Hewlett-Packard will start selling its new TouchPad on Friday, entering the tablet market currently dominated by the iPad 2.
The new tablet, starting at $500, features a 10-inch screen with “a slick, distinctive software interface.”
Walt Mossberg likes TouchPad’s UI but downgrades it for poor battery life, a small number of apps, and an operating system that is buggy and requires regular rebooting.
The TouchPad will initially be available in two versions (16 or 32 gigabytes of storage) and will only offer Wi-Fi connectivity.
Mossberg: “At least for now, I can’t recommend the TouchPad over the iPad 2.”
MediaMall, the group behind the popular PlayOn media software, announced this week a closed beta of an online service that allows users to record online video for later viewing (including offline).
PlayLater works similarly to a DVR, allowing “recording” of online video from sites such as Hulu, Netflix, Amazon and major networks.
Early reporting suggests playback of DRM protected files only on approved programs running on PC (using Windows Media Player), Android, iOS, Google TV, game systems, etc.
PlayLater is expected to eventually be available for $5/month, or $50/year.
CrunchGear reports: “Believe it or not, the term DVR is actually appropriate here. I’ve used the service and it actually records the programming and wraps the video file in a DRM-laced .plv container that’s only playable on approved programs.”
Videogaming events today attract hundreds of thousands of simultaneous streaming video viewers.
A recent “League of Legends” competition drew more than 200,000 simultaneous viewers, according to game provider own3D.tv (the Austria-based company has more than four million unique viewers per month).
95 percent of the viewers watch in HD.
Early numbers suggest this is a global trend (only 15-18 percent are U.S. viewers).
Others are getting on board; live streaming provider Justin.tv created TwitchTV to offer e-sports as a live sporting event.
Google quietly launched WDYL.com this week, a new site that presents search results across 20 different products/widgets on one page.
The acronym asks the question: “What do you love?”
WDYL.com was launched without fanfare or marketing, and while little more is known about it at this time, a box at the bottom of each search result suggests: “More coming soon.”
According to TechCrunch: “The most striking thing about the new site is that it seems pretty well designed — not always a given with Google.”
SMPTE recently held its 3D Conference for Media and Entertainment in New York City.
One significant outcome resulted from scientists who are studying how the brain processes visual images.
They suggest that Hollywood needs an improved academic understanding of stereoscopic 3D to avoid making viewers uncomfortable.
It was recommended that content creators and vision scientists get together to evaluate different demographics, 2D-to-3D conversion, potential harmful effects, eye fatigue and much more.
“The problem is that we’re looking at this from a top down perspective instead from the bottom up. With HDTV, it took us more than 20 years to get the science right. Here [with 3D] we’re starting with the screen and working backwards. That doesn’t seem right,” suggested Joseph Flaherty, senior VP of technology at the CBS Network.
The Zynga Game Network, maker of online video games, is expected to file for its initial public stock offering this week.
The company’s games, including “Cityville” and “Farmville” are immensely popular on Facebook, with 270 million active users.
The stock sale is expected to value the company between $15 and $20 billion, making it one of the largest technology offerings since Google’s IPO in 2004.
News Corp. is in the process of selling once-popular social networking site MySpace to Specific Media, an Irvine-based ad network.
The cash and stock deal is reportedly valued at $35 million — a mere 6 percent of the $580 million News Corp. paid for the site in 2005 (although News Corp. claims it made back its investment earlier from a Google ad deal).
The one-time leading social networking destination, MySpace was decimated by the global popularity of Facebook.
Specific Media is expected to return MySpace to its music roots as a location to discover new bands and songs.
The sale comes in the same week that Google announces its own new networking service, designed to directly challenge Facebook for dominance in the space.
Facebook is presently valued at more than $70 billion.
WESH-TV, the NBC affiliate in Orlando, launched a 99-cent iPhone app for updates in the Casey Anthony trial (involving the Florida mother accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter).
The app recently reached the #1 spot in paid iPhone news apps, and is currently holding the #2 position.
The app features liveblog, breaking updates, court documents, photos, video recaps, courtroom footage and packages produced by the station.
A major surprise has been the public interest in more than 20,000 pages of court documents.
Since the app is targeting national and international audiences, the branding focuses on Hearst Television (not the local TV station).
Microsoft’s ad division has created a research partnership with Nielsen dubbed the Television Online Effect program.
The project’s primary goal is to better learn how consumers are influenced by TV and the Web in terms of engagement with marketing messages.
The research, which begins in August, will use Nielsen’s TV/Internet Fusion panel and customized research Microsoft will develop.
The pilot will initially launch with entertainment advertisers, but will most likely expand in the future.
“If advertisers are looking to capture food enthusiasts for the launch of a new cooking show or networks are looking to drive Moms to primetime programming, they can leverage our exciting new service,” commented Microsoft’s Joslyn Moore in a blog post.
Topcon’s IP-S2 Lite system — unveiled at Tokyo’s recent 3D & Virtual Reality Expo — creates 3D video footage that can be analyzed and augmented with virtual objects.
Topcon’s road condition evaluation system features a 360-degree camera, GPS and inclinometer.
The system also measures height, distance and surface area within individual frames in order to insert computer-generated images and to construct maps of disaster-stricken regions.
Japan’s Geospatial Information Authority used the technology after this year’s earthquakes to map coastal areas, providing helpful visuals of the damage.
A consortium in the United Kingdom that includes Microsoft, BT and the BBC will test a white space radio service in Cambridge to determine effectiveness and any possible interference with TV transmission.
White space radio has been proposed to complete the UK’s broadband coverage.
Data rates range from 10kbps to 16Mbps depending on distance from the base station.
UK could be covered with 6,000 base stations on existing cell towers and provide low bandwidth services.
Facebook “Credits” began as a means of purchasing virtual goods for social games, and then were used as a tool for other digital goods such as movies.
Companies are now leveraging Credits in a new way — to attract consumers to their brands via the social network.
The ifeelgoods platform helps retailers provide consumers with Facebook Credits, which can then be used for tasks including: “liking the retailer on Facebook, signing up for an email distribution list, making a purchase, checking into a location or answering a survey.”
The company suggests that Credits may be more effective than offering a coupon or discount code, “because consumers like to believe they are receiving something, especially if they know they don’t have to make a purchase.”
Facebook users can then post related information to their wall (ifeelgoods claims consumers are willing to share this information 60 to 70 percent of the time).
