When Google launches new services, they often gets a lot of hype (see: Wave, Buzz). Unfortunately, they don’t always live up to that hype (see: Wave, Buzz). But one service that Google launched last year definitely has: Google Voice. Sadly, it has only been open to those with invites. But starting today, it is open to all. Google Voice started as GrandCentral, a startup launched in 2006 to revolutionize phone management on the web. Google quickly snapped it up in 2007 for over $50 million. For the next two years, it went through a metamorphosis. During that time, some wondered if it was yet another service that Google bought and let die.

But in 2009, it emerged as the Google Voice butterfly. The “early preview” of Google Voice that Google unveiled last year has since undergone a number of changes. Notably, SMS now works better, a Chrome extension makes it simple to keep on top of everything, and there’s a great mobile web app. (more…)

Sounding more like a banned iPhone app than a tablet, the iPed is exactly what you’re probably thinking: a Chinese knockoff. Now available (!!!) in Shenzhen, China, the iPed is an Intel-driven, Android-based copycat packaged like an Apple product and, to be honest… it doesn’t look half bad. An Android device for ¥9,600 ($105)? Yes, please.

However, this device isn’t without its shortcomings. From the looks of this video, it’s mighty, mighty slow. Though allegedly powered by an Intel chip, the device apparently only sports up to 16gigs of space, and runs on 128mb of RAM – in this technological climate, barely enough to power a calculator.

Whatever the case, this is by and large the most impressive ripoff from China I’ve ever seen – much better than, say, the KenSingTon ‘Chintendo Vii’ (which I swear is also a real product) – and proves one thing, if nothing else: they’re getting better (and faster) at this. Give ‘em another decade and Apple may want to consider taking this copycat business a mite more seriously.

Behold, as bewildered Japanese newscasters weigh in on the iPed’s sudden appearance on the Chinese market.

(CNN) — The internet as we know it is reaching its limits.
Within 18 months it is estimated that the number of new devices able to connect to the world wide web will plummet as we run out of “IP addresses” — the unique codes that provide access to the internet for everything from PCs to smart phones.
“The internet as we know it will no longer be able to grow,” Daniel Karrenberg, chief scientist at RIPE NCC, the organization that issues IP addresses in Europe, told CNN.
“That doesn’t mean it will cease to function, but entry could be limited to new devices.”
Some estimate that by September 2011 the last large batches of addresses will be issued, meaning that months after that date there will be no new addresses available.
But while this sounds like a complete disaster — another Millennium Bug — it need not be, and there is a solution, if we all act quickly enough.
In 18 months time the internet as we know it will no longer be able to grow.
–Daniel Karrenberg, IP address expert

Currently the internet is built around the Internet Protocol Addressing Scheme version 4 (IPv4), which has around four billion addresses — and they’re fast running out.
Four billion no doubt seemed a huge amount when the system was designed in the 1970s, but few then could have predicted how the internet would take off, and how many billions more connections would be needed.
However, there is a replacement, IPv6, which has trillions more addresses available and ready to go. The problem is that businesses are proving slow to adapt their technology to IPv6, leaving experts fearful that we might be heading for a crunch within 18 months.

Read more on CNN

SAN FRANCISCO —

WallStreet has called the end of an era and the beginning of the next one: The most important technology product no longer sits on your desk but rather fits in your hand.

The moment came Wednesday when Apple, the maker of iPods, iPhones and iPads, shot past Microsoft, the computer software giant, to become the world’s most valuable technology company.

This changing of the guard caps one of the most stunning turnarounds in business history for Apple, which had been given up for dead only a decade earlier, and its co-founder and visionary chief executive, Steven P. Jobs. The rapidly rising value attached to Apple by investors also heralds an important cultural shift: Consumer tastes have overtaken the needs of business as the leading force shaping technology. Microsoft, with its Windows and Office software franchises, has dominated the relationship most people had with their computers for almost two decades, and that was reflected in its stock market capitalization. (more…)

YouTube went down because of “technical issues” for an unspecified period this morning (March 25). So Billboard.biz calculated the likely impact on the major labels from an outage on the video site.

According to TubeMogul analysis, Vevo videos were getting 14 million views per day through YouTube. Warner Music Group videos received 9.3 million views per day. Throw in a very conservative estimate of 6 million views per day for EMI and that’s 29.3 million views per day for the four majors on a global basis.

Assuming all videos are monetized (not a guarantee), and using a rough estimate of 0.65 cents per stream, those 29.3 million views generate about $190,000 per day. Traffic may vary by hour of the day and day of the week, but on average the four majors pull in a combined $8,000 per hour from their YouTube plays.

This calculation is based on total outage. In today’s case, it appears embedded YouTube videos were still working, as were videos that were accessed through direct links. (more…)