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Produced and hosted by Jon Gordon, Future Tense brings you the latest technology topics in daily five-minute capsules. From electronic privacy and digital democracy to spam and computer worms, Future Tense keeps you up to date on the rapidly changing world of technology.
Future Tense is heard in the United States during broadcasts of the CBC's As It Happens.
Follow Jon Gordon's daily technology blog.
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Boston's Berklee College of Music is launching four Internet radio stations today. The move comes at a time when many Internet broadcasters say they'll be forced out of business because of new, sharply higher royalties they must pay to copyright holders.
In a new survey, top mainstream media executives say they view user-generated content as a threat. But the television, film, radio, publishing and video game industries also view amateur video, podcasts, and blogs as a potential opportunity.
Accenture surveyed 110 media executives. Accenture's Jamyn Edis says nearly 6 in 10 view user-generated content as one of the top challenges for their industry.
The country's largest technology trade group, AeA, says the tech sector is growing at a surprisingly brisk rate.
The Pew Internet and American Life Project reports that 36 percent of U.S. adult Internet users have consulted Wikipedia. Eight percent of Internet users visit the online, user-generated encyclopedia on any given day.
Pew's telephone-based study finds Wikipedia usage higher among college graduates and younger Internet users. Wikipedia accounts for one fourth of all visits to online reference sites.
Guest: Pew Internet's Lee Rainie
A study from Bentley College finds that the presidential candidates who've raised the most money have the most comprehensive and innovative Web sites. Bentley political science professor Christine Williams says it could be that well-funded campaigns produce great Web sites, or that great sites are a main driver of fundraising.
PC maker Dell will once again let home PC buyers choose between Microsoft's older operating system and Windows Vista when they purchase certain new machines.
Computer makers including Dell stopped offering XP on most home desktops and laptops soon after Vista launched at the end of January.
Future Tense analyst Dwight Silverman says Dell says customers are demanding a Windows XP option.
Silverman is author of the forthcoming book Microsoft Windows Vista: Peachpit Learning Series.
Here's a longer version of my interview with Silverman.
When you buy a new PC, the chances are good it will be pre-loaded with numerous trial programs -- financial software, anti-virus applications, games, and more. Critics have some unsavory names for this practice -- we'll call it bloatware. Consumers seem to be complaining about it now more then ever.
Guest: CNET News.com senior writer Ina Fried
A federal official says a break-in targeting State Department computers last summer occurred after a department employee in Asia opened a mysterious e-mail that allowed hackers inside the agency's network.
In the fist public account of the intrusion, State Department official Donald Reid describes an elaborate ploy by sophisticated international hackers who exploited a design flaw in Microsoft software to gain entry to State Department computers.
Reid is scheduled to testify at a cybersecurity hearing for a House Homeland Security subcommittee later today. The hearing will also examine a breach involving the Commerce Department.
A panel of copyright judges this week threw out requests to reconsider a ruling that raises the royalties Internet broadcasters must pay to record companies and artists.
Many webcasters say the sharply higher royalty fees will put them out of business. Joe Kennedy says that includes his company, music recommendation service Pandora.
Kennedy and other players in Internet radio have formed a new group, Save Net Radio, which is aiming to persuade Congress to set fees that Internet broadcasters can afford.
Analyst Phil Leigh with Inside Digital Media says Internet radio is teetering on the brink.
Blogger and podcaster Ed Kohler wrote on his Technology Evangelist site last week that he'd been named temporary replacement for radio host Don Imus, who was fired by CBS and MSNBC after a racial slur. Some people recognized the story as a joke, but others across the Internet bought it. Afterall, the Technology Evangelist blog and podcast present technology news and analysis in a straightforward manner -- they're not known for pranks. Kohler describes the hoax as a late April fool's joke.
"I decided to have some fun with it," he said.
Influential blogger Robert Scoble saw the bogus Technology Evangelist story, believed it, and blogged about it. Scoble's not happy.
