Patent troll UltimatePointer, maker of the Upoint laser-pointer presentation remote, has sued Nintendo, GameStop, Best Buy and Sears over alleged patent infringement.
The company says it owns the patent for "Easily Deployable Interactive Direct-Pointing System and Presentation Control System and Calibration Method."
Nintendo "directly infringed the patent with the unauthorized selling of its Wii remote hardware," says the company.
The retailers, by association of selling the Wii remote, infringed as well, explains UltimatePointer.
While looking for monetary damages, the company also wants Nintendo to pay its court costs.
It is important to note that UltimatePointer's Upoint is currently vaporware, and is not even up for sale.
According to the Justice Department, U.S. carriers like AT&T and Verizon retain customer data, including texts, call records, billing records and cell towers used for at least one year.
As usual, AT&T is the biggest offender, keeping your data for up to 7 years.
Greg Nojeim, senior counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology in Washington, panned the carriers:
This disclosure reflects the importance of data minimization. Some companies do a much better job of disposing of sensitive, personally identifiable information. Once such information is no longer needed for business-reasons, it shouldn?t be held onto because of the risks that it could be obtained by a hacker.
Law enforcement agencies can obtain the documents via legal process but there is certainly no reason to keep records for 7 years.
Government sources have noted today that a highly anticipated $12 billion plan for Foxconn to produce iPads in Brazil is now seriously "in doubt" thanks to stagnant negotiations over tax breaks.
Additionally, Brazil apparently lacks skilled labor, say the sources.
Factories being hit with high taxes, an overvalued currency and lack of skilled factory workers has put the deal in complete jeopardy, however, and the proposed start date of November 5th is likely to be delayed indefinitely.
The talks have been very difficult, and the project for a Brazilian iPad is in doubt. (Foxconn) is making crazy demands [for tax breaks and other special treatment].
After expecting 7.5 percent economic growth this year, that expectation has been dropped to 3.5 percent, placing the country firmly last in the BRICS group and towards the bottom of all South American nations.
Microsoft will bring in an estimated $444 million this year from extorting Android manufacturers, says Goldman Sachs, bringing in $3-6 per mobile device sold.
Android has a 40 percent global market share, while Microsoft's own Windows Phone 7 is only expected to take 4 percent.
For now, manufacturers pay $11 to license Windows Phone 7 so Microsoft will make significantly less money from their own platform than they will from Android, which they had no part in creating.
Despite the royalties Microsoft is demanding for alleged patent infringement, we see its legal battles as playing a lesser role in its overall mobile strategy as compared to its desire to strengthen the ecosystem for Windows Phone going forward.
HTC pays Microsoft $5 per device, and Velocity Micro, General Dynamics Itronix, Wistron, Acer, ViewSonic and Samsung have all signed similar licensing deals.
Read more...
According to Bloomberg, Microsoft will begin offering online pay TV service from both Comcast and Verizon via its Xbox Live platform.
The software giant is currently in talks with two dozen providers in the U.S. and Europe and could announce some deals as early as next week.
Outside of Verizon and Comcast; HBO, Crackle, Bravo, Syfy and Lovefilm are all expected to sign deals with Microsoft, as well.
It is unclear how the other services will work, but Comcast?s Xfinity TV and Verizon?s FiOS would require users to prove they already are pay-TV customers in regions where the services operate, likely with a simple account number-based authentication.
According to a new report, it appears that music piracy has consistently fallen since 2009, thanks to the popularity of Spotify, at least in Sweden.
Overall piracy has fallen 25 percent in two years, says the Swedish Music industry.
Spotify, which is free with some restrictions, has millions of tracks from all the major labels and independents. Premium versions give mobile access and unlimited streaming to users.
The recent Swedish study showed streaming as the preferred way to listen to music, with 40 percent of responders saying they now use a streaming service compared to just 10 percent who download music legally. 23 percent still regularly pirate, but that number has been dropping.
Says Music Sweden's CEO Elizabet Widlund (via Freak):
The long-term trend is a sharp increase in legal streaming while we see a reduction in illegal file sharing and downloading. When 800,000 Swedes are willing to pay for streaming music, there is clearly a market for more legal players in the digital music market. We encourage diversity of music services as it will provide better conditions for both those who create music and those who listen to it.
The latest rumor is that Apple is finally prepared to kill of their iPod Shuffle and Classic.
Says TUAW: "Obviously we can't divulge our source, but it is NOT an analyst."
Additionally, an updated iPod Touch will be coming later this year, say the sources.
There have been rumors of the iPod's demise for years now but this time they might be on to something. iPod sales now only account for 5 percent of Apple's net income, down from 10 percent in 2010, and overall sales are in continued decline (check the chart, via Time).
Furthermore, if Apple kills off the two models, the more expensive Nano and Touch will remain, which will boost income (or at least keep it steady for the time being).
The hardware maker has sent out invites for CTIA with the tagline "get a look at what's new from Android."
Youtube.com/android will be the home of the live streaming for the event, and Samsung is expected to announce some major products besides the Nexus Prime.
The Prime is expected to be similar to the Galaxy S II (spec-wise) but there are still likely surprises waiting.
The broadcast begins at 11:30 AM PST and we will have a report as it streams.
The software update is being rolled out as we speak.
7.5 Mango should finally turn Windows Phone into actual smartphone contenders, following a botched launch and a botched "noDo" update that actually bricked some devices.
Mango brings 500 new changes, fixes and updates.
PCW has a great list (they have been using for 30 days):
Messaging Threads: Within a messaging exchange between you and another party, you can switch the messaging platform on the fly. You can start off instant messaging, switch to SMS texting, then jump over to Facebook messaging all within one message thread.
Group Contacts: With "Mango" you can create groups of contacts like "Family", or "Softball Team". You can filter incoming messages in the People Hub using the groups, and you can use the Group as a contact for outbound messages if you want to send an email or text message to the whole group.
Local Scout: The Maps app in "Mango" has a new tool called Local Scout that identifies places nearby to eat or drink, tourist sites and things to do, and places to shop. You can also use it to plan a trip by finding where you're going to travel on the Maps app ahead of time and then using Local Scout to discover what's near there.
Read more...
Amazon has embarked on a voyage to control the entire e-reader market.
The company has unveiled the Kindle Touch e-reader for $99, a full $40 cheaper than Barnes & Noble's popular Nook Simple.
If you want the 3G data version of it, the cost is $150.
Additionally, Amazon has set a new low price for e-readers with its latest E-ink Kindle, which is "small enough to fit in your back pocket" and will cost just $79.
The smaller device is "75 percent lighter" than current Kindles, says CEO Jeff Bezos.
Both are available today, although they have not shown up on Amazon just yet.
Amazon has unveiled their long-awaited tablet offering this morning, the $200 Kindle Fire.
The device will be 7-inches and run on Android but will remove some functionality seen on rival tablets like the iPad.
Offering Wi-Fi but no 3G, the device also removes a camera and a mic, in an effort to cut down costs. Despite its smaller size, the display is impressive IPS with Gorilla Glass.
The Kindle Fire will have its own new mobile browser dubbed Amazon Silk. The browser is ?cloud-accelerated? and uses Amazon's EC2 to turn 100 millisecond waiting times into 5.
Additionally, all buyers get a 30-day free trial to Amazon Prime, and access to free TV and movie streaming along with the usual free two-day shipping and discounted 1 day shipping.
As expected, Amazon has closely integrated their ecosystem of services into the Android operating system make it very easy for users to find music, movies and magazines. Cloud access, via the Cloud Drive and Cloud Reader, are also one-click away.
For the next 24 hours, 1SaleaDay has the BlackBerry Playbook tablet on sale for $300, down from its MSRP of $500.
The model available is the smaller 16GB version, but this is still the cheapest the tablet has been and likely a sign that an across-the-board cut is coming in the near future.
RIM sold 500,000 PlayBooks in its first quarter of availability but sales have dried up now, with the company only moving 200,000 last quarter.
The PlayBook features the standard 1GHz dual-core processor and 1GB RAM but its real differentiating factor is its Internet experience. The browser has support for Adobe Flash, Adobe AIR, and HMTL 5.
Additionally, the PlayBook has a 7-inch screen, 1024x600 resolution, dual cameras, a microHDMI port and the BlackBerry App World, which has thousands of apps.
The main reason the tablet has been universally hated is the fact that RIM botched the software launch so badly there was not even a native email client.
Apple has lost in its bid to trademark the term "multi-touch" in the United States.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office says the term cannot be trademarked because it is simply a way of describing how users interact with their products.
Thus, from the foregoing, we find that 'multi-touch' not only identifies the technology, but also describes how a user of the goods operates the device. Based on the evidence discussed above, as well as other evidence in the record, we agree with the examining attorney that Multi-Touch indeed is highly descriptive of a feature of the identified goods.
Continuing on, the filing says that Apple's "evidence" was really just showing off how they marketed the iPhone:
Thus, applicant's evidence pertaining to the success, sales volumes and, to a limited extent, advertising expenditures of the iPhone, is not helpful in establishing that the purchasing public associates the term Multi-Touch with applicant.
Despite falling to around 74 percent earlier this year, the iPad has regained its 80 percent tablet market share in the North American region as of July 30th.
During the quarter of April to July, iPads accounted for 6 million of the 7.5 million tablets shipped in the U.S. and Canada.
The figures come from research group Strategy Analytics, who calls Apple a "formidable market leader".
Says one analyst: "Apple remains a long way ahead of its main rivals such as Motorola, Samsung, RIM, Asus and HTC. A combination of cool branding, user-friendly hardware, entertaining services and savvy retail distribution has made Apple a formidable market leader."
Amazon, when it announces its much-hyped tablet/e-reader on Wednesday, will become a strong challenger, says the firm:
T-Mobile has showed off their new devices at the GigaOM Mobilize event in San Francisco this week.
The Galaxy S II and HTC Amaze 4G will be the first T-Mobile devices to have support for the company's very fast 42 Mbps HSPA+ mobile broadband network. T-Mobile's current devices have support only up to 21 Mbps.
Upgrading the network has been a priority at T-Mobile, and the CMO says "75 percent of the phones T-Mobile sells this year will be smartphones, and of those, 90 percent are Android."
The Galaxy S II will be identical to models released on rival carriers (in appearance), except much better. The device will the 42 Mbps radio, a larger, 4.52-inch Super AMOLED Plus display, a more powerful 1.5 GHz dual-core processor and NFC.
HTC's Amaze 4G comes with Sense 3.0 on top of Android 2.3.5, a 4.3-inch qHD (960×540 resolution) Super LCD screen, a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, the 42 Mbps radio and a 8MP wide aperture f/2.2 camera.
The iPhone 5 will be revealed at Apple's Cupertino headquarters on October 4th.
Press has been sent invitations with the headline "Let's talk iPhone" for the event at 1pm.
Although it is unclear when the phone will actually be released, Apple has blacked out vacation days for employees for October 9-15, indicating that a major product launch will be in that time period.
Updated specs for the phone are likely to be an A5 dual-core processor, an 8MP camera, mobile payments (NFC?), a slightly larger display and more memory.
Verizon and AT&T will be getting the smartphone, but there has been massive speculation that Sprint is getting the device, as well.
HTC has unveiled its Raider smartphone today in South Korea.
The new flagship Android device runs on Android 2.3.6, Sense 3.5 UI, a large 4.5-inch qHD (960 x 540) IPS touchscreen, a dual-core 1.5GHz processor and 1GB RAM.
Making the phone even more notable, the device has 100 Mbps LTE support and 21 Mbps HSPA+.
Additionally, the device is 128.8 x 67 x 11.27 mm, has 16GB of internal storage, an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera with dual LED flash, a front 1.3MP camera, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0, GPS, and a 1,620 mAh battery.
Toshiba has announced today that its Canvio line of external HDDs will be given a cloud storage backup service as an option.
Furthermore, the Canvio Basics and Canvio 3.0 lines have been updated to add support for 6 Gbs USB 3.0. The other lines remain on the 480 Mbps USB 2.0 standard.
BackupNow EZ is based on Microsoft Azure tech and allows for single file, folder or file system backup.
