Latest news

Cable television operators in the US find themselves in an increasingly difficult position with respect to Netflix streaming video. On one hand it is the chief competition for their legacy pay TV business. On the other hand it arguably the biggest driver of increasingly higher speed Internet subscriptions, accounting for around a third of US Internet traffic.

Netflix has already established partnerships with Virgin Media in the UK and Com Hem in Sweden. Among the terms of these deals each company provides a Netflix TiVo app for their customers. At a Goldman Sachs conference last month Netflix CFO David Wells also expressed interest in forming similar partnerships with US pay TV providers.

Now the Wall Street Journal is reporting negotiations with multiple cable companies (paywalled content) including Comcast and Suddenlink Communications to establish those partnerships. According to their sources there are still significant issues to be resolved in negotiations between the parties. Perhaps the most important, at least for consumers, is the Netflix demand to integrate technology to improve streaming quality into broadband provider networks. Presumably this would involve some kind of caching on ISP networks which would allow both higher bitrate streams and lower bandwidth utilization by Netflix servers.

Rapper Daz Dillinger has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Rockstar Games, accusing the studio of using his tracks in Grand Theft Auto V without his permission.

The game features the tracks "C-Walk" and "Nothin' but the Cavi Hit."

Dillinger claims that the company offered him an "offensively" low $4,271 for use of the songs, which he declined.

The rapper says the C&D letter is about "respecting an artist's work. Rockstar didn't do that here and I can't let them get away with it." Dillinger demands that Rockstar pay him more for the songs or destroy all unsold copies of GTA V.

Cable pioneer and Liberty Media chairman John Malone has said today that the industry should join together to create a Netflix rival.

The companies could bundle the service with broadband, and lower programming costs, says Malone.

For example, Malone says Comcast's Xfinity video streaming product could one day be shared amongst the major cable companies and become a national brand. He also used HBO as an example, saying the network "has made us all rich."

Another possibility would be for Hulu to be "bought and syndicated" by cable companies. Hulu was up for sale this year before its owners decided to instead invest more and pull the auction.

Malone praised Netflix Chief Executive Officer Reed Hastings, saying the service is now big enough to purchase exclusive national content at good prices. Cable has struggled to do the same. "The cable industry has been very slow (which has) created a window of opportunity to the over the top guys," he added.

Activision Blizzard has completed purchasing itself back from majority owner Vivendi after federal officials allowed the transaction to be completed.

The deal had been announced in July but was suspended in September after shareholders sued the company. Activision has purchased back 429 million shares for $5.83 billion.

In a separate transaction, an investment group led by Activision CEO Bobby Kotick and chairman Brian Kelly purchased 172 million shares for $2.34 billion.

With the purchase, the group now owns about 25 percent of the company. Vivendi will keep 83 million shares and a large 12 percent stake.

"With the completion of this transaction we open a new chapter in the history of Activision Blizzard," Kotick said in a statement. "We expect immediate shareholder benefits in the form of earnings-per-share accretion and strategic and operational independence. Our audiences and our incredibly talented employees around the world will benefit from a focused commitment to the creation of great games. Our shareholders and debt holders will have the benefit of an energized, invested, deeply committed management team focused on generating long-term, superior returns, and effectively managing our capital structure."

AT&T has confirmed that all new customers will only be able to buy Mobile Share data plans, which cost more but allow you to share data between multiple devices including tablets.

The new move will begin on October 25th with the elimination of all older plans. The company says it making such a move because its data-share plans are now its most popular, by far.

If you are an existing customer, you will remain grandfathered for life unless you decide to move to a data-share plan.

AT&T has faced increased competition from major rival Verizon and smaller rival T-Mobile, which has better prices and keeps increasing its phone selection and features.

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who has been great with Apple predictions and leaks, states that next year's sixth-generation iPad will have 40 percent higher pixel density than that of current models (including the yet-to-be released 2013 version), a huge boost.

There had been speculation that the next iPad could move away from the 9.7-inch form factor and get larger (such as 11.6-inches), but Kuo dismisses those rumors, at least for this year.

Kuo also discusses next year's iPad Mini successor (third-generation), and says that since this year's model will introduce a Retina display, there will be no resolution updates next year.

Apple will introduce its fifth-generation iPad and second-generation iPad Mini later this month on October 22nd.

Although Google has kept mum on the Android Jelly Bean update to its Google TV platform, it appears at least one team is working on it.

GTV Hacker team member CJ Heres has posted the open sourced code for LG's Google TV devices and a hacked ROM for the upcoming "Android TV" update (Jelly Bean).

The new ROM uses Linux 3.4.5, the same version as Jelly Bean, and is shown working on a Sony Google TV set-top. The ROM comes complete with NDK support and the ability to run a barebones XBMC (minus video streaming). Supposedly, the software was pulled from a Chinese Android device.

Google has confirmed that it will "bring the latest experience of Android and Chrome to devices," including Chromecast-esque features. There is still not timetable for this update.

Yahoo has acquired the young startup Bread, shutting down the service but integrating the tech and its employees.

Bread is a URL shortener that allowed users to make money through interstitial ads that promoted causes or products and was shown to people who clicked through links using Bread's URL shortener.

Both companies announced that Bread has shut down its service, and all links will go dead in the next 30 days. Yahoo recommends that if you still require shortening, use bit.ly.

Bread had raised $3.5 million since launching in 2011, and investors included Marc Ecko and Troy Carter.

CEO Alan Chan added: "When we launched Bread in 2011, our goal was to help social media influencers and publishers better monetize their online content. In Yahoo, we found a company that shares our vision. We are thrilled to join Yahoo's advertising team in Sunnyvale where we will be working on developing next-generation solutions for social and mobile publishers and advertisers."