"It makes me less likely to believe what I read on that site in the future," said Scoble.
The incident raises some interesting questions about blogging standards. You won't catch the New York Times lying on its front page for laughs, but is it acceptable for an otherwise legitimate blog to ditch the truth in the name of fun? Kohler seems to think so.
"I don't think it's going to be the end of the world for anyone," said Kohler.
Kohler's fake story didn't cause any majord damage, according to another technology blogger, Steve Borsch. However, Borsch is critical of the move.
"It's important to have trusted sources that you know are going to be steady hands on the tiller whether they're a newspaper or a blogger," he said.
A new study from Ohio State University finds that job applicants put themselves at a significant disadvantage when they include an unprofessional-looking email address on their electronic resumes.
Study author Kevin Tamanini, a doctoral candidate in psychology, says a poorly crafted email address could be the difference between a resume that gets past the human resources department or tossed in the trash.
New data from Internet research firm Hitwise shows that Google accounted for nearly two-thirds of all Internet searches in the U.S. That's up 10 percent from last year. Bill Tancer of Hitwise says top competitors Yahoo and MSN lost market share during the last year. Tancer says no one knows when Google's dominance will level off.
Amy Tenderich believes devices that monitor glucose and deliver insulin are not made with the end user in mind. As she puts it, they're "chunky and clunky." They're difficult to wear and carry around, come in boring institutional colors, burn through batteries too quickly, and cannot be customized for individual users, she says.
Tenderich, a journalist and author who writes a popular blog about diabetes, has just published an open letter to Apple's Steve Jobs, asking for a little help in designing medical devices that are sleek and simple -- like the iPod.
Internet giant Google is testing a free telephone directory listing service that looks up business listings and connects the calls for free. Google isn't saying how it plans to make money on 1-800-GOOG-411, although some sort of advertising model seems likely if it ever makes it out of Google's research division.
GOOG 411 appears designed to challenge existing services like 1-800-FREE-411. It offers consumers a way to save money on expensive 411 calls.
I tried the service, and got mixed results.
Future Tense commentator Dwight Silverman of the Houston Chronicle has been testing smartphones that run on the Windows Mobile operating system. For a long time, he thought the devices that combine phone, organizer, Web browser and email were too clumsy for entering data. But that's changing, he said. Now Silverman is a proud owner of a Samsung Blackjack.
Here's a longer version of our conversation.
In six short years, Wikipedia amassed 1.7 million articles in English and became a can't-live-without reference tool for millions of people.
But the free encyclopedia, which is edited by volunteers and citizens, has endured vandalism and generated embarrassing errors. To Wikipedia fans, these errors are small, and they say the Wikipedia community fixes what's broken.
But Larry Sanger, a Wikipedia co-founder who left the community in 2003, says Wikipedia is broken. He's just taken the wraps off a new Wikipedia alternative called Citizendium. Unlike Wikipedia, Citizendium's volunteer contributors will be expected to provide their real names. Experts in given fields will be asked to check articles for accuracy.
Radio industry consulting firm Jacobs Media placed polls on the web sites of 69 radio stations last month, and surprise, the feature respondents most want on their next iPod is an FM tuner for picking up radio stations. But the survey of 25,000 people also points to ways in which the rising popularity of portable music players could drive consumers further away from FM radio.
One of the four major record labels will begin selling songs online that are free of copy-protection technology known as digital rights management (DRM) through the Apple iTunes store.
iTunes customers will soon be able to buy songs by the Rolling Stones, Norah Jones, Coldplay and other top-selling EMI Group artists for $1.29. That's 30 cents more than the copy-protected versions. The premium tunes also will be offered in a better-sounding bit rate than the 99 cent tracks.
Guest: Dwight Silverman of the Houston Chronicle and TechBlog
Discuss this story, and listen to a longer version of my interview with Dwight, on wavLength.
RealAudio - MP3 - iTunes
Poynter Institute's EyeTrack07 study finds that people read more of a news story if it's online compared to in print.