Says Toshiba:
All the consumer has to do is click, 'OK.' It's a complete system backup to the hard drive, including the OS. And, it's a bootable drive so if your computer breaks down, you can boot to drive and select a point and time and when to restart and your computer puts everything back.
Adding to its ever-increasing Prime catalog, Amazon has added a new streaming licensing agreement with FOX.
The new deal will bump Amazon's library from 9000 movies and TV shows to 11,000, starting this fall.
TV shows being added are “24,” “The X-Files,” “NYPD Blue,” “Arrested Development,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Ally McBeal,” and some older movies like “Speed,” “Mrs. Doubtfire,” “Doctor Dolittle,” “Last of the Mohicans,” and “Office Space.”
Concludes Amazon:
We have received very positive feedback from Prime members about Prime instant videos. Customers love the instant access to thousands of movie and TV favorites. Since the launch of Prime instant videos in February, we have more than doubled the library to 11,000 titles and will continue to add more of our customers’ favorite movies and TV shows to Prime instant videos.
Amazon Prime costs $79 per year and gives user free access to the streaming library and free 2-day shipping on all items.
According to JPMorgan Chase, Apple has cut down orders to vendors in the supply chain for its iPad.
Analyst Mark Moskowitz says orders have been cut by 25 percent and it is the first cut in the history of the iPad.
Despite the drop, the analyst did not lower his projection of 10.9 million to 12 million units of iPad shipments in the third and fourth quarters.
Apple and the manufacturers have not confirmed the move, but the analyst cites weakening demand in Europe as the cause. As the media continuously reminds us, Europe has been having economic issues.
According to multiple sources, Apple will announce the iPhone 5, at its headquarters in Cupertino on October 4th.
The headquarters is where Apple has chosen to launch all their iPhones and iPad devices, to date.
Although it is unclear when the phone will actually be released, Apple has blacked out vacation days for employees for October 9-15, indicating that a major product launch will be in that time period.
Updated specs for the phone are likely to be an A5 dual-core processor, an 8MP camera, mobile payments (NFC?), a slightly larger display and more memory.
Verizon and AT&T will be getting the smartphone, but there has been massive speculation that Sprint is getting the device, as well.
The latest rumor is that Barnes & Noble is preparing to launch a new tablet by the end of the year.
Following in the footsteps of the Nook Color e-reader/tablet, the book company will release the Nook Acclaim for $350, making it a more fully featured tablet than the Color.
Prices for the Nook Simple Touch ($140) and the Nook Color ($250) will stay the same, giving B&N three devices in its line.
There was no word on specs, but an October release date was cited.
The device could be a response to Amazon's imminent tablet, which will likely retail for under $250 and be a strong competitor to the market leading iPad.
Netflix has signed a new licensing deal to stream films from DreamWorks Animation, the hit studio behind animated film franchises like "Shrek."
The deal will replace a current (but less lucrative) deal DWA has with HBO.
DreamWorks is said to be making $30 million per picture over a specific time period (likely 3-5 years).
Says DWA CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg:
We are really starting to see a long-term road map of where the industry is headed. This is a game-changing deal.
Notes Netflix CCO Ted Sarandos:
You’re seeing power moving back into the hands of content creators. When a company like DreamWorks ends a long-running pay TV deal — when a new buyer in the space steps up — that’s a really interesting landscape shift.
While the deal is already signed, Netflix will only begin streaming the films in 2013. Movies like Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, Antz and more will be added over time. In 2013, DWA has three titles set for release, “The Croods,” “Turbo,” and “Peabody & Sherman,”
The Galaxy S II has seen a massive uptick in sales the last two months, after launching in April in Korea.
Samsung's new device has a 4.27-inch WVGA Super AMOLED Plus touchscreen, Android 2.3.4, a 1.2GHz Samsung dual-core processor, an 8.49mm thin chassis (at lowest), an 8MP camera with autofocus and 1080p recording, NFC support, 4G, a 2MP front-side camera and HSPA+, WiFi a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 3.0+HS.
Furthermore, the device will run on Samsung's updated TouchWiz UI and weighs just 4 ounces.
So far, in the U.S., the device has only been available through Sprint since the 16th, and will hit T-Mobile and AT&T next month.
AT&T has said today it has restored cell service for most of the users in Southern California that experienced an outage yesterday and today.
Starting at 3pm yesterday, customers lost service completely or at least had difficulty making/receiving calls. Data and texts were not affected.
Sokeswoman Meredith Red says (via PCM) the downtime was due to a hardware equipment problem, a mechanical issue with the switching equipment that routes calls through the network.
900 towers around LA County were affected but service is now mostly restored.
Red says the "handful of towers" left will be up and running by the end of the night.
Facebook and security firm Sophos have warned visitors of a new hoax affecting millions of Facebook users.
The scam, which is a message that purports Facebook may begin charging a '$10 Gold Membership' if you don't forward the message before midnight, has been sent to million of users duped into sharing it with their friends.
It’s amazing what people will believe when they are sent a message from a trusted friend - but let me assure you, Facebook is *not* going to ask you for your payment when you sign onto the site tomorrow morning. And no, the announcement of Facebook beginning to charge its users has *not* been on the news.
As I explained at the end of last week, these claims are complete and utter poppycock. If a friend of yours forwards you the message, admonish them for spreading a chain letter and suggest they inform all of their friends that they were mistaken.
The message concludes with: "IF YOU COPY AND PASTE THIS MESSAGE BEFORE MIDNIGHT TONIGHT," you will not be charged in the future.
4.3-inch 960 x 540 qHD Super AMOLED display
Unspecified dual-core 1.2GHz processor
8 megapixel camera with 1080p video recording and image stabilization
“HD” front-facing camera
1GB of RAM Gorilla Glass and a Kevlar casing with a splash-guard coating
Webtop support and Lapdock accessories
4G LTE
The most popular torrent client in the world has now been opened up to new markets.
uTorrent, which has 100 million active users per month and a 50 percent market share, has now been updated to integrate iOS, PS3, Xbox 360 and Android devices.
Users can now use the client to sync all downloaded content to their devices with one click.
Later this year, if you purchase the premium version of the client (uTorrent Plus), you will be able to convert videos and audio to the most compatible file type for your device. For example, MKV files will be converted to MP4 for PS3 users that cannot play MKV.
It’s really cool! Readers never have to leave their homes. They’ll have three weeks to read the book before it electronically returns itself to the library — there are no late fees.
Ebooks had been available to other e-reader owners for years, but not for Kindle owners. Kindles remain the most popular e-readers on the market.
The library pays licensing fees for every digital copy they have of each book.
Library Pirate wants to help poor college kids with the outrageous prices of university textbooks.
The site's goal is: "Our mission is simple and specific. To revolutionize the digital e-textbook industry and change it permanently."
Library Pirate, which runs on a "Hire-a-Pirate" initiative, lets users reduce the cost of digital textbook rentals and also keep that textbook forever, via the stripping of DRM.
First, the student lets LibraryPirate know the title of the book they’re looking for. Then, site staff locate the product on eTextbook rental services and advise the student of the current rental price. An example shown to us was a book costing $200, but with a time-limited digital rental copy also available at $118.50.
Participating students are then asked to purchase a gift certificate from the official seller for the full amount ($118.50 in our example) and send the gift code to LibraryPirate. Site staff then rent the book on the student’s behalf.
HP's newly fired CEO Leo Apotheker gets to leave with a golden parachute.
Spending just 11 months on the job, Apotheker gets to walk away with $25 million in severance, in addition to his $1.2 million salary and $4 million signing bonus. The CEO made about $100,000 per day while losing the company $20 billion in market value.
The golden parachute will be $7 million in cash and $18 million in stock options that vest immediately and leave him in charge of 800,000 shares of HP.
Former CEO Mark Hurd, who was fired last year after a sex scandal, was given severance pay of $12.2 million and was eligible for up to $53 million but he instead took a job with Oracle.
The HP board of directors just signed former eBay CEO Meg Whitman on as new CEO.
If there was any more reason to believe that daily deal giant is not a viable company, the site has now restated its 2010 earnings, slashing previous revenue by 57 percent.
Additionally, the company announced its chief operating officer (COO) is leaving after just five months on the job.
"Correcting for an error in its presentation of revenue," the company restated revenue for 2010 from $713.4 million down to $312.9 million.
The company was set to go public next month but cancelled due to the market conditions.
Now, instead of reporting revenue as all the money total received (what the subscriber pays) from sales of Groupons it will only report the merchant fees it makes.
VIA Technologies has sued Apple over patent infringement.
The company designs low-power microprocessors and controllers.
HTC recently made similar claims, unsurprisingly since HTC and Via have worked together multiple times.
The complaint, filed with the ITC and the U.S. district court, claims that all Apple devices using iOS and the A4/A5 processors are infringing on 'microprocessor functionality, namely “method and apparatus for double operand load” (6253312) and “instruction set for bi-directional conversion and transfer of integer and floating point data” (6253311 and 6754810),' said Xbit.
Adds Via:
Via has built up an extensive IP portfolio consisting of over 5000 patents as a result of significant investments in world class technology research and development. We are determined to protect our interests and the interests of our stockholders when our patents are infringed upon.
Thanks to Facebook, you no longer need an invitation to join the popular streaming music service.
CEO Daniel Ek announced that users can now log in with their Facebook accounts and have access to the free streaming music service.
As with other free users, the first 6 months are unlimited but are then reduced to 10 hours of music per month afterwards, unless of course, you upgrade to the premium subscriptions.
The first premium sub is $5 per month for unlimited ad-free music while the second, more popular option costs $10 and gives access to higher quality tracks, mobile access (tablet, phone, etc) and offline listening capabilities.
Facebook, at their F8 developer conference yesterday announced deals with multiple music-streaming service, bringing music "discovery" to the social network.
The Justice Department has confirmed that the FBI has arrested two alleged members of LulzSec and Anonymous.
A third suspect, has had charges secured and an arrest is forthcoming.
Additionally, search warrants were being executed in more cases.
Cody Kretsinger, 23, Christopher Doyon, 47 and Joshua Covelli, 26 were each indicted. Kretsinger was charged with conspiracy and the unauthorized impairment of a protected computer while the others were charged with conspiracy to cause intentional damage to a protected computer, causing intentional damage to a protected computer and aiding and abetting.
Kretsinger, known as "recursion," is said to have been a former member of LulzSec, and is accused of hacking Sony Pictures Entertainment earlier this year via SQL injection.
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has confirmed today at the Facebook F8 developer conference that the company's services will be integrated into the social network, except for in the U.S. where it is illegal due to law.
After logging into Facebook, users can see what movies or TV shows their friends have been streaming and watch right from their browser within Facebook via an overlay player.
Hastings says the services will be integrated in 44 countries, but the U.S.' Video Privacy Protection Act, passed in the 80s, does not allow the integration to happen here in the U.S.
Netflix currently has 23 million subscribers, with most in the U.S., making the new deal pretty useless.
Hastings says the VPPA is currently being reviewed and could be amended soon.
Wedbush Securities, in a report to clients today, says Amazon could be ready to purchase Netflix and become the market leader in the streaming business.
Says the client note:
Upon reflection, it appears to us that the driver for the separation of Netflix into two businesses—Netflix.com (for streaming) and Qwikster.com (for DVD rentals—was to position the streaming business for sale to Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN)...In our view, Amazon has always wanted to be in the streaming business, and has been constrained from buying Netflix due to tax considerations.
"We arrive at our $155 price target through a sum-of-the-parts valuation analysis that values the Netflix streaming business at $130/share, and the Qwikster physical DVD rental business at $25/share. For Netflix streaming, we have assigned a 24x P/E multiple to our 2012 diluted EPS estimate of $3.63, plus an additional 50% premium should Amazon acquire it. For Qwikster, we have assigned a 14x P/E multiple to our 2012 diluted EPS estimate of $1.75. This multiple is roughly in-line with its primary DVD rental competitor, Coinstar.
Kara Swisher has reported today that former eBay CEO Meg Whitman will be named the new CEO of HP.
Current CEO Leo Apotheker will be fired after just 11 months on the job.
As reported yesterday, in his 11 months on the job, Apotheker has lost HP $20 billion in market value while slashing sales forecasts three times.
