AOL hiking rates to push upgrade
America Online Inc., seeking to encourage its subscribers to sign up for high-speed connections, is raising the price of its main dial-up plan to equal that of its new broadband offerings.
That means most subscribers will pay $25.90 a month for either dial-up or broadband beginning March 9, although AOL is offering discounts to dial-up subscribers who commit to a year. AOL currently charges $23.90 a month for unlimited dial-up access.
“We’re doing this because a majority of AOL members will be able to get high-speed connections and access the AOL service for this new price,” spokeswoman Anne Bentley said Tuesday. “Hopefully it’s an encouragement for them to get high-speed connections.”
Although AOL has been shifting its focus to providing free articles, video and other materials on its ad-supported Web sites, the company sees paid broadband accounts as key to making that strategy work.
New York
Sony unveils tiny hi-def camcorder
Sony Corp. introduced on Tuesday a high-definition camcorder that is small enough to rest comfortably in the palm of your hand.
Sony billed its 18 ounce, 5.5 inch-long HDR-HC3 as the world’s lightest and smallest. The device, 26 percent more compact than the previous model, is set to go on sale next month in Japan for $1,300 and in April in the United States for $1,700.
High-definition TVs, which are increasingly popular around the world, can display clearer and more vivid images than old-style TVs. Home videos taken with the new camcorder will be high-definition quality – as long as you own one of those new TVs.
New York
Low-end servers gain popularity
Worldwide server shipments jumped 12.7 percent in 2005 while revenues increased 4.5 percent as companies turned to lower-end – and less expensive – systems for their computing needs.
The numbers, released Tuesday, show the continuation of a trend toward servers based on commodity, or “x86,” microprocessors from Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. They often run the freely distributed Linux operating system.
High-end servers based on non-x86 chips that run the Unix operating system saw shipments fall 5.3 percent with just a 0.5 percent increase in revenue, Hewitt said.
Los Angeles
Google ruling a mixed bag
A federal court judge has concluded that an image search service run by Google Inc. infringes on the copyrights of adult entertainment company Perfect 10 Inc. by displaying small versions of its images in search results.
But U.S. District Court Judge Howard Matz said that based on evidence submitted at a preliminary injunction hearing, Google could not be held responsible when viewers click on the images and are directed to third-party sites that contain full-size images stolen from Perfect 10’s Web site.