Filed under: MISC
3 Days.
The Countdown to the launch of the iPhone continues.
Let’s talk calling plans. Being that the iPhone will be a data-intensive experience, the critical piece of the plan to most including me has been the data cost. The iPhone plans offer the data portion as included in the plans. Check out the rates below.
For more information, Engadget has put together a rate chart on their web site comparing the 4GB and 8GB iPhone to other popular smartphones. While the data portion is included in the iPhone plans, the plans do not include a rebate on a 2-year commitment to AT&T like other smartphones. Therein lies the rub.
http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/26/how-does-the-iphone-stack-up-in-total-cost/
And continuing the iPhone pictures from around the US:
Here’s one sent to me from an AT&T store in Springfield, Ohio.
(Photo Credit: Eric Johnston)
Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE
BROADCAST/CABLE
HBO Films and the BBC have joined forces to co-produce a four-hour miniseries on Saddam Hussein’s 24-year reign. “Between Two Rivers” will look at Hussein’s tenure as president of Iraq from 1979 to 2003. (The Hollywood Reporter 6/26)
NBC will offer HD, VOD and mobile content during its coverage of the 2007 Action Sports Tour Dew Tour. The competition will have 33 hours of coverage on NBC and USA, including some portions that will be simulcast on Universal HD. (Multichannel News 6/25)
CBS is making its top serials “As the World Turns,” “Guiding Light” and “The Young and the Restless” — along with “The Price Is Right” — available for free, on-demand streaming. The shows will be posted on CBS.com Monday-Friday after the network’s West Coast feed concludes. (http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117967598.html 6/25)
While the median age of the US population may be 37, the median age of the television viewing audience across the five major English language broadcast networks is 48, according to a report issued by Steve Sternberg/MAGNA Global. Over the years ABC has aged from a median age of 44 in 2002, to a current season average of 48. CBS has been pretty steady over the past few years, averaging 52 or 53. NBC has gotten a little older, upping its average from 46 in 2002 to 49 now. The biggest difference has come from Fox, which in 2002 had a median viewer age of 35, and this year the average viewer age is 42, thanks in large part to the popularity of shows such as 24, Bones and House. (http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117967638.html?categoryid=14&cs=1 6/25)
CableLabs announced that Intel signed a licensing agreement to support CableLabs’ OpenCable Application Platform for two-way, system-on-a-chip products. Intel had previously spurned CableLabs’ licensing terms for OCAP. (Multichannel News 6/25)
While cable companies have been in full-scramble mode to meet the July 1 FCC mandate on set-top boxes with separable security via CableCards, Verizon reportedly is banking on a special waiver from the FCC. Instead of deploying set-top boxes with CableCards, which one analyst said could disable some functions of Verizon’s FiOS TV service, Verizon said it was pursuing its own version of a downloadable conditional access system. (Light Reading 6/25)
On Monday, a federal judge said a compromise could be put in place to allow Vonage to sign up new customers while it develops its own technologies that don’t infringe on Verizon’s patents. (The Washington Post 6/26)
In a move to bolster its business unit, RCN is acquiring Neon Communications for roughly $260 million. The addition of Neon will give RCN a 4,800-route-mile fiber network and a combination of 120 carrier and enterprise customers. (Telephony Online 6/25)
Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
Shares of Google hit a new all-time trading high of about $535 on Monday. Analysts say Wall Street is actually underestimating Google’s growth potential. Also: Google’s acquisition rate is increasing. So far, Google has made, or is in the process of making, 12 acquisitions in 2007. (http://mediabiz.blogs.cnnmoney.com/2007/06/25/googles-next-stop-600-a-share/ 6/26)
In the wake of the departures of CEO Terry Semel and chief sales offer Wenda Millard, other key execs are expected to exit Yahoo. Critics say the company’s ongoing structural changes appear to be made without much forethought or long-term planning. (http://www.forbes.com/technology/2007/06/25/yahoo-yang-millard-tech-cx_rr_0625yahoo.html 6/25)
Big media companies should try to acquire Facebook, the still-growing social-networking site, advises Pali Research analyst Richard Greenfield. “The knowledge that could be harvested from Facebook would appear to be the most valuable data in the history of the media world.” (http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/06/22/for-one-analyst-facebook-is-a-screaming-buy/ 6/22)
YouTube’s recent redesign that replaced user picks for the most-viewed videos with editors’ choices is akin to dictatorship, according to some loyal fans. Detractors say the changes are anathema to the user-generated nature of the site, and are now calling it “EditorTube.” (http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/06/25/youtube-changes-rile-users/ 6/25)
U.S. Internet radio listeners tuned in to the sound of silence today as webcasters protested a sharp rise in royalty fees that critics say will force thousands of online stations to close. Thousands of Web broadcasters were expected to participate in the “National Day of Silence.” (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070626/tc_afp/usinternetradio 6/25)
Time Warner plans to launch a test of its overhauled AOL News portal on Tuesday, drawing influences from the uncluttered design and user-created content of popular blogs. Like some of its mainstream media rivals, AOL News is facing a decline in visitors. (http://www.reuters.com/article/industryNews/idUSN2532194020070626 6/26)
Video search start up Blinkx signed a deal with RealNetworks to become the video search engine for the new RealPlayer. Users will be able to search Blinkx’s index of more than 12 million hours of online video. Blinkx also announced partnerships with InfoSpace and Lycos to offer video search capabilities to their network of sites.
Professional social networking site Linkedin is planning to follow Facebook’s lead and provide an open source platform for developers within the next nine months.
