Transcripts

Tech Talk: Typing the Typeface

SUSIE GHARIB: The shift of ad dollars to the net continues and a new product makes reading a newspaper online an experience people actually seem to enjoy. Scott Gurvey has those stories and more in tonight's "tech talk."

SCOTT GURVEY, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: CNN has decided to stop charging for access to its online video service. It had been asking $25 a year or a dollar a day for a one day access pass. Spokeswoman Jennifer Martin said today, quote, people don't like to pay for stuff on the Internet. Speaking of the net, online advertising was a big winner during the holiday shopping season according to the interactive advertising bureau. The IAB today reported Internet advertising increased 33 percent to $4.8 billion in the fourth quarter of 2006. For all of last year, advertisers spent $16.9 billion on the net.

Fox TV has been under fire on web blogs all day. "American Idol" ran nine minutes longer than scheduled last night. And it seems in this high tech world of DVRs and VCRs many viewers missed the winner because their recordings stopped before the program ended. Microsoft is shipping an update for cell phones with email and Internet capability. Entertainment and device division President Robbie Bach says Windows mobile six will work on a wide range of systems and equipment.

ROBERT BACH, PRESIDENT, ENTERTAINMENT AND DEVICE DIV., MICROSOFT: Our job is to make sure whichever operator you're on, whichever device manufacturer you're working with, that you have the opportunity to work with a Windows mobile phone. We're already outselling RIMM Blackberry. I think there's a tremendous opportunity for us to continue to grow here.

GURVEY: When you design a web page, you must usually design for a single screen size. Changing the screen dimensions often results in an unreadable layout. The "Times" reader is a terrific new product from the "New York Times" which eliminates that problem. It is the first third party product I have seen based on Microsoft's new presentation foundation system. The "Times" reader easily adjusts its layout when screen dimensions or type sizes are changed. And it looks like the "Times," right down to the typeface. The paper's product manager Robert Larson says most readers visit newspaper websites for short periods of time but treat the "Times" reader differently.

ROBERT LARSON, PRODUCT MANAGER, NYTIMES.COM: We're actually seeing people are reading it like the paper and spending a lot of time with it every day. And we think down the road that's going to be the kind of environment that advertisers will want to be in once the audience gets bigger.

GURVEY: You can try the "Times" reader for free for 30 days. After that it is $15 a month. It is always free if you subscribe to the print edition of the "Times." Scott Gurvey, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, New York.