Apotheker, who had a failed stint as CEO of software giant SAP, has recently purchased Autonomy for $10 billion, a move that has been completely criticized by all shareholders due to its huge price tag. The CEO also shut down webOS and firesaled their tablets at $99, just a few months after the company's acquisition of the mobile OS from Palm.
Sources say Whitman will be hired for the long-term, not just an interim position as speculated.
Says one source:
Meg is not someone who wants to be a steward of a process to find another CEO for HP. She wants to run the company and be a strong leader for what she considers an important tech powerhouse.
OnStar, the service that allows connected drivers to call live operators in case of emergency or even for directions, has recently changed its ToS and has come under fire.
Beginning later this year, OnStar will continue collecting data from users who have discontinued their service, unless they specifically call in and say they want the connection severed.
Speed, location, and other GPS data will remain collected, even if you don't pay for the service anymore.
Adding to concerns is the fact that the ToS says the data collected can be shared with or sold to third parties for any purpose, as long as personal identifiers are removed.
GM, the owners of OnStar, say leaving the connection on will let it send car owners updated warranties, recall data or warn of dangerous weather conditions.
YouTube has announced today that their 3D video conversion tools are now live, after months of testing.
You can now convert your standard 2D videos into 3D, although you will still need a 3D glasses-free display (or a display + glasses) if you want to truly enjoy the new videos.
Furthermore, the company says they have removed the 15 minute video limit as long as you are a verified user.
The company is quick to note that the video will not be as good of quality as video caught properly with 3D capable cameras. The software simply "measures the motion and color of a single video to simulate depth and hobble together a hacky, 3D-ish video," says TC.
Finally, YouTube rounded out their announcements confirming a video editing partnership with Magistro and an effects partnership with Vlix.
Yesterday, 100 House Republicans signed a letter that urged the current administration to end the DOJ lawsuit and let AT&T purchase T-Mobile for $39 billion.
Today, Bloomberg is reporting that 99 of those 100 reps have received political donations from AT&T since 2009, raking in a total of $963,275.
Earlier this month, surprisingly, AT&T's bid to buy the rival carrier was blocked by a DOJ lawsuit which calls the acquisition anti-competitive.
Additionally, the DOJ has said that blocking the deal will help save jobs in the U.S.
If successfully blocked, AT&T will have to pay a huge breakup fee of $3 billion to Deutsche Telekom (TMo's parent company) as well as $4 billion worth of wireless spectrum.
Presidential candidate Rick Santorum has accused Google of discrimination today, thanks to the "graphic sexual term" that accompanies his name in Google searches.
In fact, if you type in "Santorum" into Google, the first result will give you this description (possible NSFW):
Santorum 1. The frothy mix of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex. 2. Senator Rick Santorum.
I suspect if something was up there like that about Joe Biden, they'd get rid of it. If you're a responsible business, you don't let things like that happen in your business that have an impact on the country.
To have a business allow that type of filth to be purveyed through their website or through their system is something that they say they can't handle but I suspect that's not true.
The search term, and the sex act, was started by gay rights activist Dan Savage in 2003, following Santorum's mild anti-gay comments and position against same-sex marriage.
The carrier says the highly anticipated Android superphone will be released on October 2nd for $200 with contract.
Sprint has already launched their version of the phone, and T-Mobile's is expected next week.
Samsung's new device has a 4.27-inch WVGA Super AMOLED Plus touchscreen, Android 2.3.4, a 1.2GHz Samsung dual-core processor, an 8.49mm thin chassis (at lowest), an 8MP camera with autofocus and 1080p recording, NFC support, 4G, a 2MP front-side camera and HSPA+, WiFi a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 3.0+HS.
Furthermore, the device will run on Samsung's updated TouchWiz UI and weighs just 4 ounces.
After just one year on the job, it appears the board of HP is about ready to fire the CEO Leo Apotheker.
In one possible scenario, Apotheker would be replaced by former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, likely in an interim situation.
The current CEO has only had 11 months on the job and has lost HP $20 billion in market value while slashing sales forecasts three times.
Following the news of the board's possible decision, the HP stock jumped 8 percent, with investors clearly happy with the news.
Apotheker, who had a failed stint as CEO of software giant SAP, has recently purchased Autonomy for $10 billion, a move that has been completely criticized by all shareholders due to its huge price tag. The CEO also shut down webOS and firesaled their tablets at $99, just a few months after the company's acquisition of the mobile OS from Palm.
GameFly, the current market leader in video game rentals-by-mail, has responded to Netflix's recent decision to split its streaming and DVD services and add video game rentals to its new by-mail platform, Qwikster.
GameFly has expanded steadily over the past nine years by focusing exclusively on video gamers. We are the only retailer offering games physically and digitally for both rental and purchase.
Gamers can try before they buy, choosing from new releases and classic titles that span the last decade. GameFly has more than 8000 games for 10 console and handheld systems to choose from, and over 1500 Windows/Mac games are available for download.
Concluding their statement:
GameFly is the leading video game rental service, and we have continued to grow even as Blockbuster and Redbox increased their investment in console games.
Finally, GameFly is ready to launch their own digital distribution platform, which will give users a chance to play "unlimited PC games."
Google has announced today that their social network Google+ is now available to all, and no longer in invite-only beta.
Additionally, the popular "Hangouts" feature is now available on mobile devices.
Hangouts for the web has also been updated with the ability to screen-share and the ability to name your Hangouts.
Furthermore, Hangouts on Air is now a possibility, allowing users to make public broadcasts that others can tune in to.
The first broadcaster will Black Eyed Pea's Will.i.am.
Finally, there is also improved SMS support, better +mentions and +1'ing comments and one of the big things is that Huddle has now been renamed as Messenger, says TechRadar.
T-Mobile’s Chief Marketing Officer Cole Broadman has noted today that there will be no iPhone 5 on the carrier, at least not this year.
At an internal company event the CMO is quoted as saying"we are not going to get the iPhone 5 this year."
There was no other word on why the carrier would not be getting the device, but the likely culprit is AT&T's pending purchase of the carrier for $39 billion.
Apple is expected to launch the device on October 15th around the globe including on Verizon, Sprint and AT&T in the States.
Just a month after announcing the end of webOS hardware, HP has begun laying off employees in the division.
AllThingsD says the company will lay off up to 525 employees this week.
HP would not admit the number but did confirm that the layoffs had begun.
Added the company:
As communicated on August 18, HP will discontinue the development of webOs devices within the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2011, which ends Oct. 31, 2011. As part of this decision, the webOS GBU is undergoing a reduction in workforce. Today’s actions are part of this initiative.
During this time, we stand by our commitment to our webOS customers and will work to ensure that support and service for customers are not adversely affected. HP is exploring ways to leverage webOS software.
Rovio Entertainment, the company behind the blockbuster franchise 'Angry Birds' has confirmed today that they are working on partnerships with B&N and Starbucks in an effort to sell a broader range of products.
For Starbucks, Rovio will have in-store promotions, such as electronic leader boards or the ability to buy special virtual goods.
For Barnes & Noble, the company already has electronic leader boards but wants to add books and stuffed animals.
Says Rovio:
It’s tying in the real world with the virtual world. Retailers get new customers who’ve not been to their stores yet, and repeat customers. However, while we are always looking for great partnerships to better meet the needs of our customers, at this time we have no announcements regarding any work with Rovio Entertainment.
Angry Birds has been downloaded 350 million times to mobile devices.
In a press statement, the company says their VOD catalog is now at 30,000 monthly titles, half of which are free.
The service is available to customers of the company's FiOS TV offering.
Additionally, the cable company says subscribers can rent/watch 4000 movies and TV episodes on their PC, mobile or HDTV with "Flex View."
Finally, Verizon says it will become the first cable operator to offer VOD rentals with a 48-hour window. All other companies only offer 24 hours for rentals.
Dish and Blockbuster are expected to announce their new streaming service this week, taking advantage of the recent weakness in market leader Netflix.
At launch, the service will only be for Dish subscribers, but is expected to have a wide release later this year.
Calling it "the most comprehensive home entertainment package ever," Dish will unveil the details on Friday.
Blockbuster, which was saved from death earlier this year by Dish, has come back leaner in the brick-and-mortar business but stronger in its online presence with a DVD-by-mail service and a VOD service.
Although unconfirmed, there are reports that the new offering could include Starz content. Netflix will lose its Starz content in February when a four-year deal runs out.
Last week, while showing off their upcoming Windows 8 operating system, Microsoft dropped a bombshell, explaining that HTML5 "Metro-style apps" for Windows 8 would be "plug-in free."
Rather than using plug-ins like Silverlight to render content on web pages, it will rely on HTML5, said Microsoft. This is similar to the approach taken by Apple for Mobile Safari on the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad.
Today, Adobe has said that Flash will be the exception to rule, due to Adobe AIR.
Adobe is about enabling content publishers and developers to deliver the richest experiences for their users, independent of technology, including HTML5 and Flash. We are working closely with Microsoft, Google, Apple and others in the HTML community to drive innovation in HTML5, to make it as rich as possible for delivering world-class content on the open Web and through App Stores.
Thanks to its second high-profile case in which an employee lost a prototype of an upcoming iPhone, Apple is hiring two new security personnel in an effort to fight theft of its product.
Additionally, the new personnel will be in charge of fighting against the growing amount of counterfeiting done of Apple products.
The two new "experienced professionals" will join the company that in the past has hired ex-FBI agents as well as intelligence and law enforcement vets to protect their investments.
One security consulting firm, TraceSecurity, says Apple's paranoia is at least warranted:
Corporate espionage, that’s big money. Billion-dollar money. The paranoia is justified. Whatever they’re trying to do, their competitors want to know. Everybody wants to know.
[It's] not really the thing that’s in the spotlight for us anymore….we shouldn’t be too surprised: it’s been around for 10 years, there aren’t too many operating systems that have been around with only a couple of revisions in 10 years in the market….the pace might be a little bit slower than it was before, just because the market has changed.
The company will continue to develop the Brew OS, but at a slower pace and only for low-end devices (feature phones).
Eventually, the operating system will be completely killed off, especially as the world transitions to smartphones.
Verizon has introduced their first sub-$100 LTE phone today, the Pantech Breakout.
That price point requires a 2-year contract and a minimum 2GB data tier plan, but at $99, the price is significantly cheaper than Verizon's other offerings (unless you do the Amazon promotion).
For specs, the Breakout runs on Gingerbread, has a 1 GHz single-core processor, a 4-inch touchscreen with 800×480 resolution, 720pHD video, Bluetooth 3.0, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, GPS, dual cameras, and of course, Verizon's 4G LTE.
In Verizon stores, the cheapest 4G devices you will find are likely the high-end Droid Charge and Thunderbolt, each which retail for $200-250 with contract.
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has posted a lengthy blog entry tonight, explaining the new service and apologizing to customers.
Qwikster is the name for the newly separated DVD-by-mail business, while the streaming service will remain with the name Netflix.
Says the CEO of the newly named service:
So we realized that streaming and DVD by mail are becoming two quite different businesses, with very different cost structures, different benefits that need to be marketed differently, and we need to let each grow and operate independently. It’s hard for me to write this after over 10 years of mailing DVDs with pride, but we think it is necessary and best: In a few weeks, we will rename our DVD by mail service to “Qwikster”.
We chose the name Qwikster because it refers to quick delivery. We will keep the name “Netflix” for streaming.
Qwikster will be the same website and DVD service that everyone is used to. It is just a new name, and DVD members will go to qwikster.com to access their DVD queues and choose movies. One improvement we will make at launch is to add a video games upgrade option, similar to our upgrade option for Blu-ray, for those who want to rent Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 games. Members have been asking for video games for many years, and now that DVD by mail has its own team, we are finally getting it done. Other improvements will follow. Another advantage of separate websites is simplicity for our members. Each website will be focused on just one thing (DVDs or streaming) and will be even easier to use. A negative of the renaming and separation is that the Qwikster.com and Netflix.com websites will not be integrated. So if you subscribe to both services, and if you need to change your credit card or email address, you would need to do it in two places. Similarly, if you rate or review a movie on Qwikster, it doesn’t show up on Netflix, and vice-versa.
