MosChip Semiconductor Technology introduced its Personal Computer Virtualization System last week, which allows users to play games, surf the Internet and stream videos on their TVs.
The PCVS box is built around the company’s MCS8142 chip that “facilitates video streaming, gaming and also virtual functioning of multi-purpose home networking,” reports Business Standard. “While the PCVS box is driving the PC to churn out a movie, games or other entertainment applications to your TV, the PC is still available for serious business work.”
The company is pursuing possible bundling deals with manufacturers of set-top boxes, TVs and PCs.
“We will be launching the product in countries like China, the U.S., India, Japan and Taiwan. Revenues from this product are likely to trickle in from the second quarter of the current financial year,” explained Ramchandra Reddy, chairman and chief executive officer of MosChip.
“Even if we can ship about 500,000 units, we will be doing good business. China alone has the appetite to consume about 20 to 30 million units because of higher adoption levels,” he said.
LinkedIn announced it will acquire presentation service SlideShare for $118.8 million in cash and stock.
SlideShare will continue to operate as a standalone service, while LinkedIn will integrate some of its features.
“The SlideShare acquisition is comprised of about 45 percent cash and 55 percent stock, and is slated to close this quarter, LinkedIn said. Founded in 2006, SlideShare hosts more than seven million presentations and fits LinkedIn’s mission of ‘making professionals more productive,’ executives said during a conference call,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
“Revenue has surged at LinkedIn, which sells recruiting tools to businesses and offers premium subscriptions to users eager to network,” adds the article.
LinkedIn’s net revenue more than doubled in Q1 to $188.5 million. Revenue from premium subscriptions jumped 91 percent and revenue from recruiting services more than doubled.
Microsoft has announced that its new Windows 8 operating system will not play DVDs unless users purchase an upgrade.
“Users will either have to pay to upgrade to the ‘Media Center’ or download extra, third-party software if they do want to play films,” reports The Telegraph.
According to the official Building Windows 8 blog, the change is in response to television and DVD use on PCs being “in sharp decline”. “It claims that Microsoft would have to spend ‘a significant amount in royalties’ to offer support for optical media in future software,” explains the article.
Microsoft will support online media including standards such as H.264, VC-1, MP4, AAC, WMA, MP3, PCM and Dolby Digital Plus codecs. Ultrabooks and tablets running Windows 8 will not have DVD drives.
Nokia plans to include tablets and hybrid mobile devices in its future product offerings, Jorma Ollila said in an interview before stepping down as chairman last week. However, a timetable was not provided.
“Nokia lost its place as the world’s largest handset maker to Samsung Electronics Co. last quarter,” reports Businessweek. “The company still hasn’t produced inexpensive smartphones with broad developer support to compete with Google Inc.’s Android, more than a year after announcing its shift to Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Phone.”
Ollila was CEO from 1992 to 2006, during which Nokia became the world’s largest handset maker. Finnish entrepreneur Risto Siilasmaa will succeed Ollila as chairman.
In a related Computerworld article, Nokia announced that it would ship a 41-megapixel camera phone to Russia and India this month. The company says availability of the Symbian-based phone in other countries will be announced in the near future.
The PureView 808 was developed with lens-maker Carl Zeiss. Nokia has extended its deal with Zeiss to continue developing PureView for future smartphones.
A partial verdict has been issued in Oracle’s copyright infringement case against Google. The federal jury has determined that Google violated some Java copyrights owned by Oracle while building the Android operating system.
However, the jury was at a deadlock regarding whether Google’s practices fell under the fair use provision, which “allows excerpts of copyrighted work to appear in other creative expressions, such as books, movies and computer software,” reports Businessweek.
Arguing that the verdict has no legal standing without the question of fair use answered, Google is expected to pursue a mistrial.
“The impasse reached Monday in San Francisco hobbles Oracle Corp.’s attempt to extract hundreds of millions of dollars from Google on grounds that the search leader pirated parts of Android from Oracle’s Java programming system,” explains the article.
In a statement, Google said it realizes “that fair use and infringement are two sides of the same coin. The core issue is whether the APIs here are copyrightable, and that’s for the court to decide.”
Oracle’s statement reads: “The overwhelming evidence demonstrated that Google knew it needed a license and that its unauthorized fork of Java in Android shattered Java’s central write once run anywhere principle.”
ListenLater is a new cloud-based automation tool from streaming specialist StreamOn that helps radio stations create podcasts.
