News Corp.

The best rhetoric in business: cable vs content

When the cable providers and the companies providing the shows fight over fees -- as Cablevision and News Corp currently are -- the viewers lose. But those who enjoy their business bare knuckled definitely win.

As the "Cablevision vs. News Corp." feud escalates, more than three million subscribers remain without Fox programming. Cablevision blames News Corp. for demanding an extortionate increase in retransmission fees; News Corp. argues Cablevision isn't negotiating MORE

Today in Tech: News around the Web

Every day, the Fortune staff spends hours poring over tech stories, posts, and reviews from all over the Web to keep tabs on the companies that matter. We've assembled the weekend's most newsworthy bits below.

In yet another situation of cable negotiations gone awry, News Corp. yanked Fox programming from Cablevision. "This is an unfortunate attempt to extort unreasonable and unfair fee increases from Cablevision and our customers," stated a Cablevision email MORE

Today in Tech: News around the Web

A round-up of the companies, deals, and trends that made headlines.

Every day, the Fortune staff spends hours poring over tech stories, posts, and reviews from all over the Web to keep tabs on the companies that matter. We've assembled the day's most newsworthy bits below.

What is MySpace now: an empty space?

The new logo could be a way for users to see their best selves in the soon to be rebooted social network. Or it could lead them to see nothing at all.

Late last week, the new MySpace logo was unveiled at the Warm Gun Design conference in San Francisco: the word "my" in a sans serif font (presumably Helvetica) followed by a bracketed underscore representing a space. Get it?

"MySpace is MORE

Live from Apple's fall product launch

This is the spot for our live coverage of Apple's (AAPL) Sept. 1 music event.

In sum, Steve Jobs delivered on most of the rumored new products and services. The headlines:

A new $99 Apple TV that streams (rather than downloads) $4.99 movie rentals and 99-cent TV rentals from ABC and Fox.
A new lineup of iPods, chief among them the iPod touch equipped with two cameras, one a front-facing camera that can MORE

Battle for the future of TV

It's Amazon vs. Apple, according to the latest reports, with Netflix in the middle

Tuesday was busy day as two of the biggest names in online retail -- Apple (AAPL) and Amazon (AMZN) -- jockeyed for position in the fast-evolving market for Internet-based television.

Both have been actively courting the major studios, including NBC Universal (GE), Time Warner (TWX), News Corp. (NWS) and Viacom (VIA-B), each for a different reason. Apple has MORE

MySpace: A place for… what, again?

With declining ad sales, a stagnant user base, and a creaky interface, the once-mighty social network has a redesign on deck, but is it enough to save the site?

Visit the MySpace offices in the News Corp. complex in Beverly Hills, and you won't see a company in crisis. Underneath the company sign, a dry-erase board reads "A place for..." with scribbled Mad Lib-esque responses like, "Soy Milk Ecstasy" and MORE

99¢ TV shows coming Sept. 7 - report

Rather than a "best of TV" subscription service, Apple will be streaming programs a la carte

[UPDATE: The event is actually scheduled for Sept. 1. See here.]

Fuzzy rumors about Steve Jobs' next move in the TV market have been swirling for the better part of a year, but the picture snapped into focus on Tuesday.

A report by Peter Burrows, a veteran BusinessWeek reporter now writing for Bloomberg Businessweek, lays out the MORE

VC stunner: Nothing is overhyped

Enterprise, mobile, China, storage and social -- so many places to deploy cash.

Fortune's Michael Copleand opened his venture-capital panel at Fortune Brainstorm Tech Friday afternoon with a fun round-robin question: Name one sector that is overhyped or underhyped.  Shockingly, the six-member panel found nothing whatsoever that is overhyped. Only the opposite. VCs, after all, are congenital optimists.

Jerry Murdock of Insight Ventures, and investor in Twitter, thinks social media is underhyped. MORE

Hulu Plus: Not worth it. Yet.

The video streaming service's new premium model lacks the chops to justify its monthly fees.

As a writer and hopeless Internet addict, I probably spend more time in front of my laptop than I'd like to admit, banging out articles, reading blogs, instant messaging co-workers and friends, and viewing media. Whereas the average American now spends an estimated 34 hours a week in front of the television, it's fair to say MORE