Television broadcasters, which are suing for an injunction to shut down Aereo, are also said to be considering back-up plans in case the Supreme Court rules in favor of the video startup. Options being considered range from lobbying Congress for legislative solutions to possibly transitioning from broadcast to cable transmission. Broadcasters such as ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC contend that Aereo is violating copyright law by capturing over-the-air signals and streaming them via the Web to paying customers. Read More »

Wireless carrier Sprint and streaming music service Spotify are reportedly joining forces to push the music service out to Sprint’s customers, similar to a plan already underway between AT&T and Beats Music. The new partnership will include free Spotify trials for Sprint customers and the option to pay for the music service using Sprint’s billing system. Spotify’s premium service costs $9.99 per month, although some Sprint customers will likely qualify for discounts. Read More »

• Netflix Streaming Speeds on Comcast Jump 65 Percent After Controversial Deal
• How Data Will Play a Role in TV Upfronts
• Google Says Digital Activity Impacts Television Viewing
• Twitter and Facebook Wield Little Influence on TV Watching
• Will VR Make Flat Panels Obsolete? Oculus’ Founder Gives it 20 Years
• Pandora Launches iOS App for the Pebble Smartwatch
• This Could Be Amazon’s Fire Phone, and It Has a 3D Screen
• Amazon Says No to Accepting Bitcoin, Maybe to Building an Amex or Visa Competitor
• Jeff Bezos to Amazon Payments Team: Move Faster
• Google Tests a Way to Follow You to the Mall
• Why People Pirate Game of Thrones, a Global Cost Breakdown
• Nordic Game Makers Seek Winning Streak
• Why Futurologists are Always Wrong — and Why We Should Be Skeptical of Techno-Utopians
• A Talk with Simon Head, Author of ‘Mindless: Smarter Machines are Making Dumber Humans’
• Your Reality is 15 Seconds in the Making

Maker Studios announced that Disney’s offer to acquire the YouTube multichannel network (MCN) has been approved by a majority of its shareholders, despite Relativity Media throwing its hat in the ring with a surprise bid of $1.1 billion (mostly stock) on Sunday. Also, the Superior Court for the State of California in L.A. yesterday rejected a request by former Maker executives, including former CEO Danny Zappin, seeking to block the shareholder vote on the proposed Disney acquisition. Read More »

Amazon announced that it will acquire comiXology, the digital comics platform that had its 200-millionth download last fall. With the sales of physical comics fading, comiXology is developing tech to allow the craft to move online. The company operates a comics store and a mobile comics app, which was the top-grossing non-game iPad app from 2011 to 2013. Its library includes 40,000 comics from 75 major publishers. ComiXology also opened a self-publishing platform last year. Read More »

During its upfront presentation in New York last week, CNN introduced a live news service called Watch CNNx that allows viewers to choose content in real time. The service will be available on iPads and on TVs through set-top boxes later this year. Alongside the live CNN feed, CNNx offers a rundown of stories that appear on the right side of the screen, while a menu of digital features, including photo galleries, appear at the bottom. Additionally, CNN plans to use Flipboard’s display ad format on its applications. Read More »

• This is What Pay
• Advertisers Dilemma
• Wearable Tech Gain
• The Next Big Thing
• How Oculus and
• Google to Buy Titan
• Google Invests in
• Report: 44% of
• BuzzFeed Inks TV Tune-In Pacts with Bravo, IFC
• Staples Wants to Bring 3D Printing to the Masses
• Construction on the World’s First 3D-Printed House is Underway in Amsterdam
• ‘Airbnb for Retail’ Startup Storefront Raises $7.3M from Spark Capital, Expands to LA
• The Art of ‘Something from Nothing’
• Selfie Mirror Represents Peak Vanity
• Hardcore Coddling: How Eleven Madison Park Modernized Elite, Old-School Service

• Amazon Preparing
• Bend It, Charge It
• The Sweet Rigs and
• The Battle for Late Night Viewers on Screens of All Sizes
• PC Gaming: Not Just Still Alive, But Still Dominant, Says PAX East Panel
• Next Attenborough Documentary Being Filmed for Oculus Rift
• YouTube Courting Mainstream Magazines
• Building Blocks: How Project Ara is Reinventing the Smartphone
• China’s Xiaomi Plans to Give iPhone Cool at Half Price
• A Wearables Startup Playbook
• Are Mirrorless Cameras in Canon’s Future? Taking a Look at the EOS M System
• Digital Trends: Nikon Df Review
• New Technologies Fuel Film Festival
• A Non-Techie Tries to Build a Tech Company

According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), interactive advertising revenues for 2013 hit an all-time high of $42.8 billion in the U.S. The report indicates that the figure represents a 17 percent jump from the previous year’s landmark revenues of $36.6 billion. Notably, the 2013 total also marks the first time that Internet ad revenues exceeded those of broadcast television advertising ($40.1 billion). In addition, mobile experienced triple-digit growth for the third year in a row. Read More »

Popular websites have been scrambling to update software and Internet users have been encouraged to change their passwords following the news of an encryption flaw known as the Heartbleed bug, which is already being categorized as one of the biggest security threats the Internet has ever experienced. The bug has affected a number of websites and services (although the extent is not clear), and may have exposed account info including passwords and credit card numbers going back two years. UPDATE: Cisco and Juniper said yesterday that some of their networking products contain the bug, which means sensitive info may have been obtained while moving across corporate networks, home networks and the Internet. Read More »

While developers consider a number of industries for which Google Glass may have useful applications, some are considering the headset’s potential use in the news business. Professor Robert Hernandez of USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism is offering a course this fall on Glass Journalism. “The class will consist of teams (Journalist, Designer, Developer) working together to research and develop different types of news apps designed specifically for the Glass platform,” reads a Tumblr post about the course. Read More »

Turner Sports announced that NCAA March Madness Live set a new record with 69.7 million live video streams collectively across platforms. The 2014 tournament’s live video streams were up 42 percent compared to the previous year. NCAA March Madness Live — in partnership between the NCAA, Turner Sports and CBS Sports — netted 15 million hours of live video consumed, which is also a new all-time record. Live streams via tablets and smartphones were up 71 percent this year. Read More »

Chute helps clients take the best content created by a brand’s most loyal customers, people who create content that features their brand, and use it in marketing and ad campaigns with the customers’ permission. Chute scours the Web for user generated content of all types — text, photo, music, video — that celebrates a client’s brand. Using both online metrics and human screening, they select the best examples of content: selfies holding a favorite drink, a post about a store experience, a fake commercial for a favorite car, etc. Read More »

DataFission has developed generally applicable technology that can index, search and report on all forms of unstructured, metadata-free digital data. With deep roots in military research, this San Jose company has developed algorithms that can index files and streams of data, without human interaction, in one sweep. The system can index any type of data, including video, still images, music, audio tracks, text, software and metadata. According to its brochure, DataFission is ”Solving the world’s problem of searching the unsearchable.” Read More »

In one corner of the Zeiss NAB booth filled with video cameras and lenses, the latest model of the Zeiss Cinemizer head mounted display is plugged into a video camera. The Cinemizer features dual 870×500 pixel OLED displays. An optional soft-rubber Eye Shield blocks out all external light. Once plugged into the camera via a standard HDMI connector, the camera operator sees exactly what the camera sees. The camera controls can be overlain on the image, just as they can appear in the eye piece or screen on the camera itself.

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