The BBC’s Olympian Streaming Ambitions

The British Broadcasting Corporation, or BBC, plans to stream the entire Summer Olympics, according to PaidContent.org.

The streams will create what the BBC is calling “the first proper digital Olympics.”

Some of the features, according to Paid Content:

A new video player built for the recently upgraded BBC Sport website will offer rewindable live action, alerts to key alternate live moments and participant information.

Web pages will include data-driven profiles and Twitter feeds of competing athletes and viewers’ Twitter sentiment.

The BBC is also working on iOS and Android apps plus a mobile website.

A standardized connected TV application will offer live and catch-up video to Sony Smart TV, PlayStation 3, Virgin Media TiVo and other platforms yet to be announced.

The plan is to air 2,500 hours of Olympic coverage, a 1,000-hour uptick from 2008. The BBC also plans to offer 24 alternate live HD streams; there were six in 2008.

China Mobile, Apple Engage in Talks

Apple and China Mobile — which in terms of users is the biggest phone company in the world — have begun discussions about the carrier offering the iPhone, according to Bloomberg.

At a shareholder meeting in Hong Kong, China Mobile Chairman Xi Guohua confirmed that China Mobile has been in talks with Apple, although he couldn’t say whether or not the two sides would come to an agreement this year, according to the report.

From Bloomberg:

The carrier is counting on a shift to a fourth-generation wireless network to stem a decline in market share among subscribers who use mobile devices to access the Web to watch videos or play games. China Mobile’s homegrown 3G service left it unable to offer popular handsets including Apple’s iPhone, offered by its domestic competitors China Unicom (Hong Kong) and China Telecom Corp …

China Mobile declined 3 percent, the most since April 23, to HK$85 (US$10.94) as of 1:12 p.m. in Hong Kong trading. The shares have climbed 12 percent so far this year, more than double the 4.9 percent gain in the benchmark Hang Seng Index, as investors bet a faster rollout of the company’s fourth-generation network will boost sales.

China Mobile, which reported having about 670 million mobile phone subscribers in March, will test its fourth-generation network in nine cities this year. If successful, the company could go up to 200,000 4G base stations next year.

Don’t Forget to Log Out

For all the talk about Facebook’s disregard for privacy, you’d think this sort of thing wouldn’t happen.

A Colombian was arrested after a heist at an Internet cafe because — well, let’s let Mashable explain:

Two Colombian criminals almost got away with robbing an Internet cafe, but one of them checked Facebook first — and ended up being identified and arrested because he forgot to log out.

The two men were in the neighborhood of Calima, north of Cali, Colombia, when they stepped into an Internet cafe to surf the Web. The two men whipped out guns at the cash register to demand money and made a clean getaway on a motorcycle.

After the men escaped, an employee at the cafe called the police turning in information from the Facebook page that led to his arrest.

There are no reports at present about the accomplice.

Hard Numbers on Software Piracy

Fifty-seven percent of the world’s computer users admit to acquiring pirated software, according to a report from the Business Software Alliance, a Washington, D.C.-based software industry advocate.

The report, released Tuesday, tries to put a price tag on the piracy:

The commercial value of all this pirated software climbed from $58.8 billion in 2010 to $63.4 billion in 2011, a new record, propelled by PC shipments to emerging economies where piracy rates are highest.

“If 57 percent of consumers admitted they shoplift, authorities would react by increasing police patrols and penalties. Software piracy demands a similarly forceful response — concerted public education and vigorous law enforcement,” said BSA President and CEO Robert Holleyman.

The report goes on to state that software piracy rates in emerging markets is 68 percent, compared to 24 percent in mature markets. The report also states that China’s illegal software market is the world’s most robust at nearly $9 billion — compared to a legal software market of $3 billion.