Filed under: TECHNOLOGY | Tags: Advanced Digital Broadcast, Amazon, Amazon Kindle, Amazon.com, Christmas and holiday season, Computer, Sony, TechCrunch
TECHNOLOGY
Amazon’s Kindle 2 was scheduled
to be released in October in time for this holiday season, but Bezos himself reportedly pulled the plug for last minute changes to the software. Techcrunch’s sources now say it’s tentatively scheduled to go on sale in “early next quarter.” (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/25/amazon-kindle-2-slated-for-early-q1 11/25)
Sony, according to this report, appears to be the mysterious TV maker that will distribute a set-back box developed by Advanced Digital Broadcast that incorporates tru2way technology, a device that Sony could use with its Bravia line of TVs. ADB confirmed earlier this month that it had started shipping the unit to a consumer-electronics company that it declined to name. Light Reading (11/24)
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Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE | Tags: 4Kids Entertainment, America's Next Top Model, America's Next Top Model Cycle 10, Arts, Supreme Court, Tyra Banks, Tyra Banks Show, United States
Tyra Banks will have a second show on The CW the first being America’s Next Top Model, and now also moving to the network in September ’09 is her first-run syndicated The Tyra Banks Show. It will be the start of the show’s fifth season. Distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution and produced by Bankable Productions in association with Telepictures Productions, the one-hour talk show will air in double runs Monday-Friday from 3-4p and 4-5p. The deal allows new episodes of The Tyra Banks Show to air in syndication on its affiliates through the 2008-09 season. (Cynopsis 11/24)
On NBC, a couple of shows will change places as Crusoe moves to Saturdays starting December 6 and Lipstick Jungle slides into the 9p Friday slot vacated by Crusoe beginning December 5, cites Variety. Lately, Lipstick Jungle has aired at 10p Fridays and since it has done better than expected in this time period, NBC opted to schedule its four remaining episodes airing them December 5 and 12 and January 2 and 9. On Fridays, Lipstick Jungle will be flanked by Deal or No Deal at 8p and Dateline NBC at 10p. (Cynopsis 11/24)
The FCC, with support from the Department of Justice, filed a petition for a writ of certiorari last Wednesday, asking the Supreme Court to overturn the CBS Janet Jackson Super Bowl halftime show decision. The FCC contends last July’s ruling from the Third Circuit Court of Appeals was flimsy. (Cynopsis 11/24)
Fox is ditching its Saturday morning kids block altogether and will replace it with infomercials come January 2009, according to a report in Variety. This comes on the heels of news earlier this month that Fox settled its lawsuit with 4Kids Entertainment, which will effectively end the 4KidsTV four-hour Saturday morning kids programming block (8a-12p), currently airing on Fox, at the end of December 2008. (Cynopsis 11/24)
MTV pulls double duty as a new season of A Shot at Love – aka A Double Shot at Love – comes back December 9 at 10p with twin sisters Rikki and Vikki looking for love among a group of straight guys and lesbians. (Cynopsis 11/24)
Comcast last week added Fox News Channel, FX and Speed to its high-definition lineup in the Baltimore area. Comcast now offers 41 channels in HD in the area, 15 of which have been added in the last year alone. American City Business Journals/Baltimore (11/21)
Comcast will set up shop in about 400 Sears, Roebuck and Co. stores across the country. As part of the deal, Comcast will train Sears employees in the finer points of the company’s cable TV, broadband and phone offerings so that they can pass along that information to Sears shoppers. CED Magazine.com (11/21)
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Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA | Tags: Bon Jovi, Britney Spears, Facebook, Myspace, Roger Waters, TechCrunch, will.i.am, YouTube
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
Britney Spears has just released her new album Circus exclusively on imeem
, where you can stream the album in its entirety for free (you’ll also be able to embed the album playlist anywhere you’d like). The downloadable/physical version of the album won’t be available until December 2nd, but you can currently pre-order it through imeem and a number of other stores. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/24/britneys-back-new-album-circus-debuts-on-imeem 11/24)
Musicians and web celebrities gathered en masse for YouTube‘s first-ever live webcast on Saturday including Michael Buckley, will.i.am and of course Obama Girl. The concert attracted a less-than stellar 700,000 concurrent viewers at its peak according to a TechCrunch analysis of streaming partner Akamai’s active stream data. (MSN’s Live Earth concert reached more than 10 million during its last event, by comparison.) Incidentally Black Eyed Peas front man will.i.am will also appear in the next Live Earth concert on Dec. 7 at Andheri Sports Complex in Mumbai India, along with Bon Jovi, Roger Waters and a variety of Indian stars. (Cynopsis 11/24)
HBO Pay-Per-View has developed an innovative Facebook application to whip up excitement over the Dec. 6 boxing match between Oscar De La Hoya and Manny Pacquiao. The online app is called “Dream Fight,” and it allows Facebook users to do virtual battle in an online ring. TVWeek.com (11/21)
