Digital Zone 221: Defection

Posted by Patrick Wiscombe on August 17, 2010 under Tech Podcasts | Be the First to Comment

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In this edition of the Digital Zone, we talked about:

• Apple employee kickbacks
• AT&T defection
• Social network advertising
• Internet Explorer turns 15
• The ‘Tweet’ button
• RIM caves to Indian government demands
• Updated Xbox 360 in first place
• Apple TV becomes iTV

A manager at Apple has been charged with taking kickbacks he received after leaking corporate secrets to Asian companies that supplied iPhone and iPod accessories. Paul Shin Devine, a global supply manager at Apple since 2005, was accused by federal authorities of accepting kickbacks from six Asian companies. Devine also faces a civil suit filed by Apple which accused him of receiving more than $1 million in payments and bribes over several years, according to the San Jose Mercury News. Devine was charged in a federal grand jury indictment with 23 counts of wire fraud, money laundering, conspiracy and accepting kickbacks. Devine allegedly used his position at Apple to obtain confidential information that he shared with Apple suppliers to help them negotiate favorable contracts with the company. In return, the suppliers paid Devine kickbacks. The investigation was conducted jointly by the FBI and Internal Revenue Service.

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PODCAST SPONSOR: The Digital Zone is sponsored by Cliphanger.

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If the iPhone came to Verizon’s network, one survey says a sizable chunk of AT&T and Sprint customers would defect because of frustration with of AT&T’s network quality. The Morpace Omnibus’ poll of 1000 American consumers claims that more than half of all Verizon subscribers would likely to buy an iPhone. The survey also shows that 23 percent of current AT&T customers would go for a Verizon iPhone, 22 percent of current Sprint customers, and 20 percent of T-Mobile customers. The survey also highlights concerns that Verizon’s network would face the same difficulties handling bandwidth demands and would “drastically impact” if consumer would consider purchasing an Android device. An iPhone prototype is said to be in the testing stage. Another survey from ChangeWave, which polled 4,000 US consumers, found that 53 percent of Verizon subscribers wanted an iPhone on Verizon’s network.

Engadget is reporting that Apple is indeed making some major overhauls to the Apple TV and will now be called iTV and will get apps. iTV will still be limited to 720p video. The iTV is expected this fall and is rumored to cost $99. Plus, the iTV would have 16GB of flash storage and could introduce iTunes streaming.

Apple’s updated iPod line is will tentatively be announced for mid-September. It’s expected the iPod touch will have a front camera for FaceTime as well as a rear camera and will have the Retina display. A new iPod nano is expected to be announced as well as a significant redesign of the iPod shuffle with an extra small touch screen.

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PODCAST SPONSOR: The Digital Zone is sponsored by Bluehost.

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According to an eMarketer project report, advertisers will spend nearly $1.7 billion in the U.S. on social networking sites in 2010. Worldwide, spending will hit $3.3 billion. eMarketer sees about half of that money (in the U.S.) going to Facebook, with MySpace continuing to see a smaller share of the pie. The firm estimated that Facebook’s 2010 revenue would hit $1.2 billion. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said that some of the social network’s biggest advertisers had boosted ad spending by 10x this year.

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer web browser was launched 15 years ago. The first version of the browser, Internet Explorer 1, debuted on August 16, 1995. IE 6 is still the most popular browser and is in wide use today. According to the latest data from Net Applications, Internet Explorer now has a combined market share of 60.74%, Firefox is at 23.75% followed by Chrome, Safari, Opera and others. IE 9 is scheduled to enter public beta on September 15 and will integrate HTML 5.

Twitter has officially rolled out its own Tweet Button which lets users link to content on third-party sites with a mouse click. The Tweet Button lets you click a link and share the article with your friends via your Twitter account so there’s no more need to cut and paste the URL, use a URL shortening service like bit.ly, because the Tweet Button does it all automatically.

Research In Motion has assured Indian authorities they will have limited access to its Messenger services by September 1 and will hold talks this week on giving access to enterprise mail. RIM faces an August 31 deadline to give Indian authorities the means to read e-mail and instant messages sent over the BlackBerry. New Delhi says it will pull the plug if RIM does not comply.

The updated Xbox 360 was the best selling video game console in July according to NPD group. It was the first number one ranking in three years. The Xbox 360 sold 443,500 units during the month, which is more than double the number sold in the same period a year earlier. Nintendo’s Wii sold 253,900 units while the PlayStation 3 sold 214,500 units. In the hand held gaming space, the Nintendo DS continued sold 398,400 units while the PlayStation Portable sold 84,000 units.

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PODCAST SPONSOR: The Digital Zone is sponsored by LegalZoom.com.
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