Internet services

It's time I put a few more operas on my iPod.

It has 20 gigabytes of storage, but I've long kept a few gigs in reserve, to copy large data files and tote them between home and office.

We're talking about files that are far too big to travel as e-mail attachments, so I've been slipping them in a shirt pocket instead.

To marketers large and small, the Web is a wide open frontier, an unlimited billboard with boundless branding opportunities.

For the empirical proof, look at the filings with the government for new trademarks that, put simply, are brand names.

Applications surged in the dot-com years, peaking in 2000 and then falling sharply for two years, before rising to a record last year of more than 394,000.

Recently, a new front has opened in the Internet branding wars.

"Honey, let's see what's on the Widget Channel." That dialog is what Intel and Yahoo are hoping for with their announcement Wednesday of an application framework for TVs and other consumer devices called The Widget Channel.

The companies said the framework is optimized for consumer equipment with Intel architecture. The channel is designed to allow users to access and use rich Internet applications, even while watching TV programs.

Yahoo's Widget Engine

Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates said Tuesday that the dramatic growth of the Internet would eventually help eliminate "the last constraints we have" and spark a software-writing revolution.

Gates, speaking at a forum to mark the 10th anniversary of the software giant's Asian research arm, added that technology currently being developed would transform the way people use computers, expanding their ability to interact with the machines.

Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates said Tuesday that the dramatic growth of the Internet would eventually help eliminate "the last constraints we have" and spark a software-writing revolution.

Gates, speaking at a forum to mark the 10th anniversary of the software giant's Asian research arm, added that technology currently being developed would transform the way people use computers, expanding their ability to interact with the machines.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs is taking the MobileMe mix-up seriously. So seriously, in fact, that he's given the job of heading the division to a new executive.

Apple Senior Vice President Eddy Cue -- the leader of Apple's Internet services, including iTunes -- will replace Rob Schoeben as MobileMe's captain. Apple was not immediately available for comment on Schoeben's fate.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs conceded on Monday what Apple's customers have been saying for a few weeks now: The company's MobileMe service, launched in conjunction with the iPhone 3G, was a failure. In an e-mail to employees, Jobs said the service, intended to allow users to sync e-mail and other apps with their new iPhones, was "not our finest hour."

While Jobs was "right to acknowledge the problem," the reports of outages and other failures were so widespread, "He didn't really have much of a choice," noted Greg Sterling, principal analyst with Sterling Market Research.

While the Federal Communication Commission voted 3-2 to punish Comcast for its alleged poor network-management practices, concerns are being raised about the FCC's legal authority over the cable-TV and Internet services provider.

On Friday, the FCC ruled that Comcast had been monitoring and blocking subscribers' use of peer-to-peer file sharing, specifically with BitTorrent P2P software.

The U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) has disclosed the discovery of defects in an essential component of everyday Internet operations.

The flaw was found at the heart of the Domain Name System -- the Internet "phone book" for translating Web URLs into the numerical IP addresses that networking computers use to deliver information. According to CERT, hackers could use a technique called DNS cache poisoning to place forged DNS data into the cache of a name server at any Internet domain.

Consumers are losing patience with cable and satellite TV customer service operators who are supposed to help solve their problems, according to a survey out today.

Customers who've called for help rate their satisfaction with cable's and satellite's service desks at a score of 66 out of 100, research and consulting firm CFI Group says in its second annual Contact Center Satisfaction Index study.