Flash future for Web advertising

Major players in Web advertising have formed the Macromedia Flash Advertising Alliance, with the aim of establishing standardised practices for the creation and tracking of "rich media" advertising. The alliance includes ad agencies, advertisers, ad serving networks, Web sites and technology vendors, "seeks to build standard practices around the growing momentum surrounding Macromedia Flash by improving the user experience and delivering compelling experiences for advertisers." Alliance members include AOL, DoubleClick, CNET, Excite and MSN. ...more

The battle of the front room hots up

While DVD-burning devices hit the PC market and hard disks appear on your set-top box, Panasonic has combined both, this time under your telly. To be showcased at CEATEC JAPAN 2001 in early October, the DMR-HS1 contains a 40Gb hard drive, capable of recording 52 hours of content, and can also burn 12 hours' worth of material onto a double-sided DVD-RAM or DVD-R disc. The unit also reads DV-recordings via i-Link (IEEE1394 or FireWire) and users can set up a Play List - a list of still images that bookmarks sections or chapters of your DVD. ...more

Phishing: Real scams, fake sites

Phishing is set to reach $400mn in fraud this year, according to research group Financial Insights. And the practice of duping unsuspecting people into filling out sensitive information through emails or websites that look like as if they are from your bank or other trusted party is proving so successful, that figure is set to rise still further. There are systems available that allow you to authenticate whether or not the sender is who they say they are, but you should still have your wits about you when dealing with any requests for sensitive information, whether it's an unsolicited email or phone call or other communication. ...more

Microsoft video codec gets Blu-ray approval

Microsoft has had its video codec accepted as a requirement for the next-generation optical disc format Blu-Ray. It means that the Windows Media VC-9 compression/decompression technology will have to be included in Blu-Ray disc players, along with another advanced video codec - the MPEG-4 AVC High Profile - and the older MPEG-2 codec. The company is keen on having its Windows Media formats accepted as industry standards as it seeks to capitalise on the march of IT on the field of consumer electronics and entertainment. ...more

Microsoft seeks better-balance for XP Smart Tags

Microsoft claims that there is not enough time to complete the Smart Tags feature for Windows XP, via Internet Explorer 6 (no jokes from the back about how it has never stopped them before). And there's been pressure from content providers, too.. ...more