MSNBC reports that the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) plans to permanently base a computer crime expert in Estonia this year to fight international threats against computer systems. According to FBI assistant director Shawn Henry, this is the first time the bureau is placing outside of the United States an agent focused purely on cybercrime. Henry said the bureau decided to station the agent in Estonia because of the country’s expertise in IT, well-developed computer infrastructure and the government's commitment to fight computer crime. The existence of a NATO cyber-defense center in Estonia also played a role.
According to the Financial Times, News Corp is planning to introduce micro-payments for individual articles and premium subscriptions to the Wall Street Journal’s website later this year. The decision to start charging users for content distributed on the Internet marks an important step in the Journal’s search for a working online business model. Robert Thomson, editor-in-chief of Dow Jones and managing editor of the Journal, said pricing for individual articles and for premium subscriptions had yet to be decided, but would be "rightfully high." Meanwhile, Senator John Kerry, who leads Congressional hearings on the future of journalism, told the FT it was conceivable that publishers could be given limited exemption from antitrust laws to discuss online models.
The Financial Times also has an interesting article discussing what PC makers should do to improve profitability. The article points out that it might seem tempting to PC makers to consolidate, but since a lot of production and distribution is now outsourced, mergers wouldn’t bring enough advantages to be worth the headache of integration and antitrust issues. Instead, the article recommends that PC manufacturers should “sell everywhere, as efficiently as possible.” Easier said than done, right? To read the complete article, go here.
eWeek.com writes that, starting this fall, journalism students at the University of Missouri will be required to own an Apple iPhone or iPod Touch. The school’s website states that these devices are necessary to deliver “freshman-oriented information” as well as course materials to the students. But while I’m all for the use of new technologies for didactic purposes, it seems a bit far-fetched to me to claim that the only or best way to get information and lecture notes to students is through iPhones or iPods . After all, when I was at university, sending announcement and course materials to students via email seemed to work just fine – even though I will admit that there was no way to look at your lecture notes while standing in line at Sainsbury’s. (But that’s okay since time in line at Sainsbury’s is meant to be spent secretly reading the headlines of the Daily Telegraph anyways).
The Guardian has a good piece on Google’s attempts to draw the American public’s attention to Chrome, the web browser it launched last year, through the use of TV ads being shown across a range of US networks. Google on its website boasts that it has become “one of the world’s best known brands almost entirely through word of mouth.” However, Chrome, despite the media buzz surrounding its launch last September, has so far not become a consumer favorite. The TV ad for Chrome, which is apparently also meant to remind advertisers and broadcasters of the existence of Google’s TV Ads system, doesn’t mention the fact that it is advertising a Web browser and doesn’t show the Google logo until the very end, which might leave some consumer to wonder what it is the clip is trying to sell them.