Joel Tenenbaum, the graduate student who was convicted of illegally sharing 30 tracks via P2P has had his original massive damages verdict reinstated.
Tenenbaum was originally fined $675,000, but the fine was reduced to $67,500 last summer, after a judge deemed the original penalty unconstitutional and "excessive."
Seeking an even further reduction, Tenenbaum has been rejected, and his initial reduction has also been reversed back to $675,000.
DigitalTrends explains that the main issue the appeals court had with the original reduction was that the ruling Judge "jumped over other procedures and went directly to the constitutional argument."
In a perfect world, Judges should "exhaust all other options for jumping to the Constitution for support."
According to the WSJ, Yahoo continues to be contacted by potential bidders that are interested in purchasing the company or at least taking a large stake.
Private equity firm Silver Lake Partners is said to be very interested, although Yahoo has not yet met with them.
Peter Chernin, the former COO of New Corp and current owner of Chernin Entertainment has also had discussions with the company, but those talks are still in the early stage.
Chernin is also talking to private-equity firm Providence Equity Partners to be part of the deal.
Yahoo is worth around $18 billion, currently, but around 40 percent of the company's value is based in two long-term investments, their 35 percent stake in Yahoo Japan and their 40 percent stake in Alibaba. Most PE firms have noted they are not willing to purchase the company until those Asian stakes are sold or spun off, making Yahoo lighter and easier to purchase.
Verizon, as of their latest "Data Disclosure" FAQ dated September 15th, has confirmed they will begin throttling 3G users with unlimited data plans.
The new policy means users who hit over 2GB of mobile bandwidth per month will have their connection throttled, at least in high congestion areas (looking at you NYC and San Francisco), during high congestion times of the day.
As of August, Verizon says the top 5% of subscribers used over 2GB, so it says the new policy will not affect the vast majority. Some (very) quick calculations show there will around 2 million of Verizon's 106 million subscribers affected.
Verizon does note that 4G LTE is not affected (at least for the time being) so if you have a new fast 4G device, do not fret. (That is until Verizon gets enough 4G users and implements the same throttling).
The most notable user base to get screwed is likely the new iPhone 4 owners, who were given unlimited data with the phone's launch in February as a means to keep customers away from AT&T.
Amazon Wireless has launched a new promotion that will run until the 26th.
Reads the site:
Get a $50 Amazon.com Gift Card code when you purchase a Verizon phone or mobile broadband device with a new line of service between midnight PDT September 16, 2011, and 11:59 p.m. PDT September 26, 2011. Your code will be sent via e-mail on October 10, 2011. This offer is limited to one per customer. See complete terms and conditions at www.amazon.com/gc-legal.
The deal includes contract and off contract devices, and there are new and very expensive devices in the list. The newly released Droid Bionic 4G, as well as the Thunderbolt 4G and Incredible 2 4G are on the list and so is the Samsung SCH-LC11 4G Mobile Hotspot. Many of the phones are selling at $0.01.
Rovio general manager Andrew Stalbow announced the number this weekend.
Additionally, mobile gamers now play 300 million minutes of Angry Birds, collectively, on any given day.
Stalbow, who joined the company earlier this year after being a Fox Entertainment exec, wants to move the popular series from a game to a full multimedia franchise.
One of Stalbow's first deals was the "Rio" version of AB, where Rovio created a version of the game that included the birds of Rio (instead of the standard evil pigs) and had cross-promotion with the movie.
People in Hollywood are really surprised with the quick acceleration in the way consumers engage with entertainment on their mobile phones. There will be some interesting entertainment partnerships that will hopefully take what we had from [Angry Birds Rio] to a totally different level.
SanDisk has launched their latest and greatest memory cards aimed at mobile devices.
The company says mobile phone sales are expected to reach 1.7 billion by 2014, and pretty much all current devices have a microSD slot in addition to internal memory.
At 64GB, the memory cards will offer a huge amount of storage for a tiny footprint, but there is one catch. Because they are microSDXC, there are very little, if any devices that currently have compatible slots. The cards are not backwards compatible with microSDHC.
Says the press release:
SanDisk's new 64GB microSDXC card can double the capacity of even the most advanced smartphones and tablets. The UHS-based, high-capacity card features up to 30MB/sec4 transfer speeds and offers the Class 6 performance needed to captureFull HD videos. The card is compatible with any tablet or smartphone equipped with a microSDXC card slot.
Read more...
Apple's change to the store is effective as of this week.
According to Macworld, users who are forced to re-purchase their Mac apps will at least now be warned that they will be paying again for the pleasure to do so.
Says the new pop up warning:
[App name] is already installed and was not purchased from the Mac App Store
Do you want to buy [app name] again?
Many users, who prefer to purchase the app from the developer directly than through Apple as a middle man, were shocked when it was revealed the Mac Store does not allow them to integrate their newly purchased apps without a repurchase directly from the store.
As a note, if you have an older version of the app, the warning will not be triggered and you may purchase the app again without even knowing you had already installed.
According to sources close to the process, Hulu's auction to sell it off could be in serious jeopardy.
There are complications over digital rights, say the sources, as well as a huge bid-ask gap between bidders and Hulu.
Furthermore, Yahoo in the midst of firing its CEO and restructuring, is likely out of the running for the time being. They were a top choice for the auction.
During his company's Q3 earnings last month, News Corp (one of the studios behind Hulu) even acknowledged that the sale may not even happen this year, says Reuters.
There is a new round of bids upcoming this week, and will be the catalyst as to whether the auction moved forward at all.
Current bids have ranged from $500 million to $2 billion coming from giants like DirecTV, Google, Amazon, Yahoo and DISH. All bids, so far, have had complications, either in price or licensing agreements. The main issue at hand is how long exclusive rights will be given to the new owner. Hulu has stayed steadfast on 2 years, while the bidders want 3-5.
The EU has extended the copyright terms for music to 70 years from the current 50 years, just months before the first Beatles albums would have entered the public domain.
Critics, most notably the Open Rights Group (via TF) were majorly disappointed by the decision:
Research showed that around 90% of the cash windfall from copyright levies will fall into the hands of record labels. Despite the rhetoric, small artists will gain very little from this, while our cultural heritage takes a massive blow by denying us full access to these recordings for another generation.
There were some notable voters against the plan, including the Belgian, Czech, Dutch, Luxembourg, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian and Swedish delegations.
Earlier this year, following a year-long investigation, the U.S. DEA arrested and indicted 46-year-old rap music manager James Rosemond on 18 felony charges of leading a narcotics rings that smuggled cocaine across the U.S. in musician's "road cases."
Today, the Smoking Gun is reporting that members of the ring arranged pickups and deliveries at the offices of Interscope Records, a noted RIAA label.
Prosecutors have provided shipping records for deliveries made at Interscope Record's LA office from a cargo company that transported music cases that had their contents replaced with cocaine and up to $1 million in cash.
Additionally, there were pickups and deliveries at a recording studio on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
Video sharing giant YouTube has announced the addition of in-video editing tools.
The new tools will allow users to edit their clips without needing third-party software or ever having to leave the site.
YouTube says the new tools will allow for cutting of frames, changes the in the soundtrack music, stabilization or rotation of the video, modification of contrast and colors and the ability to add new effects.
When edited, the video remains at the same URL with the same ID, so you don't lose any views/favorites, etc.
For $475 you can get the 16GB model and for an extra $100 you can jump up to 32GB.
The Slider runs on a Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core processor, has a 10.1-inch (1280 x 800) LED-backlit touchscreen, a full QWERTY keypad, 1GB RAM, dual cameras (5MP and 1.2MP), GPS, a G-sensor, an e-compass, an ambient light sensor, a microSD card slot, an USB 2.0 port, and a mini HDMI output.
Finally, the tablets run on Android 3.2 Honeycomb and will be upgradeable to Ice Cream Sandwich in the future.
The makers of the BlackBerry line of smartphones are seeing their stock down 18 percent today, following another quarter of weak sales.
Income fell to $414 million USD from $904 million last quarter and revenue fell to $4.2 billion, at the very bottom of where the company guided down to just 3 months ago.
Shipments of new BlackBerrys were down to 10.6 million, well below the 12 million expected, thanks to "lower than expected demand for older models," said RIM co-chief executive Jim Balsillie.
Sales of the PlayBook tablet were down to 200,000 for the quarter from a strong 500,000 in the first quarter of availability, mainly thanks to missing features promised at launch, like a native email client.
RIM just released the latest BlackBerry 7 phones, the last of the line before the company moves to the better QNX platform seen on the PlayBook.
Today, the CEO of France Telecom Stéphane Richard has let slip that the iPhone 5 is coming on October 15th.
While Apple has not even yet confirmed its existence, the upcoming iPhone is expected by the entire world sometime in the next 45 days.
Says the CEO:
If we believe what we have been told, the iPhone 5 will be released on 15 October
The executive is given weight in his opinion due to his position and the fact that he accurately announced in May that Apple was considering moving to a new, smaller SIM card standard before Apple announced it.
Samsung's former manager Suk-Hoo Hwang, fired in 2011 for his part in insider trading, has testified today against James Fleishman, the former vice president at expert-network firm Primary Global.
The manager revealed some details about how he leaked information about iPad shipments to the hedge fund manager months before Apple even announced it.
Hwang was given immunity from trial for his testimony.
In December 2009, Hwang met with the fund manager and explained that Samsung was supplying screens for an upcoming Apple tablet, and a lot of them too. The fund manager had been "very excited" by the news, adds Hwang.
During the convo, Hwang notes that he saw a man sitting near them staring and listening and figured it could have potentially been an Apple employee.
Within a month, Samsung lost a contract with Apple for a different product and in June of this year, the FBI approached Hwang looking for info into the insider trading. The former manager was then fired by Samsung.
Qualcomm has shown off their latest mobile processor roadmap, and it appears your phones are going to get a lot more powerful, and soon.
Snapdragon processors, seen in a majority of today's Android phones will soon see core speeds of 2.5GHz, 67 percent faster than the current leader in the market, the dual-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon seen in the upcoming Sensation XE.
The "S4" chip, slated for launch in devices in February, will not only have quad-core at 2.5Ghz, but Adreno Graphics, 3D, 1080pHD, and 3G/LTE multimode as standard.
CEO Paul Jacobs says it is not all about speed however (via Lint):
It’s not about how many cores or how many gigabytes, it’s how well you can optimise the system.
Check the rest of the lineup in the picture below:
AoL, Microsoft and Yahoo have teamed up this week to compete better against search giant Google.
The three companies will begin selling ad inventory on each other's service/sites in an effort to increase their share of ad spending.
Each also hopes to get larger Web properties to share their ad inventory, as well.
For now, the deal is for "Class 2" display inventory (aka graphic ads that need to be handed over to ad networks to sell) but could be extended.
WSC explains that if, for example, "Microsoft were to receive a big order for a certain kind of ad impression, it would fill that order with its own inventory as well as with what’s available form its partners, AOL and Yahoo." The new partners would then share the revenue and take a larger cut than if a third-party had done it.
Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick reveals figures at this year's ThinkEquity Growth conference.
Zelnick says the blockbuster game has now shipped 22 million copies worldwide since its debut in early 2008.
While the figure is shipments and not sales it is hard to imagine there are too many unsold shipments for such an old game.
The chairman adds that they have now shipped 114 million units of the franchise. It is unclear whether those figures include GTA and GTA 2, which were released for the PlayStation 1.
Other hit games from RockStar (Take-Two) include Red Dead Redemption at 12.5 million shipped, the Max Payne series at 7.5 million and L.A. Noire at around 4 million.
Rumors have been flying around that Take-Two will launch GTA V next year.
Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata makes it clear the company will not get into the mobile games business.
Reiterating statements he has made in the past, Iwata, speaking at the Tokyo Game Show press conference, has said unequivocally that Nintendo will not begin making games for Android, iOS or other mobile platforms that aren't their own.
If we did this, Nintendo would cease to be Nintendo. Having a hardware development team in-house is a major strength. It’s the duty of management to make use of those strengths. It’s probably the correct decision in the sense that the moment we started to release games on smartphones we’d make profits. However, I believe my responsibility is not to short term profits, but to Nintendo’s mid and long term competitive strength.
