Study Says P2P Downloaders Buy More Music

from Slashdot by Zonk

An anonymous reader writes "Michael Geist posts to his site about a study commissioned by the Canadian government intended to look into the buying habits of music fans. What the study found is that 'there is a positive correlation between peer-to-peer downloading and CD purchasing.' The report is entitled The Impact of Music Downloads and P2P File-Sharing on the Purchase of Music: A Study For Industry Canada, and it was 'conducted collaboratively by two professors from the University of London, Industry Canada, and Decima Research, who surveyed over 2,000 Canadians on their music downloading and purchasing habits. The authors believe this is the first ever empirical study to employ representative microeconomic data.'"

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A New Way To Make Water, And Fuel Cells

from Slashdot by Zonk

Roland Piquepaille writes "You probably know that it is easy to combine hydrogen and oxygen to make water. After all, this chemical reaction is known for more than two centuries. But now, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) have discovered a new way to make water. As states the UIUC report, 'not only can they make water from unlikely starting materials, such as alcohols, their work could also lead to better catalysts and less expensive fuel cells.' But be warned: don't read the technical paper itself. It could win an obfuscated contest — if such a contest existed for scientific papers." Yet another advance in fuel cell technology; we discussed a different one just the other day.

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E-TEN's VGA and HSDPA-packin' Glofiish X800 now shipping

from Engadget by Evan Blass

Filed under: Cellphones

We've had our eye on this willowy little minnow ever since we first gave it a proper once over at CeBIT earlier this year, and now E-TEN has announced that its everything-but-the-keyboard Glofiish X800 WM6 Pocket PC is finally shipping (we saw it unlocked on MobilePlanet for $650). Very similar to a number of 3.5G HTC devices already on the market, the X800 steps up the game by offering a sexy 2.8-inch, 640 x 480 screen, 500MHz Samsung processor, and dedicated SiRFstar III GPS chipset. Still, if you can hold out just a little bit longer, a QWERTY-fied M800 boasting the same specs is right around the corner.

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Share Your News Tips and Photographs with Mainstream Media

from Digital Inspiration by Amit

Have you witnessed a news story in your area that could interest mainstream media ? Did you capture the scene on a mobile phone or a camera ?

If yes, here are some prominent websites where you can send in those news photos and video clips:

Reuters - You can share your news photographs and videos to Reuters by sending them to pics@reuters.com or upload here. Reuters is not just looking for news events, they are also very interested in offbeat news like a model falling over her huge heels on the catwalk or fans cheering inside the sports stadium.

BBC News - You can send pictures or news video clips to BBC at yourpics@bbc.co.uk . Web cam users can directly record and send a video message to BBC editors here. Other than news images, BBC also accepts images related to both local and global issues as well as just great pictures of your daily lives.

CNN.com - You can send your news videos, audio tips and photos to CNN at ireport@cnn.com. Like Reuters, CNN also accepts non-news events. CNN has an excellent toolkit for amateur citizen journalists to help them quickly learn tricks of the trade - how to capture good video and photographs.

CNN IBN - This is only applicable to events and issues related to India. This popular TV channel airs a separate program featuring content that's supplied by citizen journalists across the country. You can either upload the media files on the CNN IBN website or send your news reports via SMS and MMS messages (CJ to 2622).

Nokia Reporter Toolkit for Citizen Journalists

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Alley Mogul Launches Gilt Groupe, We Get You In

from Silicon Alley Insider by Henry Blodget

Alley mogul Kevin Ryan and friends still had time on their hands after launching five start-ups in the past two years (including this site), so they have launched a sixth: Gilt Groupe (www.gilt.com).  Judging from the early member sign-ups (3,500 in 8 hours), it's a hit.

Gilt runs private sales of high-fashion merchandise at sample-sale prices.  The next sale, for example, will feature the designer Zac Posen. 

The sales are for members only--you have to be invited--but, thankfully, we have some connections here, and we can get (some of) you in.  If you're interested, visit this special SAI referral page and register while you can (Gilt is doing the exclusivity thing and has so far refused to endow us with permanent membership granting capabilities, so hurry).

Gilt Groupe is run by CEO Alexis Maybank (above left), a talented AOL and eBay veteran, and the rest of the management team is equally, well, fabulous (check this page out and see if you disagree).  The company is in the process of raising a major Series A round with premier VCs at a startling valuation, and interest, by all accounts, has been high.

Disclosure: Yes, yes, we know, we're conflicted up the wazoo here.  Gilt's chairman Kevin Ryan is our chairman, Alexis Maybank, Mike Bryzek, and co are basically colleagues, etc.  Whatever.  You want pure objectivity without a hint of favoritism, emotion, or relationship conflict, visit TechCrunch.

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