Media usage by Americans saw an increase in the fourth quarter of 2009. This was revealed in the Nielsen’s latest Three Screen Report.
In the last quarter of 2009, simultaneous use of the Internet while watching TV reached three and a half hours a month, up by a whooping 35 % from the previous quarter. Nearly 60 percent of TV viewers now use the Internet once a month while watching televisison.
“The rise in simultaneous use of the web and TV gives the viewer a unique on-screen and off-screen relationship with TV programming,” said Nielsen Company media product leader Matt O’Grady.
“The initial fear was that Internet and mobile video and entertainment would slowly cannibalize traditional TV viewing, but the steady trend of increased TV viewership alongside expanded simultaneous usage argues something quite different.”
Online video viewing is up 16 percent from last year. Nielsen says 44 percent of all online video is being viewed in the workplace. Americans watch network programs online when they miss an episode or when a TV is not available. Online video is used similarly to a DVR and not typically a replacement for watching TV.
Active mobile users increased by 57 percent from the fourth quarter of 2008 to the fourth quarter of 2009, from 11.2 million to 17.6 million. Much of the increase is due to the strong growth of smartphones.
“It seems that, for the foreseeable future at least, America’s love affair with the TV will continue unabashed,” said O’Grady.
“We seem to have an almost insatiable appetite for media, with online and mobile programming only adding to it.”
Symantec’s MessageLabs has revealed that there is a new targeted cyber attack using emails pretending to be from the New York Times. MessageLabs Intelligence tracked the attack yesterday, which used emails pretending to come from the NYT’s “Times Reader” software, hitting six different domains. One domain was a public sector domain, one was a law firm, and three were to chemical companies, and one was an online gambling company in the UK.
“The email attacks originated from Greece from IP address 83.253.67.30 (aiolos.otenet.gr),” a MessageLabs representative tells us. “MessageLabs Intelligence can’t see this being used as a botnet.”
“When executed the “Times Reader Plugin.exe” uses iexplore.exe to send encrypted data over port 443 to 82.103.136.9,” she continues. “It resolves to an address in Denmark, which looks like a computer on a home network. It doesn’t display anything when you run the exe, so the victim wouldn’t know they have been infected. The only indication is an iexplore.exe process running when there is no IE browser session open. It drops 2 files in the C:\windows\system32 directory as rundl32.exe and also rundl32. This dropped virus is a keylogger with rundl32 file containing what it is you are writing. After a while, the virus shuts down and deletes itself.”
While the attack appears to be targeted, it may prove to be a good idea to watch for such emails, particularly if you are a Times Reader user.
The European Union has asked Google to revise the policy by which it stores images for its Maps and Street View services, amid heightened privacy concerns.
Google currently keeps all images on Street View for a year, but the EU’s Article 29 Data Protection Working Party wants that time cut in half to no longer than six months.
“The Working Party believes that a maximum retention of six months for the unblurred copies of the images would strike the right balance between the protection of privacy and the ability to eliminate false positives,” the group said in a letter to Google’s global counsel, Peter, Fleishcer.
Google has also been told it needs to provide more information to residents when its Street View cars will be taking pictures in their areas. Google already posts updates online when it will be taking pictures in local areas. But the EU wants that there should be announcement in local and national newspapers about the whereabouts of the Street View cameras in a locality.
“In Europe, we have high standards for data protection. I expect that all companies play according to the rules of the game,” said EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding.
The creation of the Chinese counterpart of Hulu is now officially underway. Providence Equity Partners, which invested $100 million in the original American video site, will invest $50 million in Baidu to create Qiyi.com. Qiyi should similarly offer premium content and rely on ad revenue.
Qiyi will indeed be a completely by-the-book operation, judging from an “About Us” section that’s in English. It explained, “Qiyi will strictly abide by copyright laws and administrative regulations, to take copyright protection measures to protect the legitimate rights and interests of copyright holders.”
Then another paragraph added, “Qiyi keeps making efforts . . . to spread the advanced socialism culture by undertaking its social responsibility as an outstanding corporate citizen. Qiyi is playing a positive role in developing a harmonious society.”
Unfortunately, not much is known about the project. The site’s official launch date hasn’t been revealed, and other details are also public.
Baidu will retain majority ownership in Qiyi despite Providence’s large investment.
State Farm has introduced a new free iPhone and iPod touch app aimed at helping young drivers drive safely on the road.
The “Steer Clear” application is part of State Farm’s safe drivers discount program. The app gives young drivers a way to complete the Steer Clear discount program and encourages supervised driver education.
State Farm says its Steer Clear program aligns with the principles of Graduated Driver Licensing laws aimed at reducing teen car crashes by lengthening the time teens must drive while supervised and requiring practice in a number of driving conditions.
The app allows parents and teen drivers to take advantage of State Farm’s Steer Clear car insurance discount, which requires teens under the age of 19 to complete 20 guided trips behind the wheel. The Steer Clear app provides a trip timer to log suggested outings and it will track practice time while the mobile device is turned off.