MOG will be launching their own free streaming music service tomorrow, rivaling Spotify in the U.S.
Supported fully by ads, the service will be very similar to its rival, offering millions of on-demand tracks for free.
Differentiating itself, MOG will give users a "gas tank" with a certain number of free tracks they're allowed to play.
Once you empty your "tank" you will have to share playlists with friends on Twitter and Facebook and other social networks in order to get more free tracks. As long as you share MOG virally, you should have an infinite amount of free tracks.
Spotify, while completely free for now, will move to a 20 hours per month capped tier in the coming months. The 20 hours are replaced on the 1st of the month.
According to the FT, Facebook has pushed its IPO to the Q3 2012.
The IPO had been expected for April, with some analysts believing it could come as early as this November.
When the social networking giant goes public, it could have a market value upwards of $100 billion. Private valuations have placed the capitalization at as high as $80 billion, so far.
The source claims founder Mark Zuckerberg wants to keep Facebook's employees focused on the site and not on a potential payout, and therefore has pushed the IPO.
Zuckerberg himself will be filthy rich once the company IPOs, as he has a 24 percent stake.
Two tortured bodies were found hanging from a bridge in the city of Nuevo Laredo in northern Mexico this week.
The male and female are believed to be bloggers although the bodies have yet to be identified.
Next to the bodies were posters that read "this is going to happen to all of those posting funny things on the internet," and alluded that the bloggers had used social media to denounce crimes by the major drug cartels. Each of the posters was signed off with the letter Z, which authorities have taken to imply the "Los Zetas" cartel.
The cartel is known to be one of the most ruthless in the world, specializing in assassinations and beheadings in their native land.
These murders are the first directly related to social media but in total there were over 15,273 drug-related crimes in Mexico in 2010 and over 40,000 people have died in the country since 2006 in drug related violence.
Following years of bickering between the companies, U.S. prosecutors have opened a criminal case to investigate into whether eBay stole confidential information from Craigslist in an effort to start their own classifieds site.
In 2006, eBay bought a stake in Craigslist, and the company claims then used that stake to misappropriate confidential information before building its own rival classifieds site, Kijiji, in 2007.
The new subpoena is seeking info on eBay employees including founder Pierre Omidyar and former Skype CEO Joshua Silverman.
EBay believes that Craigslist's allegations against eBay are without merit. We will continue to vigorously defend ourselves, and we will aggressively pursue our claims against Craigslist.
eBay still has a 29 percent stake in the company and Board seats.
HTC has announced their new "multimedia superphone," the Sensation XE.
The smartphone has a 4.3-inch qHD S-LCD display, runs on a 1.5GHz dual-core processor (the most powerful we've seen yet for a phone), has integrated Beats Audio and Sense 3.5.
Additionally, the phone has 768 MB RAM and will run on Android 2.3.6, upgradeable to 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich in the future.
The Sensation XE is the first device with Beats Audio, the "high-end audio" company purchased by HTC in August. The device will ship with special Beats headphones.
Rounding out the specs, the XE has dual cameras, dual LED flash, quad-band GSM, dual-band 3G with HSPA support, Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth 3.0, FM radio, a standard 3.5mm audio jack, an MHL-enabled microUSB port and a microSD card slot if you need more storage.
Sony has said today that their highly-anticipated PlayStation Vita handheld will hit Japan on December 17th.
For 3G connectivity, Sony has selected NTT DoCoMo, and prices will be 980 yen ($13 USD) for 20 hours of prepaid time or 4,980 yen ($64 USD) for 100 hours.
Sony has also revealed the battery life of the console, which is horrendous, at just 3-5 hours (depending on usage) and recharge time takes a full 2:40 from 0% to 100%.
The Vita will run on an ARM Cortex A9 quad-core processor and be powered by a quad-core PowerVR SGX543MP4+ GPU.
Featuring a 5-inch capacitive multitouch OLED screen (with 16 million colors), the device will be 7.16 by 0.73 by 3.28 inches.
Despite rumors that Sony would skimp out on RAM, the Vita has 512MB memory and 128MB VRAM in its graphics processor.
Wes DeSoto, a Screen Actors Guild (SAG) member, has pleaded guilty to leaking a handful of DVD Screeners such as "Black Swan."
The actor has pleaded guilty to one count of criminal copyright-infringement and could now face up to 16 months in prison. The government prosecutors however, are seeking three years of probation and monetary restitution. The judge has also ruled that DeSoto can appeal if given over 10 months.
DeSoto's house was raided earlier this year after a number of high-quality DVD screeners were leaked online following their limited release to SAG members via iTunes. Thanks to digital watermarks, DeSoto was identified pretty quickly, say authorities.
While the MPAA and authorities believe DeSoto was responsible for the leaks The Fighter, The King’s Speech, 127 Hours and Rabbit Hole, the guilty count is for his release of Black Swan only.
Apparently Google only outbid itself in its frantic effort to purchase Motorola Mobility.
Last month the company shocked the world by purchasing Motorola Mobility (MMI) for $12.5 billion, in an effort to secure thousands of patents to protect itself on the Android front.
The news today, with the release of the acquisition proxy is that Google was ultimately forced to pay $10 more per share to acquire the company than its initial bid of $30/share.
Motorola, advised by Qatalyst Partners, rejected the offer despite their not being any other bidders or even word of anyone interested. Eventually the two parties settled on $40 per share.
Qatalyst may be the reason behind the huge bump in asking price, as they have, on 3 occasions in the last 12 months, forced buyers to pay up for the company they want. In one such case, Dell and HP began a bidding war for 3Par that led to a 91 percent premium over the initial bid.
Intel gets a boost in its efforts to break into the tablet and smartphone markets.
Google has announced today that upcoming versions of Android will be compatible with Intel processors. Currently Intel processors, as part of "Wintel," have only been compatible with Windows devices.
Says Intel of the big move:
We want to make Intel architecture the platform of choice for smartphones. Every time we have collaborated with Google, good things have come out of it.
With the news, Intel will finally become part of the smartphone mania that is currently dominated by Nvidia, Qualcomm and TI and designed by ARM.
Last month, "TabCo" was revealed to be Fusion Garage. FG created the unsuccessful "joojoo" tablet in 2009 which the CEO admits could not live up to the hype surrounding it.
The company launched the Grid10 at their TabCo event, calling the device such because it uses the new "Grid" OS. Grid is built from scratch on top of the Android kernel.
Today, CEO Chandra Rathakrishnan confirmed they will be delaying launch a few weeks but also, on the bright side, dumping the price massively to $299.
The price drop was a direct result of "lengthy negotiations with our supply chain partners," says the CEO.
Featuring a Tegra 2 processor, 1366x768 resolution, Grid 1.0 and 16GB the tablet uses a number of new features. Grid Desktop is syncing program and brings all content directly to the Grid10. Coolest feature shown off is the Grid homepage, which is one full page, not separate home pages for "Clusters" of apps (social, music, movies, business) etc. GridStore and Amazon Android store for apps, native email, gallery and more with split-screen capability in the browser. All of it looks very sleek, including movie playback.
A popular Samsung-focused tech blog seems to think so.
SamFirmware via their Twitter page have started the speculation that Samsung will dump Windows Phone 7 at the end of 2012. Says the tweet: "Samsung will support Windows phone till end 2012." (Excuse the grammar, they are from Amsterdam)
The site went on to say, "Samsung will check what the status is end next year. Samsung Will support till end 2012 for sure," leaving the conclusion open as to whether the company will continue support past next year.
Samsung currently has its own Bada operating system, available in Europe and Africa, and has said it will be placing more funding and focus on the smartphone OS.
Regardless, Samsung is releasing two new WP7 devices for AT&T with the updated Mango 7.5 firmware.
After beating up on lowly humans on 'Jeopardy,' IBM's supercomputer Watson will now help Wellpoint Inc., the health insurer with 34 million members, to diagnose medical problems and authorize the correct treatments.
By integrating Watson's database into its own existing patient information, Wellpoint says they should be able to find the best treatment and remedies in the quickest time.
Says IBM: "This very much fits into the sweet spot of what we envisioned for the applications of Watson." Wellpoint agrees: "It's really a game-changer in health care."
More specifically, the databases being integrated are Wellpoint's patient charts/electronic record, the insurance company's history of medicines and treatments, and Watson's vast database of textbooks and medical journals.
IBM says it will only take seconds for Watson to sift through all the data and provide several diagnoses or treatments.
I don't see any need to create a new one with the three hundred or so on the market already. We have a refurbishment centre and we can bring in the product and preload certain games onto it. It's an Android device.
We definitely have selected one. We're in test phase right now. But we're excited at the prospect of coming out with this tablet. I would call it a 'GameStop certified gaming platform.' We looked at all the tablets and these are the ones that really worked for gaming and we're going to give you a few benefits that you're not going to get elsewhere.
Those tests began two weeks ago, says Bartel.
Read more...
According to Focus Taiwan, HTC is looking into purchasing its own mobile operating system.
Cher Wang of HTC, when asked about their future smartphones, said "we [HTC] can use any OS we want," and then confirmed the company had held internal meeting on perhaps obtaining their own OS.
Currently, the device makers has Windows Phone 7 and Android devices and has been a strong supporter of Google's decision to purchase Motorola Mobility for its patent portfolio.
That being said, like other smartphone makers in the market, it is clear the Motorola's hardware division could gain advantages from having Google as its parent, and could look elsewhere.
"Our strength lies in understanding an OS, but it does not mean we have to produce an OS," adds Wang.
The company's second-ever tablet will run on Windows 7 Home Premium and an Intel Atom Z670 processor unlike most new devices that run on Tegra or Snapdragon (ARM architecture) and have Android operating systems.
Dubbed the LaVie Touch, the tablet will have a 1.5GHz processor, 10.1-inch screen (1280x800), 2GB RAM, a 64GB SSD, an SDHC card slot and two USB ports.
Finally, the tablet also has Bluetooth 2.1, a 1.3 megapixel webcam, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, HDMI, integrated graphics, weighs 1.65 pounds, is 15.8 mm thick and has 10.6 hours of battery life.
Amazon is negotiating with publishers to launch a "Netflix-for-books" type service.
Consumers would pay an annual fee to be given access to a large library of e-books.
The talks are still in their early stages, and are said to already be stalling as publishing execs balk. They believe the service could lower the value of books, and strain relationships with retailers that sell print versions.
Amazon wants the catalog to only include older titles, and will be free with an Amazon Prime membership. Amazon Prime costs $79 per year and give users free 2-day shipping on all purchases through Amazon.
The amount of books would be limited per month, and Amazon will pay publishers "a significant amount" to get the deal done.
Samsung has launched a solar-powered netbook, aimed at the African market.
The NC215S is now available in Kenya, and the target market is the hundreds of thousands of consumers that are not connected to the national power grid.
Furthermore, the device is aimed at the thousands of consumers who are connected, but have sporadic outages.
The device will cost 35000 Kenyan shillings ($370 USD) and gets up to 15 hours of battery life.
Says Samsung:
With Netbook NC 215S Samsung is demonstrating its capacity to bring to the consumers technology that satisfies their needs and takes care of the environment.
Weighing in at just 2.8 pounds, the entire design is "slim" including the solar panel on the top.
Samsung says the netbook will launch in U.S., Russia, Europe and South Korea, as well, later this month.
Less than a week after being fired, former Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz has also resigned from her seat on the Board of Directors.
Says Yahoo! in a Sunday announcement:
On September 9, 2011, Carol Bartz resigned from the board of directors of Yahoo! Inc., effective immediately.
After being fired, Bartz went on to call the Board a bunch of "doofuses" who "fu**ed her over" when firing her over the phone with a lawyer-prepared script.
Regardless, Bartz gets a $14 million severance package and remains on the Board of other companies.
Twitter has sued online advertising service provider Twittad today.
The company has registered for the trademark “Let Your Ad Meet Tweets." Twitter, as it has made abundantly clear, is not a fan of third-party services using the term "tweet."
