Barnes & Noble announced it has struck deals with NBCUniversal, Fox Home Entertainment and other major studios to bring more movies and TV shows to its NOOK tablets.
Consumers can now stream or download popular television series or movie titles such as “Snow White and the Huntsman,” “Battleship,” “Ice Age: Continental Drift” and “Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax.”
The NOOK HD and NOOK HD+ (which started shipping last week) also connect users’ UltraViolet video libraries “right out of the box,” reports RTTNews.
“The company stated that customers will be able to easily link their UltraViolet accounts to the NOOK Cloud allowing them to view their previously and newly purchased UltraViolet-enabled movies and TV shows across NOOK HD and NOOK HD+ devices and free NOOK Video apps coming soon,” the article explains.
According to the press release: “In addition to purchasing movies and TV shows via NOOK Video, customers can shop for DVDs and Blu-ray Discs with the UltraViolet logo in Barnes & Noble and other retail stores, add them to their digital collection, and instantly watch compatible titles from the NOOK Cloud to enjoy wherever they go and however they choose.”
“This is certainly a huge bonus for consumers that have a big UV library, and coupled with all the new content, we wouldn’t be surprised if NOOK sales start stealing a little heat from the Fire,” comments Engadget in a related post, referring to NOOK competitor — the Kindle Fire from Amazon.
AU Optronics is making a 65-inch TV panel that it says will offer 4K TV resolution while consuming less power than current screens.
The company has developed an “IGZO panel that wields the very light-friendly technology to reach 4K resolutions without the usual penalties — as the screen doesn’t need much backlighting to illuminate all those pixels, it can stay slim and keep the shocking energy bills to a minimum,” reports Engadget.
“The smaller size and miserly power draw also leave a real chance that any pricing will be closer to the mere mortal realm than current 84-inch behemoths,” comments the post, referring to early Ultra HD offerings from LG and Sony.
The AU Optronics’ panel uses indium gallium zinc oxide as its semiconducting material. However, it has yet to be announced whether there are deals in place for companies to use AUO’s display.
Additionally, “the Taiwan firm has simultaneously developed a more conventional, 55-inch 4K screen with a wide color range as well as a 50-inch, 1080p panel with an extra-skinny 0.14-inch bezel,” notes the post.
“It’s at least good to know that there’s already competition for technology that’s just getting started,” suggests Engadget.
IBM researchers have developed a new technique that greatly enhances the efficiency of silicon replacement technology based on carbon nanotubes.
“Carbon nanotubes are very small structures made of a lattice of carbon atoms rolled into a cylindrical shape, and a team of eight researchers have figured out a way to precisely place them on a computer chip,” reports CNET.
IBM researchers used advanced chemical processing to fit 10,000 carbon nanotube transistors onto one chip.
This marks an increase of 100 times in density over previous attempts — or the equivalent of 1 billion nanotubes per square centimeter.
“The new technique helps improve the nanotubes’ chances in the hunt for alternatives once today’s silicon transistor technology runs out of steam,” explains the article. “Today’s chips are made of tiny electrical switches called transistors, and carbon nanotubes are a potential substitute for the silicon channels that carry electrical current in those transistors.”
Although IBM has yet to commit to a commercial version, it is worth noting the new process is compatible with today’s chipmaking technology.
“This new placement technique is readily implemented, involving common chemicals and processes, and provides a platform for future CNTFET experimental studies,” the paper said. “Furthermore, these results show that CNT placement via chemical self-assembly is a promising approach for developing a viable CNT logic technology compatible with existing semiconductor fabrication.”
Chinese telecom giant ZTE plans to release a line of HTML5 set-top boxes that will support 3D TV and video calling over Google’s Android platform, which powers 90 percent of the company’s smartphones.
“The announcement comes after ZTE reached agreement allowing the company access to the digital TV systems of Kudelski SA’s Nagra division,” reports Bloomberg.
“The agreement enables the Chinese company to sell intelligent set-top boxes to customers of Nagra, which has a 70 percent share of Europe’s market for cable TV devices, and 18 percent globally, ZTE said.”
The company also plans to launch a new mobile operating system with Mozilla, developer of the Firefox browser, to lessen its dependence on Android.
“ZTE’s shares traded in Hong Kong fell 6 percent, the most since August 27, to close at HK$12.60, while the Shenzhen-traded stock gained 2.6 percent to 11.45 yuan,” notes the post.
“A U.S. House intelligence committee report to be released [October 8] says the company poses a security threat,” notes Bloomberg, “and ‘cannot be trusted to be free of foreign state influence,’ according to a draft provided by the panel.”
Yahoo announced on Friday it will not support Microsoft’s “Do Not Track” feature on Internet Explorer 10 since the anti-monitoring signal is activated by default.
