By Angela Gunn and the Betanews Staff, Betanews
Yahoo begins beta rollout of new front page
Tuesday, July 21, 2009 • After what feels like a Google-length testing period, Yahoo is rolling out access to its fresh-and-widgety front page redesign to US users, to be followed within a week or thereabouts with rollouts in the UK, France, and India. The design features a configurable "my favorites" bar with several dozen applications that can fly out and preview content above the main screen, improved localization, slightly smaller type, and the ubiquitous purple.
The rollout will evidently be in stages; although screenshots from the prototype are showing up everywhere, certain registered Yahoo users will be the first to be asked whether they want to make the switch. Betanews gave it a shot this morning, but to no avail. What we're anxious to learn is whether the changes will affect "My Yahoo," the component-driven page whose layout is determined by each user. There are folks who already put some time and effort into customizing their pages to look...well, like Yahoo's new homepage, frankly.
At All Things D, Kara Swisher is generally well-disposed to the changes, though she spotted a problem that'll vex certain power users: You can update MySpace status from the new front, you can update Facebook status, but you can't update Twitter. You kinda wonder why -- fear of a Google planet? Were the discussions really that close? Makes you think.
At ZDNet, Sam Diaz describes the new functionality as "where a user's two worlds -- My World and The World -- meet" Ben Parr at Mashable agrees that it's an improvement, but settles that hash: "Will Yahoo's new homepage help it rise back to prominence? Our answer: almost certainly not." Ow.
Legal beagles discuss prospects for fair use as Tenenbaum trial nears
On the road to July 27 > The final pretrial conference in the Joel Tenenbaum case is over, and one hopes Judge Nancy Gertner's getting some rest before things kick off next Monday. Among other matters decided at Monday's meeting was that this thing is running for one week only, with trail to be held all day -- morning and afternoon. According to Ben Sheffner at Copyrights & Campaigns, there's still no ruling on the request by the RIAA for summary judgment on the fair use issue, but her ruling on that could be out by midweek.
Ahh, the fair use strategy... Last week the plaintiffs ran an argument up the flagpole to the effect that even if fair use might be a reasonable defense in some file sharing trial, it's not in this case, so disallow, kthx. Meanwhile, Prof. Charles Nesson keeps on blogging even as he prepares for next week's courtroom marathon, and Joel Tenenbaum does the same.
At long last, RIM readies a Blackberry desktop for the Mac
September 2009 > What took them so long? After previewing a version of BlackBerry Media Sync for Mac back in December, Research In Motion has finally announced the nearing availability of a full desktop-sync package for the Macintosh. RIM blogger Andrey offers plenty of screenshots -- though not a lot of explanation for the delay.
Tuesday's tech headlines
New York Times
• If you're suing for libel and can't get a British court to agree you've been wronged... man, that's just pitiful. (Libel laws in the UK are pretty ferocious.) But so it was Monday for a British company that tried to sue Google for comments made by a commenter on a tech-news site that the search giant indexed. No deal, said a High Court judge.
• Matt Richtel finds evidence that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration concealed information from Congress about the high rate of accidents caused by mobile-phone use behind the wheel.
• Jenna Wortham looks at Watchitoo, a service that lets you share the video-viewing experience with friends.
Wired
• The Obama Administration may be gearing up for an antitrust investigation of Google that would feel like "a repeat of Microsoft," according to Christine Varney as quoted by Fred Vogelstein.
• Laid off? Quit whining, says Paul Boutin: It's good for you and good for the industry. (Your mortgage holder will be so pleased to hear this!)
The Register
• Expect some Mac-fanboi excitement at next week's Black Hat, when Dino Dai Zovi will reveal some interesting information on writing nigh-undetectable rootkits for OS X. He says he's got multiple techniques. This ought to be interesting.
• That kernel code drop was just the beginning for Microsoft, says Gavin Clarke.
...and elsewhere...
• San Jose Mercury-News Jim Clark built Netscape and Silicon Graphics back when, but what's he up to these days? He's throwing his resources into chronicling climate change, and hopefully dodging the brunt of it. Not avoiding it, because he says that's off the table now. Scott Duke Harris interviews.
• Seattle Post-Intelligencer An eastside tech firm is working with Coca-Cola to build a soda machine that can custom-mix up to 100 different sodas on command. The Coca-Cola Freestyle machine has been in development for two years.
• Chicago Tribune The Deerfield, Illinois-based Chip Factory was manufacturing something, all right -- a fraud that allegedly relocated $40 million from Best Buy's coffers to those of Abby and Russell Cole, the company's owners.
• Wall Street Journal Marisa Taylor gives a positive review to the Pogoplug network-attached storage device for consumers -- a class of devices some segments of the industry would like folks to refer to as a "personal cloud." Clearly, some segments of the industry have no memory of Brak on Space Ghost.