Ben Prendergast

It’s been a big (huge) news week in IT. See inside, and hold your bottom jaw.

Big news week

News from the IT world doesn’t come any bigger this week. Here are some of the top stories:

Apple Launches Leopard, no kitten!

I won’t review the new features here, other than to say the new version at 150 bucks is well worth the coin. In terms of personal efficiency you can’t beat Time machine for keeping your info safe, Quick Look for speeding up review of files, Mail improvements for bringing your to-do’s into line, Spaces for keeping your various work roles split neatly, and Boot Camp for running those pesky Windows apps. 

But in addition it’s the little things like having Wikipedia entries linked to your dictorianary (command-click any word anywhere to gain clarity) or being able to quickly Google map an address book entry. While some criticise the update as being a service pack, I’m here to say Apple is still the leader in inspired software development.

NY Times says: More readers trading newspapers for web sites

That’s right, treehuggers should be happy to note that newspaper sales are on the decline while online readership is on the up. Now if only I can get a raise.

Facebook ads – having your cake and feed your friends too

Big news on the Facebook front, with the social media company announcing an ambitious new ad infrastructure that will allow advertisers to target specific demographics while presumably (it will be launched tomorrow morning our time) allowing a brand-based referral network. While social referral isn’t new, the notion that the estimated 25 million daily users of Facebook will be presented with brand messages from their trusted friends offers a new and potentially highly profitable revenue stream, akin to Google AdWords or YouTube’s embedded ads. This morning, there’s already a backlash.

Digg, the online news ranking site close to sale

One of the internet’s more popular blog ranking sites is close to a $US300 to $US400 million sale to a “major media player”. Rupert? Is that you?

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