Filed under: TECHNOLOGY | Tags: iPhone, Microsoft Windows, NPD Group, Operating system, San Francisco, Wall Street Journal, Windows 7, Windows Vista
Yesterday in San Francisco, AT&T held a Tech Showcase to show off some of the new innovations they are working on in their labs. One such thing I got a demo of was a way to use your iPhone to search television content simply by using your voice. (Techcrunch11/5)
U.S. unit sales of boxed copies of Windows 7 were 234% higher during the new operating system’s first few days on store shelves than the comparable period two years ago for Windows Vista, according to research firm NPD Group. But one analyst quoted in this report said the Windows 7 effect so far on the PC market as a whole had been “mixed.” The Wall Street Journal (11/6)
Redbox, operator of the $1-a-night DVD kiosks that are controversial among Hollywood studios, is reporting that revenue grew 90% in the third quarter and operating income nearly doubled. The company says it could “easily grow” its current 20,600 kiosks to nearly 60,000. (Iwantmedia11/6, LA Times 11/6)
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Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE | Tags: Comedy Central, FamilyGuy, FOX, Fox Broadcasting Company, Hollywood Reporter, Microsoft, Viacom, Windows 7
The premiere Oct. 22 of Comedy Central‘s “The Jeff Dunham Show” attracted 5.3 million viewers, the most ever for a series debut on the Viacom-owned network. After factoring in showings later in the night, the series amassed an opening-day audience of 7.9 million viewers. The Hollywood Reporter (10/23)
CNN, which invented the cable news network more than two decades ago, will hit a new competitive low with its prime-time programs in October, finishing fourth – and last – among the cable news networks with the audience that all the networks rely on for their advertising. (NY Times 10/26)
Microsoft is backing out of its sponsorship off Fox‘s upcoming “Family Guy” comedy/variety special. The software giant planned to sponsor the show to tout its new Windows 7 operating system. The special’s content, Microsoft says, “was not a fit with the Windows brand.” (Iwantmedia 10/27, Variety10/26)
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Filed under: TECHNOLOGY | Tags: Amazon, Amazon.com, Kindle Reader, Macintosh, Microsoft Windows, Retailers, Shareware, Windows 7
Amazon’s Kindle software isn’t going to be limited to the e-reading device: following Amazon’s announcement at the Windows 7 launch that it has released a version of the Kindle Reader software for PCs (”Kindle for PC“), the company has also revealed that it’s building a Mac version of the software. Neither version requires that you own a Kindle in order to download books. (Mashable10/24)
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Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA | Tags: comScore, Facebook, Internet Explorer, Microsoft, Microsoft Windows, Twitter, Windows 7, Windows Vista
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
Microsoft has just pushed live its Release Candidate for Internet Explorer 8, the latest update to the world’s most widely used web browser. You can download it here
. Unfortunately the release is only for Windows Vista, XP, and Server – if you’re trying out Windows 7 you’ll have to wait for the next OS update to try out the RC. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/26/microsofts-ie8-release-candidate-is-live 1/26)
Twenty-four of this year’s Oscar-nominated films are already available in DVD quality on the Internet, according to independent programmer Andy Baio. This is the highest percentage of Oscar contenders to appear online since he began tracking them six years ago. (hIwantmedia 1/26, ttp://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10149360-93.html 1/23)
Twitter, which just recently turned down a half billion dollar acquisition offer from Facebook (albeit to be paid mostly with Facebook stock), is dipping back into the venture capital market, Techcrunch has heard from a source with knowledge of the deal. They’ve signed a term sheet with at least one venture fund to raise a new round at a $250 million valuation. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/24/twitter-raising-new-cash-at-250-million-valuation 1/24)
While 2008 was Twitter’s hockey-stick year, Twitter’s little brother FriendFeed is also beginning to show hockey-stick tendencies in its growth. According to comScore, FriendFeed attracted 950,000 unique visitors worldwide in December. That’s a tenfold increase since June, when comScore counted only 93,000 unique visitors worldwide (and nearly double since September, when it was 550,000). (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/25/friendfeed-hits-nearly-one-million-users-grew-tenfold-in-the-past-six-months 1/25)
After watching your share of this year’s Oscar nominees, you might find yourself following the time-honored tradition of renting every tangentially related film in the hopes of finding something else just as good. Type in Slumdog Millionaire or The Wrestler, and Netflix will offer up recommendations that are “more like this.” But if you are looking for quirkier recommendations, the kind that you’d find at your local independent video store, then head on over to Clerkdogs. The human-curated movie recommendation site has an OscarMatch feature that suggests 400 films similar to this year’s crop of Oscar nominees. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/26/clerkdogs-has-your-oscarmatch-quirky-movie-recommendations-you-wont-find-on-netflix 1/26)
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Filed under: Feature | Tags: Apple, Humor, MacBook, MacbookWheel, Onion, Operating system, Snow Leopard, Windows 7
SAY GOODBYE TO THE KEYBOARD: APPLE’S LESS IS MORE STRATEGY
I’ll buy anything if it’s shiny and made by Apple. I love The Onion. . .
