Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE | Tags: Broadband Internet access, Cable television, Charter Communications, Ian McKellen, Jim Caviezel, Number Six, Patrick McGoohan, Television
AMC and ITV are working on an updated version of “The Prisoner,” the 1960s series starring Patrick McGoohan that served as a metaphor for Cold War paranoia. The remake, scheduled for some time in 2009, will star Ian McKellen as Number Two and Jim Caviezel as Number Six. (Variety 6/30)
Beginning Aug. 6, Spike TV will premiere “Real Vice Cops Uncut,” a reality series from Associated Television International. The show follows real-life officers as they take down narcotics, prostitution and gambling operations and, according to Jim Romanovich, president of worldwide media and entertainment for ATI, lacks the pastel hues and Porches of “Miami Vice“: “This is not Crockett and Tubbs,” he said. (Broadcasting & Cable 6/30)
Charter Communications is rolling out its High-Speed Internet Max offering in its Michigan service area. The service boasts download speeds of up to 16 Mbps and, according to comScore, is faster than similar products offered by AT&T, Qwest and Verizon in service areas covered by Charter. (Multichannel News 6/30)
Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA | Tags: Barnes & Noble, CBS Interactive, CNET Networks, DoubleClick, Google, Google Affiliate Network, Performics, Quincy Smith
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
Amazon, watch out. Earlier today, Google launched an affiliate ad network. Or, rather, it rebranded Performics, the affiliate ad network that came along with its purchase of DoubleClick, as the “Google Affiliate Network.” As with other affiliate networks such as Amazon’s, participating Website publishers get paid a fee for each referral that results in a sale. Existing advertisers include Bank of America, Barnes & Noble, Citi, Target, and Verizon. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/06/30/google-launches-affiliate-advertising-network-courtesy-of-doubleclick 6/30)
CBS announced the closing of its acquisition of CNET today. The deal, first announced last month, will bring CNET under the control of Quincy Smith’s CBS Interactive division, “the premier online content network for information and entertainment.” (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/06/30/cbs-finishes-acquisition-of-cnet-quincy-smith-addresses-the-troops 6/30)
Slide and Vh1 excel at making products geared towards America’s lowest common denominator. The first makes SuperPoke, a popular social network app that lets you send text messages saying you’ve done “stuff” to your friends. The latter produces reality show classics like “Flavor of Love”, “Rock of Love”, and “I Love New York”. And next week, their powers will combine to bring you VH1’s SuperPoke!Fest: a four day reality show marathon to promote a new show called “I Love Money” that will give users a chance to see their very own SuperPokes live, onscreen! (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/06/30/slide-and-vh1-team-up-to-annoy-the-hell-out-of-you 6/30)
Yahoo launched a suite of new Olympics-themed content including a new website from Yahoo Sports, a new mobile web site (m.yahoo.com/2008games) and a special search feature providing shortcuts to help users find Olympics schedules, news, metal tallies and scoring. (Cynopsis 7/2)
The luxury giant LVMH for the second time successfully challenged eBay in a French court, arguing that 90 percent of the Louis Vuitton bags and Dior perfumes sold on eBay are fakes. (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/01/technology/01ebay.html?_r=1&ref=technology&oref=slogin 7/1)
Antoine Antoniol/Bloomberg News
Pierre Gode, an LVMH adviser, outside of court.