This action arises from the registration of the mark “LET YOUR AD MEET TWEETS” by Twittad, LLC (“Twittad” or “Defendant”) in connection with online advertising services for use on Twitter. Defendant’s LET YOUR AD MEET TWEETS registration unfairly exploits the widespread association by the consuming public of the mark TWEET with Twitter, and threatens to block Twitter from its registration and legitimate uses of its own mark.
In fact, it appears that Defendant has used LET YOUR AD MEET TWEETS solely as a generic phrase to refer advertising in connection with Twitter itself, and as such it is incapable of serving as a mark, rendering the registration subject cancellation on that ground. Alternatively, if Defendant is able to establish use of LET YOUR AD MEET TWEETS as a mark, its registration is subject to cancellation based on Twitter’s preexisting rights in the TWEET mark.
Read more...
Intel will be among the few companies submitting bids for InterDigital's patent portfolio, says Bloomberg.
Samsung, Ericsson, HTC and possibly Google are expected to bid on the patents and are currently reviewing confidential data.
Apple and Microsoft have also looked, but do not seem to be serious bidders.
Bids may surpass $5 billion, says analysts, based off Google's recent purchase of Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion for its patents and hardware business and the purchase of Nortel patents for over $4.5 billion.
InterDigital invested some of the tech used in mobile broadband networks and has 8800 patents on inventions currently used in smartphones.
Earlier this week, Bloomberg reported that AoL was looking into merging with Yahoo!, with AoL CEO Tim Armstrong looking into the CEO spot recently left by Carol Bartz.
CNBC has now reported that a "source close to Yahoo says no interest in a deal with AOL."
Original story:
Bloomberg has reported that AOL CEO Tim Armstrong has been talking to Yahoo! advisers to gauge any interest in a merger of the two struggling companies.
Over the past few months, AOL has been speaking to private equity firms in an effort to go private while they complete their turnaround efforts.
Armstrong is said to have pushed a merger last year, but newly fired Yahoo! Carol Bartz had rebuffed the talks at the time.
While both companies are in similar markets, Yahoo is worth $18 billion and AOL is worth just $1.6 billion (market value) with declining revenue and losses. AOL has lost $800 million since 2009.
Nvidia's CEO Jen-Hsun Huang says the company will power the first quad-core tablets on the market.
Confirming a leaked roadmap from earlier this year, Huang says Nvidia will be the first, beating out heated rivals like Qualcomm, whose quad-core Snapdragon processors will only go into production later this year.
Component maker Hon Hai Precision has reportedly upped its projected shipment figures for the iPad 2.
Due to strong demand, projected shipments have been increased for the Q3 by 42.8 percent.
Apple sold 9.25 million iPad 2 units in the Q2, after a slow Q1 with 4.69 million sold.
Despite the tragedy in Japan, Apple says their supply chain has not been affected, and if they could have built more, the demand was so high they would have sold out of those, as well.
The highly anticipated smartphone is selling on the cheap.
Wal-Mart will sell Sprint's version of the Samsung Galaxy S II for $99 with two year contract, cheaper than its $199 price tag on other carriers.
Samsung's new "superphone" has a 4.27-inch WVGA Super AMOLED Plus touchscreen, Android 2.3.4, a 1.2GHz Samsung dual-core processor, an 8.49mm thin chassis (at lowest), an 8MP camera with autofocus and 1080p recording, NFC support, 4G, a 2MP front-side camera and HSPA+, WiFi a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 3.0+HS.
Furthermore, the device will run on Samsung's updated TouchWiz UI and weighs just 4 ounces with access to Sprint's 4G Wi-Max.
The device will hit T-Mobile, AT&T and Sprint on September 16th.
Bloomberg has reported that AOL CEO Tim Armstrong has been talking to Yahoo! advisers to gauge any interest in a merger of the two struggling companies.
Over the past few months, AOL has been speaking to private equity firms in an effort to go private while they complete their turnaround efforts.
Armstrong is said to have pushed a merger last year, but newly fired Yahoo! Carol Bartz had rebuffed the talks at the time.
While both companies are in similar markets, Yahoo is worth $18 billion and AOL is worth just $1.6 billion (market value) with declining revenue and losses. AOL has lost $800 million since 2009.
Although unconfirmed, it appears Google's eventual successor to 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich will be called "Jelly Bean."
Sources speaking to ThisIsMyNext say Jelly Bean will be the next version of the OS after this November's launch of ICS, although other sources have claimed Jelly Bean is in a very short list and has not been selected yet.
ICS is said to be a huge release, with "major architectural, functional, and design changes," and will not be a rehashed Gingerbread or Honeycomb like critics worry.
Still unconfirmed, ICS is also said to integrate Google TV, the struggling platform which lets users stream content from their TVs.
Android 4.0 will also finally unify the fragmented smartphone and tablet offerings.
When Jelly Bean is launched, it is expected to be a minor update, perhaps a 4.1.
It's taken a very long time but Netflix fans got some good news today.
Android phone users with software 2.2 Froyo or above can now use the Netflix app which had been available to just two dozen handsets.
Be reminded, Netflix is still not available for Honeycomb tablet users unless you have a Lenovo IdeaPad.
Downloading the updated Netflix app, version 1.4 will give access to 80 percent of Android users, which have Froyo or higher (up to 2.3.4 currently).
To use the Netflix app, you need a $7.99 streaming account from the company. Also, if you have a phone with Android 2.1 or lower, you are likely not moving to 2.2 anytime soon, (at least not without root).
The microblogging and picture sharing platform has hit its latest milestone, 10 billion posts.
Tumblr says the service now hosts 28 million blogs, and over 10 million posts are made per day.
The service really began becoming popular last year, and now traditional media sites like NPR, Rolling Stone and others have pages, as a way to engage readership, adds RWW.
Tumblr, in pageviews at least, has now surpassed Wordpress, the blogging network.
The service has an expected 3 billion pageviews per month.
Microsoft has announced two new patent licensing agreements.
Those deals are with Acer and ViewSonic, companies that manufacturer Android tablets.
The software giant says Acer's deal covers Microsoft patents for Acer tablets and Android smartphones and Viewsonic's covers tablets and mobile phone running either Android or Chrome platforms.
This week, ThinkOptical has filed a lawsuit against the gaming company, claiming the Wii console infringes on patents they own.
ThinkOptical are the creators of the Wavit Remote.
Nintendo is accused of infringing on three patents, including one for “Electronic Equipment for Handheld Vision Based Absolute Pointing System.” ThinkOptical is demanding monetary compensation, attorney fees and future royalties.
The company also claims Nintendo knew of the infringement before launching the Wii in 2005.
ThinkOptical has also added Wal-Mart, Gamestop and Radio Shack in the suit, in their attempts to be the latest notable patent troll.
Thanks to a popular Italian Xbox 360 magazine, the oft-rumored Xbox 360 Blu-ray add-on is back in the news.
For years now, there have been rumors that Microsoft will launch a Blu-ray add-on similar to the HD-DVD add-on the company released in 2007 when the two formats were fighting for supremacy.
The magazine says Microsoft is working on an external Blu-ray drive that could also "act as an external hard drive" and let gamers backup their game saves and DLC.
Of course, like in the past, file this under speculation.
Michael Hart, the man behind starting Project Gutenberg forty years ago, has passed this week at age 64.
Hart is regarded as a pioneer of the ebook industry.
Starting on July 4th, 1971, Hart began digitizing the U.S. Declaration of Independence to a Xerox Sigma V mainframe in the Materials Research Lab at the University of Illinois.
After the DOI, Hart moved on to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and eventually Shakespeare. The Project now has 40,000 digitized books.
The premise of Project Gutenberg was: anything that can be entered into a computer can be reproduced indefinitely.Once a book or any other item (including pictures, sounds, and even 3-D items can be stored in a computer), then any number of copies can and will be available. Everyone in the world, or even not in this world (given satellite transmission) can have a copy of a book that has been entered into a computer.
Foxconn is allegedly producing up to 150,000 iPhone 5 smartphones each day, in preparation for a launch in the next few months.
The manufacturer will continue to build 5 to 6 million per month until the end of the year, says Digitimes.
Although still unconfirmed by Apple as even existing, the iPhone 5 is expected to launch in October with a dual-core A5 processor, an 8MP camera, and a thinner form factor. The screen size should be still under 4-inches and the back design will move back to metal instead of reinforced glass.
Reportedly, the phone will be coming to all major carriers, AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint.
The launch on T-Mobile and Sprint would be a first for the Apple smartphone, which just launched on Verizon for the first time earlier this year.
The Korean Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) have raided Google's offices in Seoul.
It is unclear if the raid is complete, but the KFTC had planned the raids in an effort to search for evidence and information relating to their practices with Android.
The KFTC stepped in after complaints from NHN Corp and Daum Communications Corp, South Korean search engine services. Both claimed Google is engaging in anti-competitive practices with Android by pre-installing Google software in the OS.
Additionally, the companies say Android is "systematically designed" to make switching to a different engine difficult.
We will work with the KFTC to address any questions they may have about our business. Android is an open platform, and carrier and OEM partners are free to decide which applications and services to include on their Android phones. We do not require carriers or manufacturers to include Google Search or Google applications on Android-powered devices.
The popular microblogging service also sees strong growth in mobile usage.
According to CEO Dick Costolo, there are about 100 million active users, despite 200 million registered accounts.
Growth in mobile usage is about 40 percent every quarter, an outstanding number, adds the CEO (via Reuters).
Notes Costolo, when asked if the service will go public soon:
We want to be able to remain independent, grow the business the way we want to, and not be beholden to public markets until we feel like we want to be.
Finally, the CEO says Twitter now has about 400 million unique visitors every month, up from 200 million on January 1st.
In an interview with Fortune magazine, fired Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz has let it be known her feelings on the recent move by the company's Board of Directors.
"These people f**ked me over," says Bartz.
Bartz says chairman Roy Boystock called her on her mobile phone and began reading a lawyer-prepared script:
I said, 'Roy, I think that's a script,' why don't you have the balls to tell me yourself?'"
The former CEO concluded with "I thought you were classier," before hanging up.
Bartz, after a successful run at Autodesk, was hired in January 2009 to turnaround the struggling company. She has not, and Yahoo has become somewhat of a laughing stock for its inept management.
Blaming the fact that Yahoo turned down a massive cash offer from Microsoft in 2007 and faced large criticism, Bartz says the directors are now impatient. "The board was so spooked by being cast as the worst board in the country. Now they're trying to show that they're not the doofuses that they are."
Finally, Bartz says: "I want to make sure that the employees don't believe that I've abandoned them. I would never abandon them. Besides, I have way too many purple clothes. I wish the Yahoo people the best...it's a fantastic franchise."
Since its launch in 2010, it appears that EA's Online Pass has only generated $15 million in extra revenue.
Online Pass, the company's way to kill of the used game market, requires second-hand buyers to pay $9.99 or so if they want to access the online features of a game, on top of the price of the game.
Added CFO Eric Brown at the recent Citi 2011 Tech Conference:
The revenues we derive from that haven't been dramatic. I'd say they're in the $10-$15 million range since we initiated the program.
Online Pass has started a new trend, and other publishers like Sony and Ubisoft have followed, each looking to milk more money from consumers.
The reception of the program has been positive. We thought about [Online Pass] pretty carefully and there hasn't been any significant push-back from the consumer, because I think people realise that if you're buying a physical disc and it requires an attachment to someone else's network and servers, [those] people realise bandwidth isn't free.
Read more...
In an effort to boost their local service, Google has announced the acquisition of Zagat Survey today.
The popular review and ratings service will help Google add new features aimed at local businesses, daily deal shoppers and advertisers.
Zagat, which offers print and online reviews/ratings of hotels and restaurants, was found over 30 years ago.
Says Google:
Moving forward, Zagat will be a cornerstone of our local offering--delighting people with their impressive array of reviews, ratings and insights, while enabling people everywhere to find extraordinary (and ordinary) experiences around the corner and around the world.
Zagat will likely be closely integrated into Google Places and Maps in the near future.
Based on secondary market valuation and investor valuations, the behemoth social networking site is worth $80 billion. The company is expected to go public in 2012.
