Filed under: Feature | Tags: Barack Obama, Beverages, COFFEE, Facebook, Inauguration, MSNBC, Shopping, Starbucks
FREE COFFEE WITH YOUR VOLUNTEER WORK: STARBUCKS GETS INTO THE SPIRIT
In the spirit of giving…oh wait, the holidays are over…in the spirit of the inauguration, Starbucks is giving away a tall cup of coffee (small in normal person speak) when you pledge 5 hours of volunteer time from Jan 21st through Jan 25th.
Here’s a link to the Facebook page.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=6ec1fac7-ac7a-4774-b75f-771184882c44)
Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE | Tags: Amy Poehler, Burn Notice, NBC, Television, United States, Universal Media Studios, USA Network, Washington Post
NBC announced new spring series arrivals including, Southland about a police precinct in Los Angeles, The Untitled Daniels/Schur/Poehler Series, the mockumentary about local government starring Amy Poehler, The Chopping Block, a cooking competition series, Kings, the extended final season of ER, and new seasons of The Office, 30 Rock and The Biggest Loser. Finally, The Tonight Show will officially have Conan O’Brien at the helm beginning on June 1. (Cynopsis 1/16)
New episodes of Burn Notice on USA Network begin January 22 at 10p. Seven new episodes with Jeffrey Donovan as Michael Westen will air on Thursdays this winter. (Cynopsis 1/16)
CBS ordered a new comedy pilot Tick Tock, a single-camera project from CBS Paramount Network Television. The cast contingent pilot order is about a single thirtysomething mom who becomes single-minded about finding love. (Cynopsis 1/16)
Universal Media Studios made a two-year television development deal with actor/producer/director Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda, Traitor) and his company Crescendo Productions. A variety of different television series projects will be covered by the deal. (Cynopsis 1/16)
Kevin Martin, the man who often was at odds with the cable industry during his four-year tenure as chairman of the FCC, will step down Tuesday to coincide with Inauguration Day and a new administration. Martin said he had accepted a position with the Aspen Institute, where he will work on communications issues. The Washington Post (1/16) , Financial Times (1/15)
Following the trend of expanding existing content relationships to leverage subscribers for new services, AT&T struck deals to expand its carriage of Viacom’s MTV Networks and BET Networks on multiple platforms. (Cynopsis 1/16)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=3b382b3f-d2ff-43ee-afd8-6e1e47082b9b)
Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA | Tags: AOL, AOL Mail, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Gmail, Myspace, Yahoo, Yahoo Mail
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
American Idol is turning to digital outlets to try and grow its (suddenly dwindling) audience. FremantleMedia Enterprises and teen virtual world Habbo are constructing a virtual Idol talent show slated to launch by the end of January, hoping to extend sponsors Coke, AT&T and others to the online environment. To help keep the 3 million U.S.-based “Habbos” engaged throughout the 20-week long program, Habbo will introduce new in-game virtual items and activities each month as the on-air American Idol season progresses. (Cynopsis 1/16)
MySpace is building a fully functional webmail product, Techcrunch has learned from sources with knowledge of the product. MySpace mail will compete with services like Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, Gmail and AOL Mail, and will on launch be the third largest webmail provider in the world. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/15/confirmed-myspace-building-stealth-webmail-product 1/15)
MSNBC.com is launching a new feature today that will make it easier for a viewer to find a video clip online and paste it onto other sites. The launch is timed so viewers can capture their favorite parts of President-elect Barack Obama‘s inaugural address. The Wall Street Journal (1/16)
As part of its Open Strategy, Yahoo starting today is letting users add updates from their friends
based on their activities on 20 other services across the Web. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/16/yahoo-becomes-more-friendfeedlike-adds-updates-from-20-outside-sites 1/16)
Tonight Hulu will stream outgoing President George W. Bush’s farewell address live. The speech will begin at 5PM PST/8PM EST. On Tuesday, the site will also be streaming President-Elect Obama’s inauguration speech. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/15/hulu-streams-bushs-goodbye-and-obamas-hello 1/15)
Vik Singh of Yahoo’s BOSS team has just launched a new search engine called TweetNews that mashes up Yahoo News stories with some of the hottest topics on Twitter. The result is a news engine that is significantly more timely than common news aggregators like Google News and Yahoo’s standard news site. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/15/boss-developer-fuses-yahoo-news-with-twitter-to-create-tweetnews 1/15)
Google TV Ads officially launched the SpotMixer do-it-yourself video ad creation tool from One True Media, enabling small companies to put together and distribute their own measurable spot ads on participating Dish Network channels. (Cynopsis 1/16)
US online video viewing continued to rise in 2008, encompassing more than three-quarters of all US internet users according to eMarketer. And low and behold, the percentage of video viewers who consume video (in-stream, in-banner or in-text) ads is also increasing as users begin to grow accustomed to the necessary evil. Video ads are expected to reach over 80% of all internet users by 2012. (Cynopsis 1/16)
US Online Video Viewers and Online Video Advertising Viewers 2007-2012
Year Online Video Viewers % Internet Online Video Ad % Internet
(millions) Users Viewers (millions) Users
2007 137.5 73.6% 111.4 59.6%
2008 154.2 80.0% 129.5 67.2%
2009 167.5 84.1% 144.1 72.3%
2010 176.0 85.7% 154.9 75.5%
2011 183.0 86.8% 164.7 78.1%
2012 190.0 88.0% 174.8 80.9%
source: eMarketer, Nov. 2008
Video sharing site Metacafe gained market share in December attracting more than 11 million U.S. viewers according to ComScore Media Metrix figures. The total represents a 60% increase since Jan. 2008 and an impressive 20% increase from November.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=151e9dde-c6af-4fa0-8457-d3598f533f5a)
Filed under: WIRELESS | Tags: Barack Obama, Credit card, Federal government of the United States, Interest group, Motorola, U.S. government, United States, WIRELESS
The incoming Obama administration has earmarked just $6 billion for wireless and broadband services as part of an ambitious $825 billion infrastructure spending proposal released to Congress yesterday. Advocacy groups have been calling for the U.S. government to spend $30 billion or more to help improve broadband infrastructure across the country. The money will be targeted in “under-served areas” to strengthen the economy and provide business and job opportunities, according to the proposal. (Cynopsis 1/16)
Motorola announced a device that can clip onto its wireless handhelds and enable retailers to take credit cards payments away from the cash register. The device sells for $655. Techworld (1/14)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=bfbb8ca1-c965-4e5b-9e16-5b5b78c7f019)
Filed under: TECHNOLOGY | Tags: Ambilight, Aspect ratio, Business, Electronics and Electrical, Human Interfaces, Lights, Liquid crystal display television, Philips
Philips is developing a new 56-inch, liquid-crystal-display TV that features a theaterlike aspect ratio of 21:9. The ultrawide set, dubbed the Cinema 21:9 LCD, also is expected to have the company’s Ambilight background lighting system when it’s introduced in the spring of 2009. Digital Trends (1/15)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=7aac7dbe-f840-4f4d-a044-d55517db391d)