Yahoo wrote in a statement: "We have acquired Bread, a company that created a simple way for social media influencers and publishers to monetize their content. The team's focus on delivering creative and targeted advertising across social media, desktop and mobile devices aligns perfectly with our mission to delight and inspire users."

Magnolia Pictures, an indie movie distributor in the U.S. has sent strange DMCA takedown requests to Google, asking the search giant to remove links to a few of their movie's IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes pages.

Thankfully, it appears that Google has refused to do so and has whitelisted many of the bigger sites.

Among the takedown requests are for URLs linking to a trailer and the IMDb listing of "Évocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie," the RT pages for "I Give It a Year" and "Mr. Nobody" and also a few news/blurb articles in Salon.

TorrentFreak says this not the first time Magnolia has done this, either. The distributor previously sent notices to remove Hollywood Reporter articles and other non-infringing links.

DMCA takedowns have become big business for Hollywood, with Google now removing up to 8 links per second.

Adam Boyes, Sony Computer Entertainment's VP of publisher and developer relations, has been quoted as saying video game exclusives serve little benefit.

"Right now exclusives are just a way for [console makers] to brag louder," said Boyes. "Nobody gains from exclusivity in perpetuity."

While exclusives certainly help to boost hardware sales, especially during new launches, Boyes says locking down games serve no benefit over the long run.

Sony has been big on exclusives, and now owns thirteen first-party studios including Naughty Dog, the maker of Uncharted, Last of Us, (and for some nostalgia, Crash Bandicoot). Additionally, it has paid a premium to indie studios to bring games to the PS4 before the Xbox One. That being said, Sony has also been encouraging multiplatform publishing, as they know having developers be successful is a win for everyone. "Developers now have the option to deliver on a huge number of platforms," Boyes noted. "We want developers to be successful."

As they do every year, Microsoft has unveiled new Xbox 360 holiday bundles for the U.S.

Microsoft has confirmed it will support the Xbox 360 for three more years, and there will be at least 100 new games released for the console in that time period.

The bundles are as follows:

250GB Holiday Bundle

The Xbox 360 250GB Holiday Value Bundle features two great games, Halo 4 and Tomb Raider, and 1 Month of Xbox Live Gold for a limited time this Holiday. Price: $299.99

4GB Kinect Holiday Bundle

The Xbox 360 4GB Kinect Holiday Value Bundle features two great games, Kinect Sports 2 and Kinect Adventures. It also includes 1 Month of Xbox Live Gold. Price: $299.99

250GB Kinect Holiday Bundle

The Xbox 360 250GB Kinect Holiday Value Bundle features three great games, Kinect Sports 2, Kinect Adventures, and Forza Horizon. It also includes 1 Month of Xbox Live Gold. Price: $399.99

Early this morning, a press release was distributed announcing Samsung's acquisition of Swedish fingerprint biometrics company Fingerprint Cards.

Both companies have since denied the report, but official news outlets like Business Wire are still hosting the release.

Fingerprint Card's Swedish customer operative, Helén Rigamonti responded to inquiries, stating that "we are looking into our procedures, but we followed all of our security procedures and we can't exactly tell you what happened as of now."

The acquisition would have made sense for Samsung, as its only real rival, Apple, recently unveiled the Touch ID fingerprint sensor for the iPhone 5S.

The Mercury News has posted some pictures of a model of Apple's upcoming 'spaceship' campus.

Apple has dubbed the building "Campus 2," and it is almost one mile in circumference with 3.1 million square feet.

The location will house an Office, Research and Development Building, a 1,000 seat Corporate Auditorium, a Corporate Fitness Center, 300,000 feet of Research Facilities, a Central Plant, a 150-acre interior courtyard and be home to 12,000 employees.

Located on a 175-acre plot of land bounded by North Wolfe Road and East Homestead Road, the structure will be completed in 2015 if the Cupertino City Council accepts the proposal on Oct. 15.

Multiple sources have reported that Nokia's oft-rumored 'Sirius' tablet is on its way, with a launch date set for the third week of November.

Sirius will officially be known as the Lumia 2520, and will be the rumored 10.1-inch Windows RT 8.1 device that has been spoken about for months now.

As is now standard, Nokia will price itself out of the market at $499, as there will be very little excitement for a Windows RT device that is priced the same as the latest iPad.

Although unconfirmed, it appears the device will have a 1080p display with ClearBlack polarizer technology, a quad-core Qualcomm 8974 (ARM) chipset, 32GB internal storage and 2GB RAM. On the software side, Nokia has had included some unique features such as "StoryTeller," allowing you to create full stories from your photos.

Dead Rising 3 will not be available at launch for the Xbox One console in Germany because the game has been refused an age-rating in the country.

The Bundeprüfstelle für Jugendgefährende Medien (BPJM) refused an age-rating to the game but did not clarify the reasoning. The likely reason is for the violent content of Dead Rising 3, as the BPJM can be very strict on age ratings for games depicting acts of violence.

"Dead Rising 3 will not be released in Germany as part of the Xbox One launch line-up on November 22, having been unable to attain an age-rating upon review by BPJM (Bundeprüfstelle für Jugendgefährende Medien), the country's entertainment software self-regulation body," a Microsoft representative said.

"While Microsoft is disappointed with this decision, we respect the views of the review panel and have withdrawn Dead Rising 3 from Germany's Xbox One launch line-up."

The news was reported by Games Welt (German).

(via: GI.biz)