By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews

Most people know how Digg works. You submit a story, and based on how many people vote it up or down, it will hopefully be moved from “upcoming” to “popular.” Until now it’s been based on sheer numbers, but last night Digg founder Kevin Rose unveiled a new algorithm which turns this upside down.

According to his blog post, popularity depends on:

One of the keys to getting a story promoted is diversity in Digging activity. When the algorithm gets the diversity it needs, it will promote a story from the Upcoming section to the home page. This way, the system knows a large variety of people will be into the story.

What’s this mean? It means, basically, if the algorithm works, an end to groups voting up a story. Frequently Digg and other social networking sites have groups of people voting up each others’ stories. There’s also a lot of politics involved, too, with some people voting down stories of members they may dislike for one reason or another.

According to Rose, this could mean a story with 100+ Diggs would remain “upcoming.” I can see the point of this change. Additionally, one of Merriam-Webster’s definition of popular is of or relating to the general public,” which this diversity aspect would hope to achieve.

But a second one is “suitable to the majority.” Hard to see how leaving out something with 100+ Diggs satisfies that definition.
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By Martin Regtien
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews

Well it seems there are more accessories available for the iPod these days then there are shoes in the wardrobe of Imelda Marcos.  Like her shoe collection, finding the right pair for an outing can be tough decision considering a lot of them do the same thing more or less.
If you’re going to share your tunes, a set of portable speakers is fast becoming a must have for your iPod, but how do you find the right one for you?
It just so happens I have a first-rate little set sitting next to me, so let me tell you about it…

So sayz Dr Arni in this succinct write-up.

By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews

The video streaming services currently offered (or recently announced) all seem to be missing something, right? Yep, in general they are missing Mac support. On Netflix’s Q4 earnings call last night, they indicated they “hope” to support Macs this year.

According to Netflix, the hang-up has been DRM (natch). This echoes a Netflix blog post from last year in which “Steve N,” responsible for the viewing feature, said:

And that’s our holdup for the Mac - there’s not yet a studio-sanctioned, publicly-available Mac DRM solution (Apple doesn’t license theirs). I can promise you that, when an approved solution becomes available for the Mac, we’ll be there.

Additional tidbits from the call:

• Netflix believes Blu-ray has the advantage right now (you think?!)

• Speaking of HD, a “meaningful” (whatever that means) percentage are renting HD - but because of the “relative lack of content” the overall percentage is not that large.

• Speaking of streaming, when asked about why they added “unlimited streaming,” Netflix said it was simply to simplify the service, not because people were hitting caps. Additionally, they see no reason to worry about too many users streaming huge amounts of data (esp. in Beaumont, TX, right?) such that they have to again limit streaming.

You can find their press release with the financial results here.

By Martin Regtien
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews

USB Geek’s Outel Intelligent Remote Control - Notebook Edition is a cleverly designed remote control which fits into your notebook’s vacant PCMCIA port, USB dongle and all.

Ingenious.

If you still have such a large PCcard slot…

Read on for more in  a review by Paul Moons.

By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews

The Apple trifecta of the iPhone, the iPod, and Mac PCs helped Apple to its best quarter in history, with the highest revenue and earnings in Apple’s history.

That magnificent trio, selling 2.3 million iPhones, 22 million iPods, and 2.3 million Macs, resulted in $9.6 billion in total revenue, $1.58 billion in profit, and $1.76 income per diluted share as Apple announced its fiscal 2008 Q1 results on Tuesday.

iPods sales were only up 5% year-to-year, but revenue increased by 17%. iPhone sales, of course, don’t have an available year-to-year comparison, and won’t until June.

Meanwhile, splitting the Mac sales into desktop and notebook sales, Apple sold 977,000 desktop Macs and 1.34 million notebooks during the quarter. Desktop sales were up 53% year-to-year, while notebook sales increased 38%.

In a press release, Apple, CEO Steve Jobs said:

“We’re thrilled to report our best quarter ever, with the highest revenue and earnings in Apple’s history. We have an incredibly strong new product pipeline for 2008, starting with MacBook Air, Mac Pro and iTunes Movie Rentals in the first two weeks.”

In that same press release, CFO Peter Oppenheimer said,

“Apple’s revenue grew 35 percent year-over-year to $9.6 billion, an increase of almost $2.5 billion over the previous December quarter’s record-breaking results. Our strong results produced cash flow from operations of over $2.7 billion during the quarter, yielding an ending cash balance of over $18.4 billion. Looking ahead to the second quarter of fiscal 2008, we expect revenue of about $6.8 billion and earnings per diluted share of about $.94.”

In the follow-up conference call, Apple chief operating officer Tim Cook indicated that Apple is still confident of making its goal of selling 10 million iPhones by the end of this year. He also stated that “The Macintosh business is on fire.”

Despite all this, the stock market drop and housing slump have not passed over Apple. At the time of this writing the stock is down nearly $18, over 11% in after-hours trading.

By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews

Anyone ever sign a petition at PetitionOnline.com? It’s a site that “provides free online hosting of public petitions for responsible public advocacy.” Once Warner Bros. said they were switching to Blu-ray only, a petition to save HD-DVD was opened by Tudor Cacenco, who says on the site:

Dear High Def movie fans, I’m starting this petition in order to support HD-DVD and hopefully save it, and to show Warner Brothers that the consumer has not “clearly” chosen Blu-Ray. Warner Brothers switched to Blu-Ray exclusive claiming that its the best thing for the consumer, but how about all the consumers that bought HD-DVD movies and hardware for the holidays, or all the loyal HD-DVD fans like myself that own Warner HD-DVDs? Warner just screwed them all.

At the time of this writing, the total number of signatures is 14,555. Not exactly a huge number, but something to make people take notice at least.

While when Warner Bros. originally made their statement that the consumer had chosen Blu-ray, it may not have been true, it may be true now. Two weeks ago, Blu-ray outsold HD DVD by six to one, as people may be beginning to realize HD-DVD could end up being the “new” Betamax.

On the other hand, BetaNews has an exclusive interview with Universal EVP Ken Graffeo, and he says HD DVD is here to stay.

If you’re interested in signing the petition, here’s the link.