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This will be a blurb article as there is not too much info as of yet, but the official Netflix blog has posted an entry this evening all but promising a streaming app for the Apple iPhone.

Reads the post:

"Steve Swasey, VP of Corporate Communications, here. Terrific response to our news today about Netflix on the iPad. For those of you asking whether Netflix will be on the iPhone and iPod Touch: We wouldn't invite you to dinner without planning to serve dessert. In other words, we're working on it so stay tuned."

Netflix has an app already for the iPad tablet, and some sites are already calling it a must-have "killer app."

Sharp has shown off new 3D displays this week, displays intended for mobile devices with 3-inch screens.

The devices could handle 3D animation, and the demo showed off 3D photos and 3D video.

Making the tech even better is the fact that it does not require special glasses, as the displays send different images to each eye. The technology can be used with gaming handhelds, mobile phones, and digital cameras.

"The arrival of mobile 3D is just around the corner," says Executive Managing Officer Yoshisuke Hasegawa.

The AP says the demo showed off some notable "ghosting," but Sharp says the final product will have no such problems.

Nintendo announced recently that they would begin selling a new 3DS handheld, which will likely use the Sharp displays.

Facebook has announced they have acquired the photo sharing service Divvyshot, and will be integrating the site in the next few weeks.

3 billion photos are uploaded each month to Facebook, and Divvyshot is a premiere service that makes it easier for multiple users to contribute to an online photo album.

Reads Divvyshot's blog post:

"We are excited to announce that we’ve received an offer we can’t refuse. Facebook recently reached out to us about acquiring Divvyshot. The more we’ve learned about the team, their direction, and their product, the more excited we’ve become about this opportunity.

As a result, we’ve reached an agreement with Facebook for them to acquire many of the company’s assets. We will join the Facebook engineering team and focus on Facebook Photos.

We’re thrilled to work with some of the most talented engineers in the world in a dynamic and fun environment. The choice was easy. Facebook is well known as a company where engineers are given the resources and freedom to build cool stuff and, as a result, the only place where we felt that we would fit in.

Divvyshot will begin winding down operations as of today. Existing users can continue to use Divvyshot; however no new accounts will be issued and our iPhone application will no longer be available for download. We’ve always given users access to their original-resolution photos and we hope that this feature will make the transition off Divvyshot easier. For details on how to download your event’s photos, see our blog post: “How can I download my photos as a ZIP archive?”

In 2004, luxury jeweler Tiffany & Co. sued online auction site eBay over trademark infringement and dilution, accusing eBay of helping in the sale of counterfeit goods via the auction site.

eBay, in its defense, says they do not put any of the goods up for sale themselves, and spend millions each year to track down counterfeiters and remove any such listings.

This week a U.S. appeals court has ruled in favor of eBay, on all accounts.

"It is true that eBay did not itself sell counterfeit Tiffany goods; only the fraudulent vendors did, and that is in part why we conclude that eBay did not infringe Tiffany's mark,"reads the ruling. "But eBay did affirmatively advertise the goods sold through its site as Tiffany merchandise."

Tiffany says it is considering an appeal.

Niko Partners, the market research firm, has reported this week that they expect the Chinese video game industry to grow to $9.2 billion USD by 2014, over a double from 2010.

The market was $3.57 billion in 2009, and expected to grow to $4.5 billion this year.

"While the global economic downturn hurt videogame publishers in much of the world, China's online game industry reflected no pain in 2009 and gamers continued to embrace online games as the best inexpensive source of social entertainment available," says Lisa Cosmas Hanson, managing partner of Niko Partners. "While the era of online gaming is generating lots of interest and growth opportunity in the West, China is one of the countries where online gaming is a well established market segment that extends its reach to more and more Chinese consumers every year."

Overall, 63 percent of gamers have increased their game playing time in the past year.

Marvel Entertainment has launched the impressive Marvel Comics App for the Apple iPad, giving fans a chance to read over 500 graphic novels at launch including Iron Man, Captain America, Spider-Man, Hulk and Thor.

"We're excited to introduce an unparalleled digital comic experience to our fans with the Marvel Comics App for iPad," adds Dan Buckley, publisher & CEO, Marvel Publishing. "The iPad is the first device that offers us a chance to present digital comics that are even close to replicating the experience of reading a print comic. This new world of digital comics distribution provides us great opportunities to reach new readers, allow consumers to sample our diverse stories and characters, and we believe it will drive these new fans into the App Store and local comic shops each week to find even more."

Continues Ira Rubenstein, the Executive Vice President, Marvel Global Digital Media Group: "As Marvel's digital comics program has developed over the last few years, we've focused on delivering the best possible consumer experience across different services and devices. We're confident that the iPad is one of the best ways to read Marvel digital comics from anywhere, at any time. Since the iPad was announced, we have heard from our Marvel fans that this is the device they really wanted to see our comics on. This is just another step in the evolution of Marvel Digital Comics. We hope you love it as much as we do and we will continue to make the consumer experience even better."

Seton Hill University, the popular liberal arts college in Pennsylvania, has told incoming freshman that they will be receiving both MacBooks and an iPad, starting a new "mobile technology program" initiative.

The laptop will be replaced after their sophomore year. Both devices never have to be returned.

"The iPad was chosen by Seton Hill because of its mobility and the ease with which faculty and students, in the future, will have immediate access to e-textbooks and comprehensive and integrated learning," says Mary Ann Gawelek, provost and dean of the faculty at Seton Hill.

Additionally, the company has upgraded their wired and wireless network infrastructure, moving to 1Gbps Ethernet, adding 200 802.11n access points, and added support for VoIP.