On Friday, judge Jeremy Fogel in San Jose, California, awarded Facebook $873 million in damages against Adam Guerbuez and Atlantis Blue Capital under the CAN-SPAM act. (Ruling embedded below). It is the largest award under the act ever granted, topping the $234 million award MySpace won against spammers last May. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/24/facebook-wins-an-873-million-judgment-against-spammers-that-it-will-never-collect 11/24)
Sony is set to announce a re-launch of video entertainment network site Crackle today, with a roll-out of a number of new web shows including sketches by L.A. comedy troupe “The Groundlings”, a video game show called “The Jace Hall Show” and a five-minute talk show dubbed “Anytime with Bob Kushell” hosted by a Hollywood writer. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/24/sonys-crackle-adding-web-shows-more-professional-content-comes-directly-to-the-web 11/24)
Virgin America invited celebrities and tech bloggers on a free flight to the YouTube concert to promote the beta launch of the Gogo WiFi Inflight internet service, scheduled to launch fleet-wide during the Q2 2009. The service will offer a 3.6 Mbps downstream connection and 1.8 Mbps up, charging $10 for flights under 3 hours and $13 for longer flights. (Cynopsis 11/24)
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Filed under: WIRELESS | Tags: App Store, Apple, Google, Google Maps, iPhone, iPhone 3G, IpodTouch, Safari
Revising their previous target of 600,000 HTC G1s shipped by the end of 2008, HTC CEO Peter Chou has disclosed that the company now expects to ship at least 1 million of the world’s first Android handset by year’s end. (http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2008/11/24/htc-expecting-to-ship-1-million-g1s-by-the-end-of-2008 11/24)
Apple has released Version 2.2 of its iPhone 3G and an upgraded iPod Touch, a firmware update that improves such applications as Google Maps and gives users the ability to download podcasts via Wi-Fi or cell data networks. The new software also tweaked the Safari browser and the App Store application. InformationWeek (11/21)
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Filed under: GAMING
MyRacer is rolling out the MF101, a portable Flash gaming console that features a 2.4-inch, 290K color LCD screen. The device has 1GB of internal memory, which can support about 1,000 Flash-based games. Electronista (11/21)
Filed under: TECHNOLOGY | Tags: Black Friday, Business, Consumer electronics, Consumer Electronics Association, High-definition television, Mobile phone, Thanksgiving, Wal-Mart
TECHNOLOGY
Wal-Mart is letting the Black Friday cat out of the bag a bit early this year to get shoppers excited about its post-Thanksgiving deals, which will include a limited number of Wii consoles priced at $249.24 on Friday and Saturday. “Our customers are relying on us more than ever in the current economic environment and we are well-positioned to serve them now and in the future,” Chairman Rob Walton wrote in an employee memo. Reuters (11/21)
The Consumer Electronics Association predicts a 3.5% increase in sales of all electronics in the fourth quarter, although analysts say HD sales are slowing down because buyers are scaling back. “We have the DTV transition, which is a hard cutoff date, this coming February, and [that] helps gets consumers into stores,” said Gary Shapiro, CEA’s president and CEO, who noted that cell phones and HDTVs are no longer seen as luxury items to consumers. Broadcasting & Cable (11/24)
In early 2009, Panasonic plans to bring two new full-HD plasmas to market: TH-65VX100 and TH-50VX100, which have contrast ratios of 60,000:1 and 30,000:1, respectively. Both sets will feature Dynamic Black Layer technology. Pocket-lint.co.uk (11/24)
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Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE | Tags: A&E Network, Bravo, NBC Universal, Nielsen Media Research, Project Runway, Television, Time Warner Cable, Weinstein Company
Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” closed out its first season Tuesday night on a high note, attracting 2.21 million viewers and putting up a 2.02 household rating, according to Nielsen Media Research. The latest entrant in the “Real Housewives” franchise, “Atlanta” averaged more than 1.3 million viewers per episode throughout its freshman season. Multichannel News (11/19)
The legal catfight over Bravo’s “Project Runway” is expanding. Lifetime, which snagged the rights to the popular show from producer The Weinstein Co. only to be sued by NBC Universal and its Bravo network, is now countersuing all the involved parties in a federal court in Manhattan. Reuters (11/19)
Next Tuesday at 10p, Starz will premiere a new series exploring the links between Hollywood and the fashion industry with Starz Inside: Fashion in Film. The series will reveal how integral fashion is to celebrities and a movie’s story and how fashions on the silver screen translate to the pages of fashion magazines. (Cynopsis 11/20)
A&E Network slated the premiere of its original scripted drama series The Beast, starring Patrick Swayze and Travis Fimmel for January 15 at 10p. The series is about Swayze, a hard-core veteran FBI agent, who works with a rookie partner (Fimmel) teaching him his unorthodox agent skills. (Cynopsis 11/20)
Beginning today, Time Warner Cable is adding a total of 24 high-definition channels in the Los Angeles area. The addition of cable heavyweights such as HBO, Showtime, Cartoon Network and Animal Planet brings the company’s HD offerings in most areas to more than 60 channels. Multichannel News (11/19)
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