– Information
Super Traffic Jam; “A new assessment from Deloitte & Touche predicts that global
traffic will exceed the Internet’s capacity as soon as this year. Why? The rapid growth
in the number of global Internet users, combined with the rise of online video services
and the lack of investment in new infrastructure.”; for an excellent take on this very
problem, I highly recommend you read Robert
Cringely’s recent article that prophecies how Google is shaping to provide the excess
bandwidth needed.
– Flickr abandons the “old skool”;
Yahoo is discontinuing the old email-based Flickr sign-in system and from 15 March, all
users will be required to have a Yahoo ID to sign-in to Flickr. They’re also restricting
a user’s contacts to 3000. Steve O’Hear writes that “in upsetting those early adopters I
can’t help thinking that Yahoo just broke one of the golden rules of 2.0.” Personally I
think it’s a storm in a teacup – so you need to change your login process?! Remember that
many people these days regularly
change their identity. So this Flickr move is not a big deal IMHO, although they
should find another way round the 3000 limit.
– Microsoft
Zune Phone In the Works; Grunchgear speculates that Microsoft is working on a
smartphone to be branded under the Zune moniker, but that it won’t run the Windows Mobile
OS (why? won’t the Apple iPhone use OS X?). Crunchgear says it will be able to sync with
the Xbox 360 and stream video from the system to the phone via a wireless data
connection. I think this tip is plausible, although Microsoft was proclaiming at CES
that it was already number 1 with Windows Mobile (outselling Blackberry). So Microsoft
would be competing with its own phone partners on such a device….
– J Allard takes
Zune reins; In related news, J Allard – the guy credited as a major force behind Xbox
– has now taken charge of the Zune program. This signals Microsoft is very serious about
getting the Zune brand up to the high standards of the iPod. They can start by losing the
brown color….
