Piece written for The Guardian’s Comment is Free section on the renaming of Newcastle United’s St James’ Park:

“The rebranding of St James’ Park is another slap for Newcastle fans; Supporters fear Newcastle United’s owner, Mike Ashley, is using the club as a billboard to advertise his Sports Direct chain”.

It was all going so well. Perhaps too well, with hindsight. The announcement that Newcastle United’s ground, St James’ Park, is to be renamed the Sports Direct Arena has shattered the fragile truce between the football club’s supporters and its owner, Mike Ashley…

Read the full story on the Guardian website.

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Football The Guardian

Got an idea for a killer iPhone app? With more than 1bn applications sold since its launch last July, Apple’s iPhone App Store has become one of the fastest-growing tech enterprises in recent history, and gained a reputation as something of a developer’s goldmine. Success stories such as that of Ethan Nicholas, whose iShoot app has earned him $900,000 (£567,000) in eight months, have only added to the App Store’s appeal for would-be iPhone entrepreneurs…

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Technology The Guardian

It was clear from this week’s London Book Fair that the UK publishing industry is finally ready to embrace ebooks. But before the ebook can really challenge its paper equivalent, the industry has to avert a format war a whole lot more complicated than VHS vs Betamax…

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Books, Technology The Guardian

Last week’s announcement that the Beatles’ back catalogue will be made available on remastered CD failed to satisfy all Fab Four fans. Fifteen remastered albums will be released on 9 September, as will The Beatles: Rock Band videogame. But there is still no news on when the band’s catalogue will be made available online. Frustratingly for digital music fans, the Beatles and a handful of other high-profile acts continue to occupy a small but significant gap in the online catalogues of the likes of iTunes and Spotify, preventing listeners from downloading and streaming some of the world’s biggest artists. This “Beatles Gap” has been a bone of contention ever since iTunes launched five years ago.

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Music, Technology The Guardian