Filed under: Feature | Tags: Address, Air Bed, Breakfast, E-mail address, Facebook, Gmail, Google, Google Maps, Social network service, World Wide Web
ONLINE SITE OF THE WEEK: COUCH SURFING
Some of my friends seem to be natural born couch surfers, the kind which can pop up in any city and some how find a friend to stay with. If you don’t have the Facebook friend numbers to support this lifestyle, perhaps this site can help you along.
Just type in the city you’re looking to visit, et voila, a Google map pops up with pins indicating available rooms. Pictures are also available (see above), if like me you need to put a face with a room.
If on the flip side you want to list a room, it’s as easy as entering some information, perhaps a photo, and a price. None of your personal information is listed to the public (phone, street address, e-mail address) until you decide to accept a guest. The site takes a fee on the transaction.
Easy, breezy, air bed.
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Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE | Tags: CBS Paramount Network Television, Donna Martin, Hawaii Five-O, JackLord, Jennie Garth, Shannen Doherty, Steve McGarrett, Tori Spelling
IFC picked up another British comedy, The IT Crowd which is currently airing in the U.K. on Channel 4. The series, which is distributed worldwide by FremantleMedia Enterprises, will air in the new AUTOMAT programming block on Tuesday nights beginning September 30. The IT Crowd is about the technical support team of a fictional corporation and consists of six 30m episodes for each of the three seasons. IFC will air the first two seasons this fall and the third will air in early 2009 after its premiere on Channel 4 this fall. (Cynopsis 8/13)
Tori Spelling and CBS Paramount Network Television could not come to terms on a contract for her to appear on The CW’s 90210. The plan was to have Tori reprise her Donna Martin character on a recurring basis. Former stars from the original series, Jennie Garth, Joe E. Tata and Shannen Doherty are still scheduled to make appearances throughout the season on the new series. (Cynopsis 8/13)
CBS is bringing back a new version of the classic cop series Hawaii Five-O. the original series Steve McGarrett, played by Jack Lord, headed the fictional Hawaiian state police department. In the new edition, Steve’s son Chris will be in charge. (Cynopsis 8/13)
CNN said it would cover breaking news in 10 cities with journalists filing their reports using laptops and mobile phones. The move is designed to save on the cost of leasing office space for traditional bureaus and, according to Nancy Lane, CNN’s senior vice president for news gathering in the U.S., it “completely changes how we can report” because it “enables us to be anywhere and be live from anywhere.” The New York Times (8/12) , The Washington Post/Associated Press (8/12)
Comcast, which already offers a video-on-demand channel focusing on horror movies, has announced that it will set up a similar venture with action-oriented fare. The new VOD service, to be called Impact, will be populated with more than 1,000 theatricals and TV shows produced for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Houston Chronicle/Associated Press (8/12) , TVNEWSDAY (free registration) (8/12)
Looking to spotlight its emphasis on musical performances, MTV Networks will rebrand MHD, its high-definition music channel, as Palladia on Sept. 1. “It’s a bigger, more distinct name for a channel that has grown in size as well as satisfaction among music HD fans,” said Tom Calderone, who oversees Palladia, which currently passes more than 12 million homes. World Screen News (8/12)
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Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA | Tags: Amazon Unbox, Dish Network, Microsoft, NBC Universal, Rosario Dawson, Television, Television program, Time Warner Cable
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
Promising not to give up on the digital subscription model, Starz confirmed it is shuttering its Vongo download service on Sept. 30, refusing any more new subscribers and promising to refund the subscriptions of any current customers. The site has offered unlimited downloads of Starz-licensed movies and TV shows for a flat fee of $10, allowing customers to save titles to their hard drive for later viewing. Instead the company will continue to offer the service as a (branded) white label option for other distributors such as Verizon, which launched the Starz Play broadband video service to its FiOS TV subscribers this past May. (Cynopsis 8/13)
Seasons one and two of HBO‘s popular Hollywood insider comedy Entourage popped up for purchase on the iTunes store, joining past seasons of several more of the network’s Emmy-winning shows. Season three will arrive on Aug. 18 and season four will be available on Aug. 26, building up to the premiere of season 5 on HBO Sept. 7. (The new episodes won’t be available on iTunes until they’re released on DVD.) (Cynopsis 8/13)
Coming to a screen near you on Aug. 18 is Gemini Division, that Sci Fi mystery thriller from NBC Universal Digital Entertainment starring Rosario Dawson (Lost) as a NYPD vice cop searching for her fiancee’s murderer. The studio announced plans to distribute the 50-episode weekly series on the web via NBC.com, Sci-Fi.com and other online video portals; on VOD via Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Verizon FiOS and Dish Network; and on electronic sell through via Amazon Unbox, NBC Mobile and Microsoft’s Xbox Live and Zune platform. (Cynopsis 8/13)
Today at Yahoo’s Brickhouse, a team of developers, press, and Yahoo execs including co-founder David Filo converged for the release of Fire Eagle, Yahoo’s geo-location platform. Fire Eagle allows allows developers to include positional data in their applications with a minimal amount of work. The platform was originally announced in November, and has since been deployed by a number of select partners including Six Apart and LightPole. Today’s release extends availability to anyone. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/08/12/fire-eagle-launches-geo-location-platform-to-the-public 8/12)
Yup, even the registration scares the crap out of me. I imagine this is what Sandra Bullock must have felt like in The Net.