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Filed under: TECHNOLOGY | Tags: Apple, CES, Microsoft, Microsoft Windows, Personal computer, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP
We’re going to be seeing a lot more touchscreen computers. One of the features of Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system is that it supports a multitouch user-interface (much like on the iPhone or a Tablet PC). To further the adoption of such touchscreen technology, Microsoft led a $24 million round
in Israeli startup N-trig. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/12/microsoft-leads-24-million-round-in-n-trig-to-bring-multitouch-to-pcs 1/12)
(Below) I got the chance to demo the HD 3D home theatre system last week and was fully blown away. I wasn’t so much a fan of the animation films in the format but sports of any kind comes alive in HD 3 dimensionally. You really need to see this one…
Panasonic introduced at CES its 3D Full HD Plasma Home Theater System, which is said to be the first-of-its-kind setup that depicts 3-D imagery that the company says is fully true to life. The system involves a 103-inch plasma HDTV from Panasonic and a Panasonic Blu-ray player that, together, deliver full HD images to the left and right eyes. Pocket-lint.co.uk (1/9)
With an eye toward the youth market, AT&T and Dell are selling an Inspiron Mini 9 laptop for $100 until Jan. 31 — including the $350 rebate — a Windows XP device embedded with connectivity to AT&T’s 3G network. Buyers must commit to a two-year service contract that costs $60 a month. RCR Wireless News (1/9)
(Below) I got to check out Eye-Fi at CES. Anything that makes it easier to transfer pictures from my camera to my computer is a very good thing. And with the iPhone application they also demoed at CES, they’re taking it to the next level. Too bad the only people able to have the iPhone app are those who own the Eye-Fi card. Blah….
For the second year in a row, Eye-Fi claimed the prize in the ninth annual Last Gadget Standing SuperSession sponsored by NetShelter, as determined by the crowd’s reception on Saturday. This year Eye-Fi demoed the new Eye-Fi Video Card, which allows users to wirelessly upload videos and share videos in real time, over the internet. The emWave Personal Stress Reliever, a portable biofeedback tool from HeartMath that helps users “reduce stress, balance emotions and increase performance,” won in an online vote at the Last Gadget Standing site. (Cynopsis 1/12)
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Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE | Tags: Circuit City, JVC, Microsoft, Microsoft Windows, New York Times, Operating system, Windows, Windows 7
TECHNOLOGY
Visits to Amazon.com rose 6% on Oct. 24, the day Oprah Winfey endorsed the online retailer’s Kindle e-reading device on her television show. A 6% bump can translate into hundreds of thousands of visitors. Also, the word “kindle” saw a 479% bump in search traffic that day. (Iwantmedia 11/3, http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=132194 11/3)
Television news outlets are “going all-out” for their Election Night coverage. CNN will employ a “virtual-reality Capitol” to track control of Congress, as well as a “holograph projection device” for interviews. Execs fear that viewers will turn away “if you do just traditional stuff.” (Iwantmedia 11/3, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081102/ap_en_tv/ap_on_tv_election_night 11/2)
With its Kirikabu speaker, JVC is going green … literally. The new device not only features multidirectional audio with a woofer and left- and right-channel stereo, its design also includes small bowllike planters for potted greenery. Pocket-lint.co.uk (10/31)
Microsoft is expected to report today that it has substantially improved security on its Windows operating system, but that computer threats via viruses and fraud have become more frequent and more pernicious. In its latest “Security Intelligence Report,” the company will report that the amount of harmful software removed from computers using Windows increased 43% in the first half of this year. The New York Times (11/3)
Consumer-electronics retailer Circuit City announced today that it will close 155 underperforming stores, exit select markets completely and trim its work force by 17%. “We are making a number of difficult, but necessary, decisions to address the company’s financial situation as quickly as possible,” said James A. Marcum, vice chairman and acting president and CEO of Circuit City. Richmond Times-Dispatch (Va.) (11/3) , Gizmodo (11/3)
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