“All other browsers require users to turn DNT on themselves — which is just how the advertising industry likes it,” reports Digital Trends. “Do Not Track is currently an option in all major Web browsers. When turned on, DNT tells websites’ third-party advertisers that the user does not what his or her Web activity monitored for the purpose of receiving targeted advertisements.”
However, only a fraction of users take advantage of DNT. Since IE10 automatically turns the DNT signal on, Yahoo is “calling foul.”
“Recently, Microsoft unilaterally decided to turn on DNT in Internet Explorer 10 by default, rather than at users’ direction,” wrote Yahoo in a blog post. “In our view, this degrades the experience for the majority of users and makes it hard to deliver on our value proposition to them. It basically means that the DNT signal from IE10 doesn’t express user intent.”
Therefore, Yahoo will ignore any DNT signal from IE10 “in order to preserve that coveted personalized user experience,” explains the post.
“Our users have come to expect a personalized Yahoo! experience tailor-made for their lives — whether they’re checking local weather, sports scores, stock quotes, daily news, or viewing ads on our site,” wrote Yahoo. “We fundamentally believe that the online experience is better when it is personalized.”
“Just because the signal is turned on doesn’t mean that a consumer wants no services that involve tracking,” countered Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith.
Instead, Digital Trends recommends installing third-party tracker blockers such as Privacy Fix, Ghostery or Do Not Track Plus.
Entertainment industry reps gathered at the second annual DOE Network Association (DNA) Conference earlier this month at USC.
The DOE industry includes business interests involving theme parks, education and edutainment, retail and mall advertising and enhancement, exergaming and more.
“Many of the attendees are involved in pressing the limits of digital technology and physical design to greatly expand the storytelling and engagement possibilities of out-of-home venues,” reports Phil Lelyveld for ETC@USC (the event was covered as part of the ETC’s service to its membership).
Consultant Randy White of White Hutchinson Leisure explained that 60 percent of arcade dollars have shifted to home entertainment in the last five years.
“Americans go to the movies on average four times per year. But they eat out approximately 167 times per year,” Phil writes. “Dining is a highly social experience. The top 20 percent of income households account for 48 percent of out-of-home spending.”
White suggests that arcades retool facilities to “attract this upscale market with restaurants, Wi-Fi-equipped lounges, and games that allow for more group social and competitive activities.”
Kevin Williams, organizer of the DNA conference, discussed the industry’s need to better embrace technology.
“There is no reason, he argued, why devices could not recognize players when they return to a facility, coordinate communications as they interact with devices throughout the facility, and — if they opt-in — connect them with people who have similar interests and skill levels anywhere on the planet,” notes the post.
“The DOE industry can compete with rapidly improving home and personal entertainment options by offering attractive, safe locations to socialize, access high-end specialized devices, and have location-specific blended physical and virtual experiences.”
Japanese phone maker NTT Docomo is hoping consumers will be interested in its Grip UI technology, which offers functionality through squeezing and pinching phones.
“Consumers have gotten used to pinching and swiping,” reports Fortune. “Soon phone makers may be adding bending, folding and squeezing to their repertoire.”
The primary goal of Grip UI is to create a mobile phone that is easier to control with one hand, freeing up the user’s other hand for carrying a briefcase, for example, or holding on to a pole in the subway.
NTT Docomo’s Android-powered handset has 270 sensors in the phone’s body that enables users to execute operations by squeezing the bezel.
“It is the latest in a range of emerging technology haptic gadgets — and even bendable phones — that promise commercialization soon and that exploit our innate love of manipulating tactile, responsive objects,” explains the article.
“Pressure sensitivity is a very interesting direction for phones so this is great technology,” says Ivan Poupyrev, haptics researcher at Disney’s labs in Pittsburgh.
Flexible objects and haptic interfaces could eventually lead to innovative products such as thin bendable media cards, interactive maps, mini photo albums, advanced OLED screens and various malleable electronic devices.
GoPro recently launched its new Hero 3 action cam lineup — three HD cameras that are 30 percent smaller and 25 percent lighter than the previous models.
The rugged new cameras, designed for extreme sports and outdoor enthusiasts, feature built-in Wi-Fi, boosted frame rates and 4K resolution (for one model).
“The latest cameras aren’t just your average next-gen improvements over the predecessors, either: GoPro has added a slew of new features that completely evolve the Hero,” reports Digital Trends.
The 1080p lineup comes in three different models: the $200 5MP white edition, $300 11MP silver edition and $400 12MP black edition (which also shoots at 60 fps). All three models include built-in Wi-Fi.
The black edition is capable of shooting 4K resolution when the frame rate is dropped to 12 fps.
“The question you have to ask, of course, is whether that’s useful at all,” notes Digital Trends. “Shooting at this resolution means, in addition to a low frame rate (hello, choppy video), your camera is creating massive files.”
