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TECH TALK

What’s making headlines this week in the tech industry

By Jason Latimer

Writers Strike Boosts Rental Industry

Ever since the Writers Guild of America went on strike, there has been a lack of new episodic television programs, and while some shows – especially reality TV – have been able to carry on with new material, recent studies by media analysis firms have shown that a large number of people have taken to renting movies and television shows on DVD.

Perhaps because of the strike, and its consequences, the online rental business has seen a few significant progressions in the last few weeks. At the Macworld Conference and Expo last week, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced that iTunes would make movies available for online rental. Movies can be downloaded to your computer, iPod, or iPhone, and rentals last for 30 days. However, once you start the movie, you have only 24 hours to watch it, but you can watch it as many times as you want during those 24 hours. New releases are available for $3.99, while older titles cost $2.99. iTunes also offers certain short films for purchase, rather than rental.

Additionally, rumors have been flying on the internet that hint at a reunion with NBC and iTunes. The two split in August of last year, with NBC Universal deciding to make their shows available on their own website for free, but with commercials. There was public bad blood between the two last fall, but NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker was recently quoted as saying that NBC had always been fans of Apple, that they want to do business with Apple, and that they are "great fans" of Steve Jobs.

Finally, on Monday, HBO announced that it would be joining the increasingly-crowded internet download arena. While specifics are murky at present, HBO plans to give current subscribers the ability to download movies and select HBO Original Series direcly to their laptops for no additional fee. The service will initially be available to Time Warner high speed internet subscribers in the Green Bay and Milwaukee areas.

Foreign Governments Crack Down on Internet Freedoms

Last week, Chinese government officials said they would soon be discussing new rules to filter out undesirable elements from online games. Online addiction has been a problem that has been on the rise in recent years, especially in China, where pirated games are readily available. In the past, China has banned children from internet cafes, and imposed time limits for adult users, after a number of cases where people actually died of fatigue after long periods of gaming.

In a more inflammatory undertaking, the nation of Turkey has banned YouTube.com in accordance with a law enacted in 2005, which makes "insulting Turkishness" a criminal offense. While this isn't the first time the website has been banned in Turkey (the ban was later lifted), this most recent ban stems from a video which insults the country's first president, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. The mere ability of Turks to view the site was enough for officials to ban it from Turkish Internet Providers. Those who are found guilty of insulting Turkishness (there have been 65 charged, to date) face 6 months to 3 years of jail time.

Computers Used to Understand Dog-Speak

Swiss and Hungarian scientists collaborated recently on a study to determine if a computer could tell a difference in dogs' barks based on the context of the situation. Researchers in Budapest recorded 14 different Hungarian sheepdogs in situations such as play, when approached by a stranger, and during a fight. They then fed the barks into an 'artificial neural network' developed by a Swiss team, which was able to analyze the sounds and determine the context.

In some cases, such as when the dog was barking at a stranger, the computer had as much as 63% accuracy in identifying the situation. However, during play, the computer was only able to correctly identify the bark 6% of the time. Researchers have varying theories on why certain types of bark seem to be more identifiable than others, but studies are still in the early stages.

Originally Published: January 23, 2008

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