There’s a class divide between Facebook and MySpace, according to a new study from the University of California-Berkeley. Facebook users are more likely to be Caucasian, college educated and well off. The MySpace community tends to be more working class, with little or no college. Seeing as how Facebook started as a student-only service, this isn’t that surprising.
Photo sharing service photobucket unveiled a new version of its image and video hosting plug in allowing users to search for content without leaving partner sites. Photobucket’s media plugs in are used by sites such as RockYou, which offers slideshow, text and voicemail widgets to enhance blogs and personal profile pages.
Public interest group Electronic Frontier Foundation urged a California court to overturn a lawsuit brought by a group of major studios against peer-to-peer download site TorrentSpy, claiming users’ privacy is at stake. The suit, filed by Columbia, Paramount, Fox, Universal and others, accused TorrentSpy of copyright violations, enabling illegal downloads of protected movies and TV shows. Last month a federal judge ordered the company to turn over server log data containing the personal IP addresses of its users. The EFF says this would open a Pandora’s Box that could eventually make every keystroke on every digital device stored in RAM subject to discovery laws.
Hubbard Media’s movie-centric multiplatform service ReelzChannel unveiled a new summer line up of programming. New shows include comedy series What I Learned About (Blank) From the Movies, premiering July 8 at 8 pm; Movie Takes, featuring short form man-on-the-street interviews; and Miscasting, animated interstitials that ask what if so and so were cast in a given role they’re obviously ill-suited for.
Check out images of Harrison Ford from Indiana Jones IV on the site. Wow. He looks old.
Bravo has added several interactive extensions with this season’s Top Chef series, enabling live voting via WAP-enabled phones, iTV polling and trivia for Dish customers and access to all the recipes enacted on the show via Bravotv.com’s food portal. BravoTV is also featuring several new features around Hey Paula, the reality show kicking off the network’s third night of original programming this Thursday.
Time magazine publisher Time Inc. is starting to use technology developed by online advertising firm Quigo to provide text-based advertising on its magazines’ Web sites. The company expects it to generate about $100 million in ad revenue during the first three years of the partnership. (http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSN2530936220070625 6/25)
Filed under: WIRELESS
WIRELESS
Apple’s iPhone may very well be this year’s must-have gadget, but a growing number of consumers say that improvements to the device are needed before they will spend $499 or $599 to buy the phone. And while tactile keyboard issues remain a concern to some, the device’s lack of 3G technology and short battery life spans have some consumers saying they may pass on the iPhone, at least the initial version. (CNET/Reuters 6/25)
In the last six months, Apple’s iPhone has been the subject of 11,000 print articles, and it turns up about 69 million hits on Google. Cultists are camping out in front of Apple stores; bloggers call it the “Jesus phone.” As it turns out, much of the hype and some of the criticisms are justified. The iPhone is revolutionary; it’s flawed. It’s substance; it’s style. It does things no phone has ever done before; it lacks features found even on the most basic phones. (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/27/technology/circuits/27pogue.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin 6/27)
The New York Times’s Research and Development group is creating a mobile application, called Shifd, allowing users to easily share any content — from blog feeds, listings and maps to personal notes and data — between a desktop computer and a mobile phone. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/06/26/shifd-a-clever-mobile-app-from-the-ny-times/ 6/26)
Filed under: GAMING
GAMING
The Entertainment Software Rating Board’s decision to hand down an Adults Only rating to video game Manhunt 2 has been called significant by some industry insiders. The game’s story line centers on an escapee from an insane asylum who is forced to violently kill his enemies. (USA TODAY 6/25)
Gaming companies Electronic Arts and Ubisoft Entertainment are beefing up their casual gaming lineups. Casual games, such as poker and puzzles, are expected to grow from an estimated $281 million in sales in North America last year to $1.15 billion in 2011, according to DFC Intelligence. (MSNBC/San Fransisco Business Times 6/24)
Sony has released a firmware upgrade to its PlayStation Portable that increases the CPU speed from 266 MHz to 333 MHz. This firmware version 3.5 gives game developers increased ability to make games with richer graphics and experiences. (TechNewsWorld 6/25)
LifetimeTV.com’s fast-growing casual games component is partnering with Large Animal Games to create a new fashion-themed game to be available across multiple platforms this Christmas, including online and mobile. LifetimeTV.com has launched a dozen web games since 2005.
Known for her starring roles in films as varied as The Hours and Moulin Rouge, Oscar winning actress Nicole Kidman will demonstrate it’s her brain as much as her beauty that matters when she appears in the pan–European campaign for Nintendo’s Brain Training series. (http://www.nintendo-europe.com/NOE/en/GB/news/article.do?elementId=TUvI-eYaCeoos5G2JNi0WnfdtBYCYqcD 6/25)
Filed under: TECHNOLOGY
TECHNOLOGY
Dell introduced eight new colorful notebooks today with an entry-level price of $749. The notebooks come in colors such as flamingo pink, sunshine yellow, ruby red, midnight blue and espresso. Dell also introduced its first consumer PC using flash memory instead of a hard drive, a lightweight laptop with just 32 gigabytes of data storage. (The Washington Post/Reuters 6/26)
Toshiba’s Digital Products Division (DPD), a division of Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., today announced the Qosmio® F45-AV412 audio-video notebook computer — a 15.4-inch notebook computer with an HD DVD-ROM drive and cutting-edge Dolby® surround sound technology for the ultimate in visual and audio entertainment. (http://news.ecoustics.com/bbs/messages/10381/366782.html 6/26)
