Bar codes, phones add up to blog review
Checking out the Internet buzz about a DVD, book or candy while on the go is soon to become as easy as taking a snapshot of the bar code on the product.
Toshiba Corp., a Japanese electronics company that makes DVD players, laptops and nuclear power plants, has developed mobile-phone technology that searches for product reviews on up to 100 Web journals, or blogs, in 10 seconds.
Just use the phone’s digital camera to snap a photo of the bar code of a product you’re thinking about buying.
The technology can tell if the blog chatter is positive or negative and tallies the count to show if a product is getting rave reviews or being trashed by consumers. That’s useful if you’re in a store about to buy an item.
Toshiba plans to test the software at Japanese stores next month and hopes to offer it in Japan as a service on cell phones before April 2007, although details aren’t decided.
Game triggers uproar
A gay rights uproar in the popular “World of Warcraft” online game has spurred the game’s maker to review its treatment of gay players.
The game, which draws more than 5 million players worldwide, was hit by controversy last month after a player was threatened with expulsion from the virtual Warcraft world when she sought to recruit others into her gay-friendly team.
Blizzard Entertainment, the game’s maker, apologized last week to the player, Sara Andrews of Nashville, Tenn.
It said the warning was a mistake and that it will make some changes to prevent a repeat.
Gay-friendly teams already exist in Warcraft, but the issue here stemmed from Blizzard’s enforcement of its policy banning the harassment of players based on sexual, religious or political affiliation.
According to correspondence between Andrews and game officials, the company said it does not allow such recruitment efforts on its general chat channels to help prevent harassment.
The fun is found online
Some people go online just for the sake of it: A new study finds that on any given day, nearly a third of U.S. Internet users log on just for fun or to pass the time.
Compared with other online tasks, recreational surfing ranks behind only e-mail and search and it’s about even with getting news online, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project.
“What it says about the Internet is that it is becoming a full-blown destination in itself,” said Deb Fallows, the Pew senior research fellow who led the study released Wednesday. “They are just led there just to see what is going on.” Pew credits the growth in broadband connections at home and the increase in the number and variety of Web sites available.
The 30 percent of Internet users who went online for fun on a given day represents an increase from 21 percent a year earlier.