The digital archive/content management program sorts content for podcasts and pulls material that can’t be used due to copyright issues.
Basic editing tools offer stations the ability to manually customize content before posting to iTunes or websites.
“ListenLater also operates as a DVR by archiving all of a station’s output and then making much of it available as on-demand programming,” reports Radio World. “Stations can flag clips for distribution as social media. According to a release, the program provides flexible advertisement placement options and swapping for replayed programming.”
According to StreamOn President Roger Charest, broadcasters can use ListenLater to redistribute live content and expand revenue with digital advertising. “For listeners, we’re giving them the ability to replay live radio broadcasts and capture and share memorable radio content and experiences with others via social media,” he said.
One day after Microsoft announced its $300 million investment in the Nook, Barnes & Noble chief exec William Lynch unveiled plans to add NFC hardware to future versions of the e-reader.
“By adding NFC chips into the next generation of Nooks, consumers will be able to take the new Nook into any Barnes & Noble retail location and simply scan any print version of a book to bring up a synopsis as well as customer and editorial reviews,” explains Digital Trends.
“This would allow anyone that’s interested in buying the print version to immediately read feedback about the quality of the book before purchase,” adds the post.
Digital Trends notes that NFC technology is faster than QR code scanning: “Consumers with smartphones can scan a QR code or a barcode in order to bring up information about a product, but that process is more time consuming than scanning with NFC. While it’s clear that Barnes & Noble management is attempting to gain an advantage over Amazon by leveraging approximately 700 physical locations with this new concept, it’s unclear how many Nook owners will make a trip into the store instead of simply browsing titles at home through the e-reader.”
Ongo is a news curation platform that leverages a team of editors to combine automation with manual curation.
“While content curation platforms are using algorithms to recommend the news, Ongo has a different tactic in mind,” reports Digital Trends. “It uses a team of editors to handpick the latest, need-to-know news for its paid subscribers.”
The article suggests that Ongo is unique in two ways:
“First, it has built its platform based on authoritative sources of news from the New York Times and Reuters. It prides itself on a strict standard of quality for news delivered to Ongo users, while boasting partnerships with the top content providers within each genre of news.”
“Second, Ongo is run using an internal algorithm recommending a selection of 10,000 articles daily for its editors to choose from. The editors will then curate authoritative and must-know news. It’s a daunting number, but with 40 publishing partners representing just over 100 publications, 60 RSS titles curated from the Web, plus 80 more publication deals in the works, this is just the beginning.”
Ongo currently has 20,000 subscribers. Ad-free use is available for a base subscription price of $1.99/month.
LG plans to introduce two smart TV models later this month based on Google TV software. They are the first among a series of Google TVs expected from manufacturers such as Sony, Samsung and Vizio.
The 3D-capable LG sets will feature Web access and gesture-based remote controls that include a QWERTY keyboard.
“Priced at $1,699 for a 47-inch model and $2,299 for another measuring 55 vertical inches, LG’s so-called ‘G2 Series’ televisions were unveiled in January at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas,” notes paidContent.
“Google is hoping that Korea-headquartered LG, which is the second biggest manufacturer of TVs, can help kickstart its Google TV platform, which saw one of its two initial hardware partners, Logitech abandon the technology after disappointing early sales last year,” explains the article. “LG, meanwhile, is hoping that connected TVs based on the popular Android software architecture will boost TV sales.”
The post includes a 17-minute video featuring Mario Queiroz, VP of product development for Google, at last year’s paidContent Entertainment conference.
Walmart and Disney have launched an in-store augmented-reality campaign incorporating the studio’s upcoming movie “The Avengers.”
Customers can download the Super Hero Augmented Reality app that includes social media links, and engage in an in-store scavenger hunt for images of the super heroes.
While in Walmart stores, players can point their smartphones at super hero images to unlock that hero’s powers. “Users who collect all five Super Hero powers will have a chance to defeat the bad guy and win the game,” reports Mobile Commerce Daily.
“The idea of augmented reality shopping is one that is coming, whether through a smartphone or Google glasses, it is going to happen as a way for finding the way around a store,” said Tom Nawara, vice president of emerging solutions and innovation at Acquity Group, Chicago. “So getting customers used to this type of functionality is good overall and if you can do it in a way that tied into a campaign, all the better.”
According to a new report from the Digital Entertainment Group, U.S. consumers spent $1.22 billion in the first quarter of 2012 to watch video they streamed or downloaded from the Internet.
