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to review the military commissions that try them.
Papers filed at the U.S. prison camp said the request is made "in the interest of justice and at the direction of the president of the United States."
"The judges will receive the requests and review them, and we anticipate a ruling soon," said Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, a Defense Department spokesman.
Obama may also launch his plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and boost energy independence by requiring an increase in automobile fuel efficiency standards.
The president also is expected to order a reversal of the Bush administration's so-called "Mexico City" policy, which prohibits U.S. money from funding international family planning groups that promote abortion or provide information, counseling or referrals about abortion services.
The 36th anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade abortion ruling is Thursday.
Chief of Staff Emanuel sent a memo to all federal agencies and departments to halt consideration of pending regulations throughout the government until the new staff can examine them, White House officials told CNN.
President Barack Obama's Inaugural Speech in Tag Cloud Form
I always love tag clouds. They're a very good way to get a visual sense of the content of a speech. Just in case you do not know, a tag cloud is an array of words in an image, or textual display, where the words that are said most often are listed in the center, and in bigger fonts. There are many tag-cloud generators across the net. If you plug the transcript of Obama's speech into a tag-cloud generator, you will get an output like this:
President Obama’s inauguration, as seen from space
The other day I wrote about how the GeoEye-1 satellite would be taking images of President Obama’s inauguration from 423 miles up — in space. This could have only worked on a clear day, so that clouds weren’t blocking the view. Good news: It was a clear day, and the pictures (above and below) look great.
The pictures show the view from the Capitol, the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument and the surrounding areas. See those things that look like ants? Yeah, those are people — millions of them.
The GeoEye-1 is also known by some as the ‘Google Satellite’ because Google has the rights to use some of its images for its Google Earth and Google Maps products.
[Photos: GeoEye Satellite Images]
(Via VentureBeat.)
Twitter Discloses Reason For Several High Profile Account Security Breaches: Support Tools Compromised
Several high profile twitter users' accounts were breached this today. Barack Obama, FoxNews, BritneySpears, RichSanchezcnn, LeoLaporte and others were all taken over. Some of the posts made by the hackers on these accounts varies from funny (FoxNews announced that Bill O'Reilly is Gay, RichSanchez said he was high on coke) to scams, (Barrack Obama offered prizes if you take a survey). The post from Biz over at Twitter is below:
Monday Morning Madness
This morning we discovered 33 Twitter accounts had been "hacked" including prominent Twitter-ers like Rick Sanchez and Barack Obama (who has not been Twittering since becoming the president elect due to transition issues). We immediately locked down the accounts and investigated the issue. Rick, Barack, and others are now back in control of their accounts.What Happened?
The issue with these 33 accounts is different from the Phishing scam aimed at Twitter users this weekend. These accounts were compromised by an individual who hacked into some of the tools our support team uses to help people do things like edit the email address associated with their Twitter account when they can't remember or get stuck. We considered this a very serious breach of security and immediately took the support tools offline. We'll put them back only when they're safe and secure.
Reacting Quickly and Fixing the Problems
In addition to this Monday morning madness we're coming off a wacky weekend where lots of folks were tricked into participating in a Phishing scam aimed at Twitter users. In both cases, our on-call team was able to attend to the matter quickly and prevent too many people from being affected. Our support team is definitely going to have a busy week because we reset a bunch of passwords just to be on the safe side.
Could OAuth Have Helped?
We plan to release a closed beta of the open authentication protocol, OAuth this month but it's important to note that this would not have prevented a Phishing scam nor would it have prevented these accounts from being compromised. OAuth is something we can provide so that folks who use third party applications built on the Twitter API can access to their data while protecting their account credentials.