For most people on the Web, if Google or Yahoo cannot find something, it doesn’t exist. That has been one of the biggest drawbacks to creating a Website or application that displays itself as a Flash (SWF) file. Search engines could see the file, but they could not see what was in it. Until now. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/06/30/once-nearly-invisible-to-search-engines-flash-files-can-now-be-found-and-indexed 6/30)
Television viewers are turning to the internet for a variety of reasons – catching up on episodes they missed, reading up on their favorite personalities, even viewing a show’s bloopers or deleted scenes – according to a survey jointly conducted by Nielsen and CTAM. But both groups wanted the industry to know online viewing is no way replacing linear TV viewing; 94% of cable or satellite subscribers surveyed said they still prefer watching shows the old fashioned way. Here some likes and dislikes that came up in the study, along with some general trends:
- About 35% of adult broadband users surveyed have watched a full episode online
- Of those who went online looking for TV content, 87% turned to a network website
- The most popular forms were movie trailers (53%), UGV (45%), music videos & news (37%), comedy (31%) and sports clips (31%)
- A small but growing percentage of users are watching shows on their desktop PCs (14%), laptops (9%), video-enabled mobile phones (6%) and other portable devices (5%)
Online ad spending will continue to grow at double-digit rates through 2013 despite economic conditions, according to a new report from JupiterResearch cited in CNET. Online ad spending is expected to increase 19% this year in the U.S. to $23.8 billion with search continuing to be the dominant category. Video advertising is projected to quadruple to $5.1 billion by 2013. (Cynopsis 7/2)
Filed under: WIRELESS | Tags: Comes With Music, EMI, iPhone, Nokia, Sony BMG, Warner Music, Warner Music Group, With Music
AT&T will sell the new version of the iPhone without a service contract for $400 more than the price with a two-year plan, a break from the rules set when it debuted last year. (http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-TEC-ATT-iPhone.html?ref=technology 7/1)
The cellphone maker signed a deal with Warner Music Group to make Warner titles available through its “Comes With Music” service and Nokia music store. (http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/technology/tech-nokia-warner.html?ref=technology 7/1)
I hope you got it out of your system, people. Today’s the day that you can no longer use a handheld mobile device in California and Washington (the two states where I spend most of my time). So break out the Bluetooth headsets and don’t even think about checking emails. It’s the law. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/01/todays-the-day-put-that-phone-down-while-driving-in-california-or-else 7/1)
Filed under: GAMING | Tags: Firmware, Kotaku, Playstation 3, PlayStation Network, PS3, Sony, XMB, XrossMediaBar
Sony is aiming to enhance the person-to-person interactive gaming features with the scheduled release Wednesday of its 2.40 software update for PlayStation 3. The company is also touting the additions of the XrossMediaBar, or XMB, and Trophies as the biggest — and most requested — changes. XMB allows players to link up and communicate with fellow gamers, while they can use Trophies to set up profiles to share their accomplishments and compare skills with others. (Yahoo!/newsfactor.com 6/30)
Filed under: TECHNOLOGY | Tags: D3, IdeaCentre K210, LG Electronics, Mark Levinson, Nikon, Nikon D3, Transportation Security Administration, us
TECHNOLOGY
Lenovo introduced its first consumer desktop in the U.S. this week. The low-priced IdeaCentre K210 features facial-recognition technology to enable users to forgo the need to enter a password to log onto their computer. (InformationWeek 6/30)
Nikon’s D700, priced at $2,995, packs the considerable abilities of the company’s hefty $5,000 flagship, the D3, into a more svelte 2.2-pound device. (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/01/technology/personaltech/01camera-web.html?ref=technology 7/1)
New laptop bags approved by the Transportation Security Administration make it possible to go through X-ray inspection without having to take the laptop out. (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/01/business/01road.html?ref=technology 7/1)
LG Electronics plans to introduce a frameless Plasma TV, which is said to be an industry first. The Plasma TV – PG61 is designed to look like a seamless black sheet of glass and features invisible speakers that have been tuned by audio expert Mark Levinson. (domain-b.com 7/1)
Samsung apparently wants to make sure it is not left behind in the race to manufacture AM-OLED displays, as it has set aside $529 million — six times its current budget — for producing the organic light-emitting diode screens. The active-matrix-OLED monitors are thinner, more energy-efficient and considered to be of better quality than today’s LCDs, but Samsung, like all manufacturers, still faces challenges in cutting production costs and increasing screen sizes before it can roll out the technology across a broad enough range of products. (Reuters 6/30)
New laptops that support 802.11n wireless networking have fueled sales of routers and other products for the emerging standard, according to Infonetics, a research firm that says manufacturers are reporting sudden gains in sales for 802.11n hardware. The good news for vendors is that 802.11n products are more expensive, so their revenues rose for the first quarter even though sales for other wireless LAN devices tailed off. (Techworld/IDG News Service 6/30)