Content delivery network Limelight Networks posted revenue of $30.3 million for Q2 2008, a 22% increase from a year ago, but warned of tightening profit margins due to required infrastructure build out and increased pricing pressure. Limelight, which won Microsoft’s business to be the primary deliverer of video for NBCOlympics.com on MSN, also recently renewed its contracts with Disney, Netflix and Veoh. (Cynopsis 8/13)
Video search engine Blinkx announced a new partnership with a voice-enabled audio toolmaker ConvoCast. ConvoCast will utilize Blinkx’s speech recognition technology to provide transcription, discovery and intelligent tagging of user-generated content for ConvoCast’s AudienceVox application developed for radio and television, in addition to their ReaderVox application for newspapers and print publishers. (Cynopsis 8/13)
As if on cue, Hitwise released its search engine market share for July pegging Google with over 70% of the search market for the first time (an increase of 10% over the same month last year.) Combined with Yahoo, Google would control nearly 90% of the search market. (Cynopsis 8/13)
During the past year the total North American audience of social networkers grew by just 9% compared to 25% growth for the world at large. The Middle East-Africa region (up 66%), Europe (up 35%) and Latin America (up 33 %) all showed impressive growth. Among the individual sites Facebook and Hi5 showed the highest international growth rates. Facebook grew its user base from 8,751 to 35,263 in Europe and from 3,7112 to 20,712 in Asia during the past year. (Cynopsis 8/13)
Worldwide Growth among Selected Social Networking Sites – June 2008 vs. June 2007
Total Unique Visitors (000)
Jun-2007 Jun-2008 % Change
Total Internet: Total Audience 778,310 860,514 11%
Social Networking 464,437 580,510 25%
FACEBOOK.COM 52,167 132,105 153%
MYSPACE.COM 114,147 117,582 3%
HI5.COM 28,174 56,367 100%
FRIENDSTER.COM 24,675 37,080 50%
Orkut 24,120 34,028 41%
BEBO.COM 18,200 24,017 32%
Skyrock Network 17,638 21,041 19%
Source: comScore World Metrix
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Filed under: WIRELESS | Tags: Apple, iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPod Nano, Kwiry, Netflix, Nokia, T-Mobile USA
The Nokia 5610 XpressMusic from T-Mobile USA is the latest gadget to cross a mobile phone with a high-quality audio player, offering up to 22 hours of play. Along with standard features, including Bluetooth and camera, the 5610 accommodates multiple file formats and as much as 4GB of digital storage. InformationWeek (8/12)
Kwiry, the site that lets you send SMS message reminders to yourself, has released support for Amazon and Netflix that will allow users to add to their wishlists on the go. To use the service, users text the name of the service they’d like to use, followed by the name of the movie they’d like to rent or the product they’d like to buy. For example, I could text “netflix Fellowship of the Ring” to have the movie added to my Netflix queue. Similarly, texting “amazon iPod Nano” would add the product to my Amazon wishlist. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/08/12/text-your-amazon-and-netflix-requests-with-kwiry 8/12)
Handango and EA Mobile will offer popular video games formatted for use on multiple smartphone platforms. Titles include “Madden NFL 08,” “The Sims 2,” “Tetris” and “Bejeweled,” and they will be available in several languages for European users. Wireless Week (8/12)
On Sept. 7, Best Buy will join Apple and AT&T as a U.S. retailer for the iPhone 3G. About 600 locations will offer both the 8GB and 16GB versions along with the requisite two-year AT&T service contract. The New York Times/Reuters (8/13) , The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) (8/13)
Kwiry’s latest service lets people on the go add movies or other products to their Netflix queue and Amazon Wish List. A quick text message is all it takes to update an account on either site. mocoNews.net (8/12)
CBS Sports Mobile launched a new AT&T wireless mobile application giving fans access to scores, stats, headlines, streaming videos as well as complete control of CBSSports.com fantasy teams. The app has cross platform capabilities, so any changes you make on your phone will show up on your online account. It is currently available for 18 different AT&T phones for $4.99/month. (Cynopsis 8/13)
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Filed under: TECHNOLOGY | Tags: Intel Core 2, Laptop, Lenovo, Multi-core, Nvidia, Quadro, Sony, ThinkPad
TECHNOLOGY
Running on an Intel Core 2 Extreme quad-core processor, the 17-inch ThinkPad W700 supports nearly 1TB of storage and offers high-def graphics via Nvidia‘s Quadro FX video card. Lenovo will debut the W700 in the U.S. in September with a suggested price of $2,980. Techworld/IDG News Service (8/12)
Sony has reported that it may offer its next-generation OLED TVs in Europe sometime in 2009. Meanwhile, the company is readying the Bravia X4500 and W4500 HDTVs for a launch this fall. The Washington Post/Reuters (8/13) , Pocket-lint.co.uk (8/12)
Instant Music from ADS Tech lets users import music from old storage formats such as cassettes or LPs to a computer via USB. The software is designed to support multiple file formats. ElectronicHouse.com (8/12)
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