In 2010, the company had revenue of around $1.5 billion, and net income of $400 million.
Facebook has over 750 million users around the globe.
HTC, in the midst of a legal battle with Apple, has shot back with a new lawsuit today.
The smartphone maker, using patents it obtained from Google just last week, has filed an infringement suit and is the third such suit between the companies in the last two years.
Nine patents, originating from Palm Inc., Motorola Inc. and Openwave Systems Inc. and now in Google's possession, were transferred to HTC on September 1st.
Earlier today, there was considerable outrage when Netflix began enforcing their policy on concurrent video streams, months after changing their ToS, making it impossible for multiple users to stream movies or TV shows at the same time if they are using the same account.
While the move would of course cut down on groups of people pooling together to use one account, there was outrage from families who legitimately have two people who enjoying streaming films, sometimes at the same moment.
Reads the ToS:
Personal Computer Requirements and Device Limitations: To enjoy watching instantly via your personal computer, your equipment must satisfy certain system requirements. Click here to view the various system requirements. To see partners who offer Netflix ready devices you may use to access our service, click here. YOU MAY INSTANTLY WATCH ON UP TO SIX UNIQUE AUTHORIZED NETFLIX READY DEVICES. YOU WILL BE ALLOWED TO INSTANTLY WATCH SIMULTANEOUSLY ON ONLY ONE SUCH DEVICE AT ANY GIVEN TIME. For certain membership plans in the United States, you may instantly watch simultaneously on more than one Netflix ready device within your household. Click here to view the number of devices on which you may simultaneously view movies & TV shows that are associated with your plan. The number of devices and concurrent streams may change without notice to you. For certain limited membership plans in the United States, your available Netflix ready device may be limited to personal computers.
Google's former CEO Eric Schmidt has let the cat out of the bag.
The chairman, speaking at the Dreamforce conference in San Francisco this week, says the upcoming Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) will be released in either October or November.
We have a new operating system, internally known as Ice Cream Sandwich for some reason, which is being released in October/November, which everyone's really excited about.
This news comes just a day after Samsung confirmed the existence of the Nexus Prime flagship phone, the first phone to run ICS, set for release later this year.
The Pirate Bay has launched a new section in their torrenttracker, one for 3D.
Since its launch, the site has had standard categories like videos, music, games, software, each broken down into more exact portions.
Says the site, via their blog:
We have read on the Internets that there are some new technology called the third dimension. So we added a category in the video section called . . . 3D!
Of course, if you want to watch a 3D film via your TV, you will require a 3D capable player (PS3, Blu-ray, etc) and a 3D HDTV, both of which can get pricey but are expected to fall in price, perhaps significantly, in 2012.
Following the high-profile firing of Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz, Business Insider CEO Henry Blodget has posted that he wants to be made new Chief of the struggling company, as long as they buy out BI.
We have been huge Yahoo! fans since the mid-1990s, when we fell in love with the company. We've been devastated by what has happened to Yahoo! in the past decade, and we would love to help put the company back on the right track.
The good news is we know exactly what needs to be done to fix Yahoo! and unlock huge value for Yahoo! shareholders (including ourselves—we have unfortunately owned the stock forever). And we know how to do it.
We will outline this plan in detail when the time comes.
But, for now, here's our offer...
Given all the private-equity firms circling around Yahoo, we expect we would have little difficulty raising the $20 billion or so we would need to buy Yahoo outright. But we're busy, and that would take time and be messy. It would also involve paying several hundred million dollars to investment bankers and other "strategic advisors." And there's no reason for Yahoo to waste that kind of money.
Read more...
Sony has announced that their much-hyped F65 digital cinematography camera will be released in January, for $65,000.
The 4K camera was expected to sell for $75,000.
Sony showed off the camera's abilities at the DGA theater, presenting three shorts showing off "camera attributes as its wide dynamic range, color reproduction and resolution."
Says Sony senior VP sales and marketing Alec Shapiro:
It was (Sony co-founder) Aiko Morita’s vision to design a digital motion picture camera that retains all the quality of a 35 mm film camera but adding the creative capability and functionality of digital technology.
There is currently one rival 4K camera, the Red Epic M, which sells for $58,000 and it already being used on new movies like The Hobbit.
Samsung has confirmed the existence of the Nexus Prime smartphone.
The company has uploaded the User Agent Profile file for a device dubbed "Nexus Prime," long rumored to be the first Android phone with Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.
For those keeping count, the device now officially known as Nexus Prime is the "GT-I9250."
The GT-I9250 is currently in the process of getting both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth certifications, and launch date is expected in late November.
Samsung's UAP shows a 480 x 800 WVGAresolution screen and an ARM11 processor but those are likely not accurate.
AMD, in a promotion with Codemasters, was giving away 1.7 million Steam download codes to consumers who purchased certain AMD video cards, but those codes have now been stolen.
The servers holding the codes were missing an .htaccess file, which are used to restrict access to certain areas on a server.
unfortunately,
complete AMD promotion key list leaked to internet
i assume that proper course action will be simply blacklist every key
and remove them silently from accounts then tell users to re-register new ones
or ... do nothing
in short never put .sql database with game keys on webserver
where simple missing .htaccess can leak it
AMD's response:
You may have heard this weekend, activation keys for free Dirt 3 game vouchers shipping with a few AMD products were compromised. The keys were hosted on a third-party fulfillment agency website, AMD4u.com, and were not on AMD’s website. Neither AMD nor Codemasters servers were involved.
Read more...
The Yahoo! Board of Directors have fired CEO Carol Bartz today.
Replacing Bartz is current CFO Tim Morse, in an interim position.
There was no word on whether Morse was a likely candidate to remain CEO into the future.
Says Roy Bostock, Chairman of the Yahoo! Board:
The Board sees enormous growth opportunities on which Yahoo! can capitalize, and our primary objective is to leverage the Company's leadership and current business assets and platforms to execute against these opportunities. We have talented teams and tremendous resources behind them and intend to return the Company to a path of robust growth and industry-leading innovation. We are committed to exploring and evaluating possibilities and opportunities that will put Yahoo! on a trajectory for growth and innovation and deliver value to shareholders.
On behalf of the entire Board, I want to thank Carol for her service to Yahoo! during a critical time of transition in the Company's history, and against a very challenging macro-economic backdrop. I would also like to express the Board's appreciation to Tim and thank him for accepting this important role. We have great confidence in his abilities and in those of the other executives who have been named to the Executive Leadership Council.
On the 19th, HP slashed the price of its 16GB base model to $99 from $499 MSRP in a firesale intended to liquidate all remaining stock. The move worked and HP was said to have sold out all of its inventory.
The company also added that it would no longer create webOS-based hardware, as the company moves increasingly into the software business.
Last week, in an unlikely move, HP said it will build more TouchPads, in an effort to "meet unfulfilled demand" and complete cancelled orders with suppliers.
This week, Digitimes sdys HP will sell up to 200,000 more TouchPads, which will be available by late October.
It appears that HP ran some numbers and it is cheaper to build and sell the rest of the tablets at a big loss than deal with contract termination fees from their major suppliers. Additionally, they likely would have left companies very angry with thousands of unused TouchPad parts, and strained relationships.
Finally, the source says HP sold 900,000 TouchPads to date, meaning when all is said and done, there will be over 1 million TouchPads in the wild.
The struggling content company hits another roadblock.
Over the last year, AoL, in its effort to transition into a digital media company, purchased Arianna Huffington's "Huffington Post" for $300 million and Michael Arrington's "TechCrunch" for $30 million.
This week, a "war" between the two editors has erupted, leaving AoL on the verge of losing Arrington.
In being acquired, Arrington was promised editorial independence and Huffington was told she would have full primacy in editorial matters, for the whole company.
Earlier this week, Arrington started a venture capital firm to invest in tech companies and Huffington used it as an excuse to take over editorial control of TechCrunch.
Says Arrington of the move:
As of late last week TechCrunch no longer has editorial independence. Some argue that the circumstances demanded it. I disagree. Editorial independence was never supposed to be an easy thing for Aol to give us. But it was never meaningful if it shatters the first time it is put to the test.
We’ve proposed two options to Aol.
1. Reaffirmation of the editorial independence promised at the time of acquisition. Given the current circumstances, that means autonomy from Huffington Post, unfettered editorial independence and a blanket right to editorial self determination. To put it simply, TechCrunch would stay with Aol but would be independent of the Huffington Post.
Read more...
According to the Taiwanese daily DigiTimes, Apple will ship over 86 million iPhones by the end of the 2011.
DigiTimes, using supply chain checks, says the company will ship 86.4 million phones, up 81.9 percent year-over-year (YoY).
Analyst Luke Lin does say, however, that other companies are growing shipments at a much quicker pace, including Huawei at 484 percent YoY, ZTE at 330 percent YoY, LG at 250 percent and Samsung at 191 percent YoY.
Nokia was the big loser of the year, falling from 100 million to 74.4 million.
THX is looking to get into the mobile audio business.
The high-fidelity audio/visual reproduction standard is now looking to get phones and tablets certified, says senior VP Rick Dean.
Because most mobile devices now output to TVs, Dean says the company's audio team is "actively going down that path" in an effort to improve mobile audio.
There was no word on when the first THX-certified phones would become available.
Size had limited what the company could do in the past, but new compression and DSP tuning will improve on that, adds Dean (via Electronista).
Dell and Chinese search engine Baidu have announced this week that they will team up for upcoming phones and tablets, looking to break into the Chinese market currently led by Apple and Lenovo.
China has 900 million mobile phone subscribers, the most in the world by far, and tablet sales have continued to increase in the nation.
Some analysts believe the deal is nothing more than a publicity stunt, however. Says Michael Clendenin, managing director of technology consultancy RedTech Advisors:
I suspect this is just Dell, who has a lot of problems on the mobile and tablet front, grasping at straws to get any kind of publicity that it can to make its product more attractive. Ultimately in China, I still think it is Apple's game, still for the iPad and iPhone.
The devices could come as early as November, reported Chinese papers.
In early 2009, Dell announced smartphones that would launch first in China before ever hitting the U.S. The devices have been marginally successful.
Dish Network,the U.S.' second largest satellite-TV provider, has announced it will introduce a streaming movie service to rival Netflix, using its new purchase of Blockbuster and its brand name.
Most notably, the new service is expected to launch with content from Starz, which just just turned down an offer of $300 million per year from Netflix to renew.
Dish saved Blockbuster out of bankruptcy earlier this year for $320 million.
Additionally, the new service could include on-demand Blockbuster movies that customers can rent and watch on their TVs.
Potentially, the streaming service could become part of a bundle with Blockbuster's current DVD and games rentals service, and its online on-demand service.
Rival Netflix has 24.6 million U.S. customers and over 20,000 movies and television shows available online. However, the company recently just jacked up their prices by splitting streaming and physical rentals.
The tablet is 7-inches, runs on Android 2.3, has a single core 1GHz processor, 8GB storage and dual cameras.
At a resolution of 1024x600, the tablet has first generation tablet specs, but the price may persuade some users who could not get in on the HP TouchPad's firesale price.
Even the Samsung Galaxy Tab, originally launched at $500, has similar specs and sells for $250 or more from retailers, a year later.
Nintendo has sent press invites for an event on September 13th, expected to be a "major announcement" for the 3DS.
Rumor has it that the company is already developing a revised 3DS hardware, one that will launch next year or later this year.
Featuring a second analog stick, the console will also tone down the 3D capabilities of the system, which has proven to be a bust.
After just 5 months on the market, Nintendo acknowledged that the 3DS was overpriced and slashed the price from $250 to $170 giving early adopters very little to celebrate except for free games.
British authorities have arrested two men in connection with Anonymous and LulzSec, including the allegedly important member 'Kayla.'
Kayla is said to be one of the members behind the attack on Internet security firm HB Gary Federal, which involved breaking into the company's computers and servers and stealing tens of thousands of internal emails.
In conjunction with the FBI, the Metro Police say the arrests were due to an investigation "into a series of serious computer intrusions and online denial-of-service attacks recently suffered by a number of multinational companies, public institutions and government and law enforcement agencies in Great Britain and the United States."