JVC has announced its LED edge-lit 55-inch smart TV. Bundled with 4 pairs of passive 3D glasses, the new model will run $1,300 when it becomes available in January.
“When JVC merged with its subsidiaries to form JVC Kenwood Corps, many assumed — and the company’s public statements indicated — that it would be narrowing its focus, directing its attention towards home and car audio, and effectively ceding the TV market to its competitors,” notes Digital Trends.
“It has certainly spun a 180 by announcing its new 55-inch JLE55SP4000 XinemaView 3D HDTV. Further confounding industry analysts is the fact that the TV is just the initial entry in an entire line, which the company is calling BlackSapphire.”
Specifications include built-in Wi-Fi, a QWERTY keyboard, 1080p full HD and 120Hz refresh rate, built-in woofer and 45 watts of output power.
The set features USB, HDMI, component and composite inputs and comes pre-loaded with Netflix, Vudu, YouTube and Pandora.
“The TV has onboard 802.11n wireless and boasts a number of apps including, uniquely, the Slingbox Player,” reports CNET in its review. “This is the first TV that enables users to serve content from a Slingbox in another room, or anywhere in the world.”
LG recently held a launch event to debut its first Ultra HD television. The company says the 4K smart 3D TV will be offered for $19,999.
“The LG 84LM9600 has a native screen resolution of 3840 x 2160, four times the resolution of a typical 1080p television,” reports Digital Trends. “The 84-inch LED Ultra HD panel also includes LG’s proprietary ‘Resolution Upscaler Plus’ technology to up-convert 1080p content to the Ultra HD resolution.”
For gaming, the TV allows two people to compete in a multiplayer game without the need for split screen. “Using glasses that are sold separately, the television is simultaneously displaying two video feeds and each pair of glasses is designed to pick up a specific feed,” explains the post.
LG’s Ultra HD set will ship bundled with six pairs of flicker-free 3D glasses. The TV also includes a 2D-to-3D conversion feature.
“While the massive panel is just 1.57-inches thick, the television is over 150 pounds in weight plus another 25 pounds for the stand,” writes Digital Trends.
The set features built-in Wi-Fi, LG’s gesture system with Magic Remote, four HDMI inputs, three USB 2.0 inputs, and a 10-speaker system rated at 50 watts.
“The television ties into LG’s Smart TV ecosystem, so consumers will have access to plenty of applications like Netflix, Facebook, Vudu, Skype and Hulu Plus,” adds the post.
LG says the sales price in stores may eventually be closer to $16,999. The only comparable Ultra HD TV to be offered this year is Sony’s 84-inch model, which lists on the Sony site at $24,999.
Local TV stations have collected $1.15 billion in political ad spending as of the end of September, reports analysts at Wells Fargo.
When considering network and national ads, the total increases to $1.33 billion. The total for September alone in local ads was $304.6 million.
“Of the $1.15 billion spent through September 30 at the local-station level, 42.2 percent was on presidential campaigns; 36.9 percent for congressional; 17.7 percent on ballot issues; and 3.2 percent ‘driven by’ presidential and senatorial advertising,” details TV Technology.
The top markets with the most exposure as a percentage of market revenue include Butte-Bozeman, Montana; Great Falls, Montana; Sioux City, Iowa; Davenport, Iowa and Glendive, Montana.
“Sinclair, Gray Television, LIN TV and NBC-owned stations have the most exposure in hot political markets,” notes the post.
The top markets in terms of absolute dollars include Washington, D.C.; Cleveland, Ohio; Las Vegas, Nevada; Tampa, Florida and Orlando, Florida.
“NBC, News Corp., CBS and Sinclair have the most exposure in these larger markets,” explains TV Technology.
The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences held its 64th Primetime Emmy Engineering Awards last week in Hollywood.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) and the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) both received Engineering Emmys.
“A first for the 92-year-old ASC, its Emmy was awarded for its ‘ASC Color Decision List,’ a development of the society’s technology committee that is used to communicate consistent color information from a shoot through postproduction — enabling cinematographers to create and maintain an artistic look,” writes Carolyn Giardina for The Hollywood Reporter.
“AMPAS was recognized for the Academy Color Encoding System (ACES), a standards-based color management architecture designed for the production, mastering and long-term archiving of motion picture and television (non-live broadcast) content.”
Additionally, Kodak was honored with the Philo T. Farnsworth Award for the company’s contributions to the television industry. Richard Green, founder and former president and CEO of Cable Television Laboratories, was given the Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award.
“During the ceremony, the participants also paid tribute to last year’s Charles F. Jenkins Award winner, industry visionary Bob Lambert, who passed away last month,” writes Giardina. “Lambert had been unable to attend the 2011 ceremony, and a clip from his recorded acceptance was played in his memory.”
