Andrew Orlowski

Collected Journalism

  • Truths, half-truths and Wikipedia: Tom Melly

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    Tom Melly, on the Wikification of the obituaries of his father, George Melly Wikipedia comes in for a fair amount of criticism these days from El Reg and other publications, but I can’t help wondering if we’re missing the real point regarding its status as an encyclopedia. Most of the arguments hinge on its accuracy,…

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  • Babelgum: another new, new TV thing

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    “Frankly the business plan is subjective”- Babelgum chairman Silvio Scaglia So P2P TV services really do conform to the proverbial bus cliche: you wait ages for one, then loads of cliches come along at once. If you know Joost, then you’ll know Babelgum, which unveiled its service in London today. Both are PC-based upstarts to…

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  • Spontaneous human combustion: Skype to blame

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    A Voice over IP service was to blame for a man in Massachusetts bursting into flames at the weekend. The man, David Reed, held an executive position at Lotus in the early 1980s, and was a Fellow at HP Labs. He is said to be recovering from the spontaneous human combustion at MIT Media Lab,…

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  • Orb turns MySpace into a personal radio station

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    Just as you thought the MySpace phenomenon was running out of steam, tomorrow will see the biggest innovation to the site since it launched. This one doesn’t come from MySpace itself, however, but Orb Networks. Orb already allows you to listen to or view media stored on your home PC (music, playlists, photos or TV…

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  • “The biggest attempt at recording theft ever attempted”

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    The husband of the late classical pianist Joyce Hatto has apparently admitted to “doctoring” sound recordings issued on his own record label. William Barrington-Coupe issued over 100 CDs of his wife, who hadn’t performed in public for 30 years, on his label Concert Artists Recordings. Recently Hatto, who died last year, had been rediscovered to…

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  • Pot, dial kettle: Closed Skype wants open networks

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    eBay’s proprietary VoIP service Skype wants the Federal Communications Commission to change its rules on how cellular networks operate. It’s demanding that the US regulator extend a 1968 legal decision, which permitted any device to be attached to the AT&T network, to apply to mobile operators. It also wants a new industry body to decide…

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