Filed under: TECHNOLOGY
The Kindle DX launch might have sparked a wave of hype about the next generation of newspapers, but not everyone’s so quick to agree: Dallas Morning News CEO James Moroney told a Senate subcommittee yesterday that the Kindle isn’t a "platform that’s going to save newspapers in the near term." According to Moroney, Amazon demands 70 percent of subscription revenue from newspapers, and further requires content owners to grant Amazon the right to republish content to other devices — like, say, the iPhone. (http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/07/amazon-takes-70-percent-of-kindle-newspaper-revenues/ 5/7)
Yikes! Bad form Amazon. Consider this. Apple takes 30% of the revenue and gives 70% to the content provider. Amazon wants the opposite. 70% of the profit for content they didn’t help create or fund?!? Are they aware that it costs money to create content or do they assume that because the online environment has pilfered the sh*t out of it, that’s it worth less than half? Ouch. Being a former LA Times employee, this just makes me sad. So, in retaliation, I will continue to lovingly adore my Sunday NY Times and hope that some folks remember the joy of newsprint.
April proved to be a dismal month for technology sector jobs and overall employment, but there may be a light at the end of the tunnel. Granted, this morning brought sobering news
of the U.S. unemployment rate hitting its highest mark since 1983: 8.9%. In the past month, 700,000 jobs were lost in the U.S., bringing the total number of U.S. jobs lost since December, 2007 to 5.7 million in April, 2009. However, while the economy continued to suffer from recessionary conditions over the past month, the pace of layoffs, at least in the tech sector may be decelerating. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/08/tech-jobs-still-scarce-but-layoffs-may-be-slowing-down/ 5/8)
Motorola is developing a TV remote that doubles as a telephone. The company’s R331 VIP rechargeable remote, which was first introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year, is compatible with IPTV set-top boxes. Multichannel News (5/7)
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