Posted 10/30/09 at 04:49:51 PM by Jason Barry

Los Angeles City Council approved a deal which will roll out Gmail and Google Apps to about 30,000 employees throughout the city.

"The City of Los Angeles, the second largest city in the nation, made a world-class decision today to support a state-of-the-art e-mail system," said Tony Cardenas an L.A. City Councilman. Most of the concerns regarding the switch surrounded privacy, stability, and cost.

Google and the city of Los Angeles cut a deal that if there was a “significant data breach” in which employee information was stolen or viewed Google would pay damage compensation. There should be obvious cost savings in moving away from onsite infrastructure as well as stability improvements moving the services into the cloud.

Have you, or your company made the switch? What are your thoughts on the Google Apps system?

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Posted 09/17/09 at 08:09:56 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Entertainment Weekly has debuted video ads in its latest print edition. It is the first print publication in the world to do so. The magazine features a very thin TFT LCD screen, which can be charged via a USB cable, to display video ads for Pepsi Max and CBS shows. The technology has been developed by a company called Americhip.

It uses chip technology to store up to 40 minutes of video content. The video ads begin playing when the page is turned. The chip technology that turns readers into viewers in the blink of an eye is said to be comparable to that found in singing cards. Entertainment Weekly has limited the circulation of this special version of its current issue to Los Angeles and New York only.

Rajesh Mirchandani, BBC News' Los Angeles correspondent, criticized the embedded video screen for being too bulky. "And when you do open up the relevant page, the actual advert takes several seconds to load and play and that's a lifetime's lag in the advertiser's world," he said.

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