This figure represents a 74 percent increase over the same period last year. The study also found a 25 percent drop in the number of people renting DVDs and Blu-ray discs.
“That shouldn’t come as much of a shock when you factor in Blockbuster’s continuing woes and the migration of Netflix subscribers to digital streaming,” comments The Verge.
“Still, it’s not all doom and gloom in rental land, as Redbox brought in $523 million, which represents growth of 30 percent compared to 2011 and accounts for nearly half of the entire segment,” adds the post. “It would seem those studio-imposed delays haven’t had poised much of a financial burden after all.”
Retailers sold 2.4 million Blu-ray players during the quarter, while sales of Blu-ray discs increased 23 percent to $541 million.
The Q4 2011 Nielsen Cross-Platform Report is out, and according to the ratings firm television is still king, but video delivery may be shifting.
Nielsen found that the number of homes with an HDTV grew by more than 8 million in the past year to 80.2 million. Traditional television viewing (live and/or timeshifted) still accounts for more than 33 hours per week.
However, gaming consoles are becoming a “secondary gateway to TV content” — consoles can be found in 45 percent of TV homes — and 33.5 million mobile phone owners now watch video content on their phones.
Interestingly, while time-shifted content experienced an increase in viewing time, mobile phone and Internet viewing were flat year-over-year.
“There are a lot of different ways to look at Nielsen’s data, but one thing is abundantly clear — its research shows that most people still watch traditional TV, and spend a lot more time watching there than on other products,” comments The Verge. “Perhaps the cord-cutting revolution is still a ways off.”
According to IMS Research, Internet-connected television sets will represent 70 percent of all TVs shipped in 2016. CE manufacturers are forecast to earn $117 billion in revenue as a result.
The report notes that Internet-connected sets accounted for one-quarter of global TV shipments last year.
IMS also forecasts that 80 percent of TVs shipped in 2016 will feature built-in Wi-Fi connectivity and nearly 30 percent will incorporate gesture, motion or voice recognition controls.
V2M adds, “the opportunity for video service providers of all stripes is not to be underestimated. Take, for instance, the opportunity to drive upper-tier broadband sales. Higher usage of connected TVs to access, say, Netflix or VUDU, will require increased bandwidth availability. Increases in consumers opting for higher broadband tiers can aid in the quest for OTT monetization, while offsetting increased investment in broadband infrastructure.”
Nvidia has announced its dual-chip GeForce GTX 690 graphics card, featuring two GK104 graphics processors with Kepler architecture, using 28-nanometer process technology.
“Based on two GeForce GTX 680 graphics processors, the model GTX 690 essentially doubles their power with 3072 stream processors, 256 texture units, 64 raster operating units as well as two 256-bit memory buses,” reports X-bit Labs. “The chip is clocked at 915MHz, whereas 4GB of memory operate at whopping 6.008GHz.”
The card supports “DirectX 11.1, OpenGL 4.2, OpenCL 1.2, stereoscopic-3D, multi-monitor capability, PhysX, 4-way multi-GPU, PCI Express 3.0 and so on,” explains the post.
The GeForce GTX includes an array of innovative features such as efficient cooling using dual vapor chambers, a durable exterior frame made from trivalent chromium-plated aluminum, and a a 10-layer copper printed circuit board.
Priced at $999, the card will be available in limited quantities this week.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced that it plans to keep the Academy Awards at the former Kodak Theatre located at Hollywood & Highland.
Additionally, Dolby Laboratories has signed on as the 3,400-seat complex’s new name sponsor, in a 20-year deal with owner CIM Group.
Dolby replaces Kodak, which filed for bankruptcy earlier his year. CIM began looking for a new sponsor when Kodak asked to be let out of its contract.
Although AMPAS had entertained offers to relocate the Oscar ceremony, the board voted unanimously in March to stay in Hollywood.
“As part of Dolby’s 20-year naming rights deal with CIM, which begins this summer, the theater will be renamed the Dolby Theatre and the technology company will upgrade it with its latest equipment, including a new sound system,” reports the Los Angeles Times.
“Along with getting its name mentioned frequently in the Oscars broadcasts and coverage leading up to the show,” reports CNN in a related article, “Dolby will use the theater as a ‘world class showcase for Dolby innovation,’ said Ramzi Haidamus, Dolby’s sales and marketing executive vice president.”