Filmmaker and inventor Douglas Trumbull likes to make films that are an immersive experience, and hopes to use larger, brighter screens as well as 3D and high frame rates to improve the cinematic experience.
“Most people rightly think movies are a storytelling medium, but for me it is an experience-creating medium,” he said during a SMPTE keynote this week in Hollywood. “I’m very passionate about the idea of creating movies that are powerfully immersive.”
“Trumbull — who developed the Showscan system that incorporated 65mm film at 60 frames per second — admitted to ‘tremendous disappointment’ when years ago his large format system didn’t get off the ground,” writes Carolyn Giardina for The Hollywood Reporter.
However, he argues that the current troubled state of the film industry calls for innovation. “For movies to survive as a business, we have to make it better. It is just not good enough when the multiplex is [also available in one’s] pocket,” he said.
“You can’t globally apply one frame rate to all movies,” Trumbull added, emphasizing the need for the right tool for each project. “24 frames per second looks great for dramatic performances. [Higher frame rates might be applied] to giant screens, hyper-reality, [viewer] participation in the movie.”
“Trumbull is aiming to provide an aesthetic choice by developing a system that effectively allows filmmakers to embed high frame rates such as 48 or 60 fps into a standard 24 fps movie,” writes Giardina. “He refers to this system as Showscan Digital.”
He is currently in the process of planning a movie to be shot at 120 fps using virtual sets.
The iPad mini does not have a Retina display and its A5 processor is a generation old, but the convenience of the new device’s size holds promise for increased mobile game play.
“We see a bunch of things that are good for gamers here,” explains Doug Scott, VP of marketing and revenue at DeNA’s Ngmoco game division. “It’s backward compatible with iPad software. And any time that Apple jumps into a market, it legitimizes it and brings a lot of attention to that device type. There will be a rising tide for mini tablets, and that will drive awareness for gamers who might not have considered a tablet.”
“It will use the same graphics and design as the iPad, this makes it easy for small developers have one app launch across many different devices, which give them access to more users without needing to do extra work or market to a different store,” says Rob Carroll, director of publishing at Tapjoy.
“The larger screen size allows for more detailed games over the phone size,” adds Carroll. “Better looking, richer experiences are good for developers, it allows them to create more immersive game experiences. The smaller size should bring in new users that weren’t comfortable with the larger tablet size, expanding the tablet market and giving developers more reach.”
On the other end, Jesse Divnich, VP of insights and analysis at EEDAR, suggests the device may cause fragmentation. “One of the many — and there are many — reasons why developers lead on the iOS devices, is that there is at least a good understanding that 60 percent of actively used iPhone’s are 2 years or newer.”
“My primary issue is that if the tablet market, much like the PC and laptop market, goes down this road of having both low-end to high-end processing power, it will be difficult to determine market sizes, and developers may be forced to program to the lowest common denominator.”
Other game developers suggest it will encourage Android to up its 3D capabilities. One exec says the mini could help double the size of the iPad gaming market in the next year.
According to Chartboost, the iPad currently accounts for 27 percent of iOS traffic, while the iPhone accounts for 56 percent. However, “the average number of daily game play sessions is 10 percent higher for iPad users than iPhone users,” notes the post. Apple’s Game Center currently has 160 million users.
Microsoft officially unveiled its new Windows 8 operating system and Surface tablet to the public on Thursday.
During the New York City event, the company demonstrated the tile-based touch system on a collection of desktops, laptops and tablets from OEM partners.
“While Microsoft executives highlighted the differences between Windows 8 and Windows RT, a distinction in desperate need of clarification for consumers, the event unveiled no surprises or high-profile app announcements,” reports PCWorld. “‘More to come’ was an oft-repeated phrase.”
Users of Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP can upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for $40.
The Surface tablet is available starting at $500 for the 32GB version. It will initially come with Windows RT, a stripped down version of Windows 8 that uses ARM processors and runs apps specifically designed for the new Windows UI. The company says versions of Surface that run on Windows 8 will be available at a later date.
“While much ado was made over how easy it is to navigate apps on Windows 8 machines, either using a touchscreen or trackpad, there were no new app announcements,” notes the post. “The online Windows Store, which is now open, is notably bereft of big-name apps like YouTube and Twitter.”
However, the store touts big numbers overall. When Apple’s App Store debuted in 2008 it had some 500 apps. Android Market (now Google Play) had about 2,300 apps a few months following its launch the same year. Earlier this week, the Windows Store opened with 7,873 apps available worldwide (88 percent of which are free).
Barnes & Noble announced it has struck deals with NBCUniversal, Fox Home Entertainment and other major studios to bring more movies and TV shows to its NOOK tablets.
