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Online companies affected by Hurricane Katrina, too

Amazon.com, Orvis Inc. and Travelocity are among the Internet businesses seeing effects from Hurricane Katrina.

Amazon said it is holding a number of packages for customers who live in damaged regions, according to the New York Times. Callers to Travelocity.com's Web site had to wait as long as 30 minutes to talk with customer service about canceling trips, hotel rooms and car rentals in New Orleans, the paper also reported. A spokesman for the travel agency said it sent e-mails to 143,000 customers who had made arrangements in the hurricane-affected areas.

The Orvis Co. Inc. said it has seen a 10 percent drop in customers using its call center. The retailer of outdoor supplies and apparel said, "Since people are focused on something so serious, they're not thinking about shopping."

ComScore Networks, a research and analysis company, offered data about the possible impact of Katrina on Internet shopping. ComScore estimated 860,000 people in New Orleans, and Biloxi and Gulfport, Miss., used the Internet from their homes or offices on an average day the week before the storm occurred. Almost 90 percent of them were offline a few days after the storm. Patti Freeman, an analyst with Jupiter Research, agreed there is cause for concern. "This is a tough one, because it is a big market."

Sony Corp., the world's second-largest consumer electronics maker, unveiled five new Walkman digital music players it will start selling in Japan in November, to compete with market leader Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod.

Sony, which pioneered handheld music players with its Walkman cassette tape players, introduced the new digital players that have easier search functions than previous models and software that can suggest songs to the users. The gadgets will start at $199.

Sony chief executive Howard Stringer, who is set to announce a midterm business plan this month, is betting on products such as the company's music players to raise sales of both its electronics and music businesses. On July 28, Sony cut its annual profit forecast almost 88 percent, partly because of falling television sales.

Apple chief executive Steve Jobs introduced a phone, supplied by Motorola Inc., that runs its iTunes music software and a new player dubbed the iPod nano that is the size of a business card. Apple also is adding a collectible version of the iPod based on the Harry Potter books. The phone will cost $250, and the iPod nano will cost between $199 and $249.

In an effort to attract more subscribers as competition heats up, TiVo Inc. has cut prices of its digital video recorders to as low as $50 after a rebate.

The devices will go for $50 for a model that can hold up to 40 hours of television on its built-in hard drive and $150 for the 80-hour model.

Prices are after a $150 rebate offer, which runs through November and requires activation of a $12.95-a-month service before Jan. 15.

Previously, the lowest-priced TiVos retailed for about $100 after rebate.

TiVo was a pioneer of the technology that allows viewers to pause, rewind and fast-forward television programming. But while its fan base is strong, it has had trouble translating that support into profit.

Last month, the Alviso, Calif., company reported its first profit in its eight-year history. But some analysts question whether the company can continue to grow as satellite and cable companies develop their own DVR technology with lower subscription fees.

A French media watchdog said last week that information provided by Internet powerhouse Yahoo Inc. helped Chinese authorities convict and jail a journalist who had written an e-mail about press restrictions.

The criticism from Reporters Without Borders marks the latest instance in which a prominent high-tech company has faced accusations of cooperating with Chinese authorities to gain favor in a country that has expected to become an Internet gold mine.

Yahoo of Sunnyvale, Calif., and two of its biggest rivals, Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp.'s MSN, previously have come under attack for censoring online news sites and Web logs, or blogs, that include content that China's communist government wants to suppress.

Reporters Without Borders ridiculed Yahoo, saying it was becoming even cozier with the Chinese government by allowing itself to become a police informer in a case that led to the recent conviction of Chinese journalist Shi Tao.

Pauline Wong, head of marketing for the Hong Kong office, said the company had no comment on the statement.

Reporters Without Borders said court papers showed that Yahoo Holdings (Hong Kong) Ltd. gave Chinese investigators information that helped them trace a personal Yahoo e-mail allegedly containing state secrets to Tao's computer. Yahoo Holdings (Hong Kong) Ltd. is part of Yahoo's global network.

Shi, a former journalist for the financial publication Contemporary Business News, was sentenced in April to 10 years in prison for illegally providing state secrets to foreigners. Reporters Without Borders described Shi as a "good journalist who has paid dearly for trying to get the news out."

NerdTV identifies its target audience with its very name and with its format: It's not available over the air, but rather via a free Internet download.

The tech-focused interview show, created by pundit and PBS host Robert X. Cringely, is meant to be unlike anything on commercial TV or elsewhere on the Internet, where video tends to come in short clips.

Instead, this is a Charlie Rose-style chat, about an hour, with "some incredibly smart person you always wanted to meet," Cringely says.

Among the names lined up for coming weeks are former Sun Microsystems guru Bill Joy, Apple Computer co-founder Steve Wozniak, computing pioneer Doug Engelbart and Google CEO Eric Schmidt.

More technology news. More links to interesting sites. More discussion of the tech issues of the day. Join Times personal technology editor Dave Gussow at the Tech Times blog (www.sptimes.com/blogs/tech) where he posts regular updates. Readers are invited to post comments and questions there as well.

[Last modified September 9, 2005, 11:00:05]