To pay for the technology initiative, students will pay $1000 each year.

Episodic, the live and on-demand video platform for broadcasting has announced today that they have been acquired by Google, which plans to integrate the service into YouTube while keeping the staff on.

Say Noam Lovinsky and Matias Cudich, co-founders of the company:

We are thrilled to announce that Episodic has been acquired by Google. The entire Episodic team is extremely excited about this new partnership and what it means for our customers and the evolution of online video.

The Episodic team will join Google and continue its work to bring a great video experience to the Web, mobile phones and IPTV devices. There will be no interruption in service for existing Episodic customers.

At Episodic, we have always felt that these are the very early days of online video and that there is far more growth to be had. To put it in perspective, our industry is barely 15 years old. We’ve just received our learner’s permit, we still can’t drive without adult supervision and we’re certainly not old enough to buy a drink…legally.

From our earliest discussions with Google, it was clear that the teams shared this belief and together we obviously see huge potential in online video. Our product visions were also complimentary and together we will continue to produce innovative video technology for our customers and their viewers.

Because it is apparently the only way to get the devices to sell, Verizon has slashed the price of the Palm Pre and Pixi Plus models, practically giving the smartphones away.

The Pre Plus is now available for $50 USD for two, and the Pixi Plus is now available for $30 for two.

Additionally, "Mobile Hotspot," which turns the smartphones in Wi-Fi hotspots for your other devices, has now been reduced from $40 a month to free.

For the hotspot, you get a 5GB per month usage cap, but for free, the deal is an absolute steal as most other wireless carriers sell standalone USB modems for $50 or higher per month.

Microsoft has sued UK-based accessory maker Datel this week over its Xbox 360 controllers, claiming the company illegally copied the design.

The controllers in question are the Datel "TurboFire" and "WildFire" wireless controllers, which sell for $40 USD online. Microsoft says the controllers infringe on a few patents held by the software giant.

Microsoft is seeking monetary damages, royalty payments, or a portion of profits from past sales. Microsoft is also seeking an injunction.

Turbofire controller:

US broadcast network ABC is ready to take advantage of the iPad when it launches tomorrow.

Their new iPhone app is already available in the iTunes Store. It's only compatible with the iPad and won't work on the iPhone or iPod Touch.

Like many internet video sites, ABC's website uses Flash to stream video, which isn't supported by any version of the iPhone OS.

The ABC app allows iPad users to stream full episodes of shows like Lost and Grey's Anatomy. It can also be used to get details of ABC's broadcast schedule.

Based on the description in the iTunes Store it will work only on Wi-Fi, and not across 3G. This isn't surprising given AT&T's history of objections to streaming video applications for the iPhone.

Microsoft's latest appeal of a $290 million patent infringement judgement over XML editing in Word has been rejected by a federal appeals court.

They were requesting that all 11 judges sitting on the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit review the case. The appeal has already been denied by a panel of 3 judges.

Loudon Owen, Chairman of i4i, called the decision, "a powerful reinforcement of the message that smaller enterprises and inventors who own intellectual property can and will be protected."

Despite Microsoft's apparent prior knowledge of the patent, held by a Canadian firm called i4i, the judgement against them seems generous to say the least.

The award was based on the number of users estimated to have used Word for editing XML documents, which seems reasonable. The problem is the valuation of the feature, which was set at $98 per copy.

Even if you were to buy Word by itself you wouldn't pay more than $230. If you get it bundled in one of the many versions of the Microsoft Office suite, as most Word users do, it amounts to no more than about $100 of the total price.

Adobe recently showed off a new feature from the upcoming Photoshop Creative Suite 5 called Content-Aware Fill. Besides saving a lot of time for experienced Photoshop users, it also promises to make serious photo editing operations much more accessible for less skilled users.

Content-Aware Fill can be used for everything from simple photo retouching operations like getting rid of artifacts like lense flare to creating entire new areas of an image based on existing elements.



Photoshop CS5 will be officially unveiled later this month. So far no actual release date has been announced.

Blaming illegal file sharing and streaming, Sony Pictures is hinting that they may stop selling DVDs in Spain.

In reality this appears to be just posturing, perhaps intended to put pressure on the Spanish government to criminalize all illegal copying. Under current Spanish law copyright infringement is only illegal if it's done for profit.

According to the LA Times, Sony Pictures Entertainment Chairman and CEO Michael Lynton said, "Spain is on the brink of no longer being a viable home-entertainment market for us."

Spanish Minister of Culture, and former filmmaker, Angeles Gonzalez-Sinde appears to be firmly on the side of movie studios. He's currently backing legislation that would make it possible for the government to shut down websites for even providing links to unauthorized movie or music downloads with no judicial oversight.

He also apparently believes the people of Spain are simpletons who don't understand the concept of intellectual property. He has said "in Mediterranean countries, it's hard for people to understand that immaterial things can be worth as much as material things."

EMI, one of the "Big 4" record labels, appears to be on the brink of being taken over by banking behemoth Citigroup after failing to sell off its North American artist distribution rights to other labels.

The label was looking to sell those artist rights to Sony and UMG for $300 million USD, but the negotiations broke down after the two sides could not agree on the price.

EMI, for its part, has a catalog with mega-stars such as Coldplay, Pink Floyd and some of The Beatles tracks.

Now, EMI must raise $180 million USD by June 15th, or face being taken over by creditor Citigroup, which will likely break up the label and sell all its assets to the highest bidders.

EMI was purchased in late 2007, right before "the Great Recession," for over $7 billion USD by Terra Firma Partners, which now owes Citi over $5 billion over the course of the following years.