七月 16 2008
July 16 News
Apple iPhone leads touch-screen boom.
Peter Svensson
New York, AP
It’s been a good year for touch screens.
The launch of the first iPhone model a year ago boosted interest in the technology tremendously, and the updated model made available last Friday likely will stoke enthusiasm further. Now touch-screen manufacturers are going flat out, and more devices will soon be controlled by the tip of your finger.
Capacitive sensors are more durable, interfere less with the screen’s image and can sense the touch of more than one finger at a time — allowing for the iPhone’s signature “multitouch” ability.
Frustrated with the lack of interest, Synaptics put together its own concept phone in 2006 to demonstrate the capabilities of the touch screen, including multitouch input. LG of Korea then used Synaptics’ touch sensor in its Prada phone, which came out some months before the iPhone. But it was Apple that broke the barriers.
Lawyers in YouTube lawsuit reach deal to protect privacy.
San Francisco, Reuters
Defendants and plaintiffs in two related copyright infringement lawsuits against YouTube have reached a deal to protect the privacy of millions of YouTube watchers during evidence discovery, a spokesman for Google Inc said on Monday.
Earlier in July, a New York federal judge ordered Google to turn over YouTube user data to Viacom Inc and other plaintiffs to help them prepare a confidential study of what they argue are vast piracy violations on the video-sharing site.
Google said it had now agreed to provide plaintiff’s attorneys for Viacom and a class action group led by the Football Association of England a version of a massive viewership database that blanks out YouTube username and Internet address data that could be used to identify individual video watchers.
“We have reached agreement with Viacom and the class action group,” Google spokesman Ricardo Reyes said. “They have agreed to let us anonymize YouTube user data.”
Viacom, owner of movie studio Paramount and MTV Networks, requested the information as part of its US$1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit against the popular online video service YouTube and its deep-pocketed parent, Google.
Judge Louis Stanton of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York ordered Google on July 1 to turn over as evidence a database with usernames of YouTube viewers, what videos they watched when, and users’ computer addresses.
Privacy activists from the Eletronic Frontier Foundation and other groups argued in response that the order “threatens to expose deeply private information” and violated the Video Privacy Protection Act, a 1988 law passed after Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork’s video rental habits were revealed.
Euro powers to a new record against the dollar
Frankfurt, Gemany, AP
The euro roared to a new high against the dollar on Tuesday, reaching US$1.6038 in European trading as markets worried about the ongoing US lending crisis and the state of the country’s economy.
The 15-nation currency’s new all-time high against the dollar surpassed its previous record of US$1.6018 set on April 22.
After reaching the record, the euro fell back to US$1.5983 — still above the US$1.5916 it bought in late New York trading Monday.
The increase came even as a new report showed that German investor confidence tumbled to its lowest level in more than 16 years amid soaring food and oil prices in Europe’s biggest economy.
The ZEW institute said its monthly index, which measures investors’ expectations for the German economy over the next six months, dropped to minus 63.9 in July from minus 52.4 in June.
“It’s apparently done little more than underline the perilous state of the US economy,” James Hughes, a currency analyst at CMC Markets in London said.
In other trading, the British pound rose as high as US$2.0155 before declining to US$2.0092 — still above the US$1.9916 it bought in late New York trading on Monday.
The euro is currently trading at NT$48.3486.
The euro’s rise has caused concern among companies and politicians in countries that use the currency — fueling fears that it could dampen exports as European goods become more expensive to American buyers.
You are invited!