Kayla, according to lulzsecexposed, pretended to be a 16-year-old girl in interviews and online.
As we have reported multiple times, Starz and Netflix have broken up, with the relationship ending in February after 4 years.
Netflix paid just $28 million per year for their current contract and according to LAT, was willing to pay $300 million per year to renew.
Starz, on the other hand, didn't care about the money but instead wanted to add tiered pricing to Netflix, meaning users who wanted Starz would have had to pay more per month for a subscription, perhaps in line with what consumers of companies like Dish Network pay.
That appears to be the only sticking point that failed in the negotiations, as Netflix refused to pay for the content and pass on the extra costs to the consumers.
Surprisingly, the article also says that perhaps Amazon would be willing to negotiate with Starz over the content.
Earlier today we reported that Starz had called off all talks to renew their content licensing agreement with Netflix.
Following the move, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings had this to say of the break (via BI):
Starz has been a great content partner for many years and we are thankful for their support. While we regret their decision to let our agreement lapse next February, we are grateful to Chris and his team for the early notice of their decision, which will give us time to license other content before Starz expires.
While Starz was a huge part of viewing on Netflix several years ago because it was some of the only mainstream content we offered, over the years we spent more and more licensing great TV shows from all four broadcast networks and many cable networks, and we have licensed 1st run movies from Relativity, MGM, Paramount, Lionsgate and others.
Because we’ve licensed so much other great content, Starz content is now down to about 8% of domestic Netflix subscribers’ viewing. As we add a huge more content in Q4, we expect Starz content to naturally drift down to 5-6% of domestic viewing in Q1. We are confident we can take the money we had earmarked for Starz renewal next year, and spend it with other content providers to maintain or even improve the Netflix experience.
Read more...
Starz has ended all conversations with Netflix over renewing their popular movie licensing agreement.
The move comes the same day Netflix has begun charging more for streaming, if you want to keep your physical DVD rentals, as well.
Says the company:
Starz Entertainment has ended contract renewal negotiations with Netflix. When the agreement expires on February 28, 2012, Starz will cease to distribute its content on the Netflix streaming platform. This decision is a result of our strategy to protect the premium nature of our brand by preserving the appropriate pricing and packaging of our exclusive and highly valuable content. With our current studio rights and growing original programming presence, the network is in an excellent position to evaluate new opportunities and expand its overall business.
The four-year "sweetheart" deal signed by Netflix 42 months ago had the company paying just $165 million total for 1000 movies. The new deal would have cost over $200 million per year.
Samsung has unveiled its latest tablet today at the IFA event, the Galaxy Tab 7.7.
As with other devices, the 7.7 is in reference to the device's screen size, at 7.7-inches.
Making the tablet impressive is its Super AMOLED Plus display and 1280x800 resolution that is normally seen on bigger devices. Additionally, it is ultrathin at 0.31 inches thick, weighing in at 12 ounces. The Super AMOLED screen should offer superior colors and viewing angles to any tablet on the market.
The 7.7 has a fast dual core processor at 1.4GHz, runs on Android 3.2 (with TouchWiz UI), has 64GB internal storage, 3MP camera and a large 5100mAh battery.
Samsung says the device will be launched "in the coming months" with pricing unknown at time being.
According to a new Nielsen survey, just 10 apps account for a full 43 percent of all Android app usage.
On average, a typical user will spend 56 minutes per day on the mobile web or using apps.
The top 10 apps in the market account for 43 percent of that usage, while the top 50 apps account for 61 percent.
Although Nielsen did not publish the names of the apps, we can assume popular apps like Angry Birds, Pandora, Skype and Twitter are near the top.
Says Don Kellogg, director of telecom research and insights for Nielsen (via Rock):
With 250,000+ Android apps available at the time of this writing, that means the remaining 249,950+ apps have to compete for the remaining 39 percent of the pie.
In July, Netflix announced that it had separated its DVD and streaming services, which meant if you want both, the price increased substantially.
Today, the price hike goes into effect.
1-DVD-at-time unlimited plans will cost $7.99 per month, the cheapest it has ever been, but if you want unlimited streaming you will need to pay an additional $7.99. That is a $6 price hike if you subscribe to the current $9.99 mixed plan for 1-DVD and streaming.
At the time, Netflix said:
Last November when we launched our $7.99 unlimited streaming plan, DVDs by mail was treated as a $2 add on to our unlimited streaming plan. At the time, we didn’t anticipate offering DVD only plans. Since then we have realized that there is still a very large continuing demand for DVDs both from our existing members as well as non-members. Given the long life we think DVDs by mail will have, treating DVDs as a $2 add on to our unlimited streaming plan neither makes great financial sense nor satisfies people who just want DVDs. Creating an unlimited DVDs by mail plan (no streaming) at our lowest price ever, $7.99, does make sense and will ensure a long life for our DVDs by mail offering.
Patent troll UltimatePointer, maker of the Upoint laser-pointer presentation remote, has sued Nintendo, GameStop, Best Buy and Sears over alleged patent infringement.
According to the Justice Department, U.S. carriers like AT&T and Verizon retain customer data, including texts, call records, billing records and cell towers used for at least one year.
Government sources have noted today that a highly anticipated $12 billion plan for Foxconn to produce iPads in Brazil is now seriously "in doubt" thanks to stagnant negotiations over tax breaks.
According to 
According to a new report, it appears that music piracy has consistently fallen since 2009, thanks to the popularity of 
The latest rumor is that 
The software update is being rolled out as we speak.
Amazon has embarked on a voyage to control the entire e-reader market.
The cheapest price ever for the tablet.
Despite falling to around 74 percent earlier this year, the iPad has regained its 80 percent tablet market share in the North American region as of July 30th.
T-Mobile has showed off their new devices at the GigaOM Mobilize event in San Francisco this week.
Google and the Israel national museum have teamed up to digitize the famous Dead Sea Scrolls.
According to JPMorgan Chase, 
Google is finalizing contracts before it launches its much-hyped YouTube "channels," says sources.
Chinese mobile giant Huawei has announced their new Honor 
The latest rumor is that Barnes & Noble is preparing to launch a new tablet by the end of the year.
Netflix has signed a new licensing deal to stream films from DreamWorks Animation, the hit studio behind animated film franchises like "
Facebook and security firm Sophos have warned visitors of a new hoax affecting millions of Facebook users.
Pics have finally leaked for the 
The most popular 
The Chicago Public Library has added Kindle books to its extensive catalog.
Library Pirate wants to help poor college kids with the outrageous prices of university textbooks.
HP's newly fired CEO Leo Apotheker gets to leave with a golden parachute.
If there was any more reason to believe that daily deal giant is not a viable company, the site has now restated its 2010 earnings, slashing previous revenue by 57 percent.
VIA Technologies has sued 
George Lucas' blockbuster franchise can add another milestone to its celebrated history, the biggest first-week sales for a 
The Justice Department has confirmed that the FBI has arrested two alleged members of LulzSec and Anonymous.
AOC releases specs and prices for their i2353Fh monitor.
One analyst believes the move is coming.
Kara Swisher has reported today that former eBay CEO Meg Whitman will be named the new CEO of 
OnStar, the service that allows connected drivers to call live operators in case of emergency or even for directions, has recently changed its ToS and has come under fire.
Internet radio service Pandora has shown off its new completely redesigned HMTL5-based player, now available to all users.
Presidential candidate Rick Santorum has accused Google of discrimination today, thanks to the "graphic sexual term" that accompanies his name in Google searches.
According to a new Pew Internet study, young adults send/receive an average of 110 texts per day, far above the norm for other age groups.
AT&T finally announces release date.
GameFly, the current market leader in video game rentals-by-mail, has responded to Netflix's recent decision to split its 
After a few months in invite-only beta.
Just a month after announcing the end of 
Rovio Entertainment, the company behind the blockbuster franchise 'Angry Birds' has confirmed today that they are working on partnerships with B&N and Starbucks in an effort to sell a broader range of products.
Verizon has announced the latest milestone today.
Dish and Blockbuster are expected to announce their new 
Last week, 
According to Qualcomm's President of Internet Services, the company plans to slow down on its BREW mobile OS, seen on feature phones for 10 years now.
Last week, at the BUILD event, 
Verizon has introduced their first sub-$100 
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has posted a lengthy blog entry tonight, explaining the new service and apologizing to customers.
CyanogenMod7 for the TouchPad will likely be here within weeks.
Joel Tenenbaum, the graduate student who was convicted of illegally sharing 30 tracks via 
Could the discount be extended to everyone soon?
According to the 
Get them while their hot.
RIM, on the same day they reported horrible earnings, is hit with a massive BBM disruption.
According to sources close to the process, Hulu's auction to sell it off could be in serious jeopardy.
The EU has extended the copyright terms for music to 70 years from the current 50 years, just months before the first Beatles albums would have entered the public domain.
Earlier this year, following a year-long investigation, the U.S. DEA arrested and indicted 46-year-old rap music manager James Rosemond on 18 felony charges of leading a narcotics rings that smuggled cocaine across the U.S. in musician's "road cases."
RIM reports terrible earnings.
Samsung's former manager Suk-Hoo Hwang, fired in 2011 for his part in insider trading, has testified today against James Fleishman, the former vice president at expert-network firm Primary Global.
Qualcomm has shown off their latest mobile processor roadmap, and it appears your phones are going to get a lot more powerful, and soon.
AoL, Microsoft and Yahoo have teamed up this week to compete better against search giant Google.
Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick reveals figures at this year's ThinkEquity Growth conference.
MOG will be launching their own free 
Two tortured bodies were found hanging from a bridge in the city of Nuevo Laredo in northern Mexico this week.
Following years of bickering between the companies, U.S. prosecutors have opened a criminal case to investigate into whether eBay stole confidential information from Craigslist in an effort to start their own classifieds site.
Wes DeSoto, a Screen Actors Guild (SAG) member, has pleaded guilty to leaking a handful of 
CyanogenMod 7, the top custom ROM for 
Last month, "TabCo" 
IBM's supercomputer will now help save lives.
GameStop has said today that it will soon launch an Android-based gaming tablet that will come with titles pre-installed.
According to Focus Taiwan, 
Less than a week after being fired, former Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz has also resigned from her seat on the Board of Directors.
Twitter has sued online advertising service provider Twittad today.
Earlier this week, Bloomberg reported that AoL was looking into merging with Yahoo!, with AoL CEO Tim Armstrong looking into the CEO spot recently left by Carol Bartz.
Nvidia's CEO Jen-Hsun Huang says the company will power the first quad-core tablets on the market.
Component maker Hon Hai Precision has reportedly upped its projected shipment figures for the iPad 2.
Launched in May, the beta Google Music platform is now available to 
Although unconfirmed, it appears Google's eventual successor to 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich will be called "Jelly Bean."
It's taken a very long time but Netflix fans got some good news today.
According to the latest NPD figures.
According to 
The microblogging and picture sharing platform has hit its latest milestone, 10 billion posts.
According to 
Thanks to a popular Italian Xbox 360 magazine, the oft-rumored Xbox 360 
Michael Hart, the man behind starting Project Gutenberg forty years ago, has passed this week at age 64.
Since its launch in 2010, it appears that EA's Online Pass has only generated $15 million in extra revenue.
In an effort to boost their local service, Google has announced the acquisition of Zagat Survey today.
Cloud company Citrix, popular for its GoToMeeting webinar application, has now launched an app for Android.
Google's former CEO Eric Schmidt has let the cat out of the bag.
The Pirate Bay has launched a new section in their 
Following the high-profile firing of Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz, Business Insider CEO Henry Blodget has posted that he wants to be made new Chief of the struggling company, as long as they buy out BI.
1.7 million game keys are leaked.
On the 19th, 
According to the Taiwanese daily 
THX is looking to get into the mobile audio business.
According to Nielsen's latest data, Android has moved to 40 percent smartphone OS market share in the U.S.
Dish Network,the U.S.' second largest satellite-TV provider, has announced it will introduce a 
Could this be the new 
British authorities have arrested two men in connection with Anonymous and LulzSec, including the allegedly important member 'Kayla.'
Earlier today we reported that Starz had called off all talks to renew their content licensing agreement with Netflix.
