Timing, Netflix and Apple may prove to be the three leading causes behind Blu-ray’s demise as a storage device, notes ReadWriteWeb.
Timing: Blu-ray came to prominence in early 2008 when Warner Brothers, Netflix, Walmart, and Best Buy decided to drop HD-DVD. But 2008 was also the beginning of the U.S. recession, and many people did not upgrade to a new player and a new TV.
Although more people have upgraded since then, a 2011 study shows that 57 percent of households still use standard DVD players.
Netflix: Streaming video services now dominate the market. “These days, every game console and most televisions bundle multiple streaming video services, every cable provider offers its own suite of pay-per-view titles, and iTunes offers thousands of films and TV episodes for purchase or rental,” explains ReadWriteWeb.
Apple: Since Sony led the drive behind Blu-ray, Apple failed to implement the technology into its devices. This led software publishers to use either DVDs or the cloud to ship their products. Even though Blu-ray would probably be the best option for software providers, consumer’s laptops cannot support the content.
For now, Blu-ray will survive because “Americans still like to own things,” suggests the post.
“Blu-ray is the most archivable, durable format for HD video storage. So until a cloud-based service emerges as a clear winner, there will be a case to keep that stack of discs by the TV. But all data storage formats run their course, and no amount of data-density improvements can stop the natural progression to streaming media.”
Square COO Keith Rabois claims “nearly all retailers” will soon ditch registers in favor of tablets. Rabois suggests the shift could happen within the next eighteen months.
“Everyone will be migrating to iPads and comparable devices, which will be powered by an app — that is, hopefully, Square,” says Rabois.
Of course, he could just be overly optimistic because of his ties to mobile payment company Square, but a “survey by the National Retail Federation last fall found that while only 6 percent of retailers said they used mobile point-of-sale devices, half of the respondents said at the time that they planned to adopt such devices over the next 18 months,” writes AllThingsD.
Market researcher NPD also reports that 75 percent of merchants plan to buy a tablet within the year.
“Essentially, Square’s biggest goal is to enable any merchant, regardless of their resources, to offer a mobile experience similar to the one Starbucks offers today through its application,” explains the article. “In August, Starbucks announced that it was investing in Square, and was going to start using it to process all of its credit and debit transactions.”
“Any merchant that is focused on customer service and the ambiance of their experience will be intrigued by what we offer,” claims Rabois.
Independent game developer Sos Sosowski has posted a message on The Pirate Bay inviting people to download Torrent versions of his game. He asks that “if you like it, throw some coins in my general direction,” but allows people to download the game for free.
Other independent artists have used “The Promo Bay” in the past (the site’s rotating “promotional apparatus” for lesser known artists), but most have been musicians. This is the first time an independent game maker has promoted a product in this way.
Sosowski began promoting his game, “McPixel,” in The Pirate Bay’s comments sections. He began “politely asking for donations and offering a few free, legitimate gift codes for those who felt they really couldn’t pay anything,” writes Ars Technica.
After the first day of his new business model, Sosowski says he sold over 300 copies of the game for an average of $1.43. He previously sold about 100 copies of “McPixel” for $10 on its first day of availability.
“It is up to people to decide how much they would like to pay for the game, and I have no worries,” explains Sosowski. “I am happy that more people can enjoy my game… TPB is one of the most visited sites in the Internet, and simply having a game there is a form of advertisement and promotion.”
Liberty Media Corp. CEO Greg Maffei suggests that when Starz’s contract with Netflix runs out in February, the Liberty-owned premium channel will pursue other avenues to distribute its movies and programs.
Maffei implored Netflix to utilize a tiered payment system to maintain the premium status of Starz products, but Netflix has sworn not to stray from its one-price format.
Variety speculates that Maffei could be “alluding to getting a deal done with any one of Netflix’s competitors, whether other subscription VOD market entrants including Hulu Plus, Amazon Prime and the upcoming Redbox-Verizon joint venture, or perhaps other digital content hubs including YouTube, Apple and Microsoft Xbox.”
Starz could also emulate HBO Go and implement an on-demand broadband product.
“The kind of digital deals that we seek is one that recognizes the premium nature of the business and is compatible as possible with our existing distribution scheme,” explains Maffei. “We’re not interested in a non-premium, non-tiered offering that is commoditizing both Starz’s and some of our content partner offerings.”
Most people do not use antivirus software on mobile phones, but Verizon suggests that should change.
A new McAfee-based security application helps prevent malicious attacks on phones, which Verizon claims are “of the same security and privacy threats that plague laptops and desktops.”
The McAfee software is targeted at Android customers, as Google has made minimal strides in its efforts to thwart attacks. Only recently did Google implement key features such as remote wiping and device location.
“Mobile Security Basic offers McAfee’s antivirus and malicious website detection software, while Mobile Security Premium adds the ability to track what information apps are sending and receiving in addition to allowing users to locate, lock, or remotely wipe an Android device using My Verizon account details,” explains The Verge.
The Premium package costs $1.99 per month, while Verizon plans to make the Basic package available for free.
Intel has developed a prototype “adaptive all-in-one” PC that features a 27-inch screen with 1080p resolution. The PC can be docked as a desktop, detached for use as a tablet, or mounted as a television.
The 27-inch touchscreen operates for four hours as a tablet. The PC charges when docked as a desktop. The touchscreen also works when the computer is docked in PC mode.
The current model weighs fourteen pounds, but Intel hopes to improve future prototypes by working with screen and battery manufacturers to make slimmer parts.
Future prototypes will feature 4K displays with about four times as many pixels as standard HD resolution.
Intel also hopes that all-in-one PCs will spark interest in desktop computers. While other companies have put resources and innovation into mobile phones and tablets, Intel believes they have forgotten about PCs. By integrating voice and gesture controls, Intel believes all-in-one PCs can create a valuable market.
Intel argues the all-in-one model works well for businesses, where many can collaborate on one large touchscreen. The screen is also conducive for videoconferencing because of its larger screen.
Local retailers in California anticipate an exciting development Saturday, as Amazon customers in the state will have to begin paying sales tax on purchases.
Customers in Nevada, New Jersey, Tennessee, Virginia, Indiana and South Carolina will all pay taxes on Amazon purchases by 2016.
To counter the loss of this competitive advantage, Amazon plans to build million-square-foot warehouses in these states to minimize shipping times and convince customers to continue to shop online rather than locally.
Customers in Washington, New York, Kentucky, North Dakota, Kansas, Texas and Pennsylvania already pay sales tax on Amazon purchases.
The warehouses will allow Amazon to cut shipping times to one day, but Amazon still hopes to reach same-day shipping at some point. Amazon faces the challenge of improving shipping times while also staying profitable.
Currently, Amazon makes less than a penny for each dollar in sales, so it will need to make its fast delivery efficient if it hopes to make any profits.
Matt Cohler, former Facebook exec and current general partner with Benchmark Capital, argues that mobile ads will eventually be as influential as traditional television advertising and more effective than those on the Web.
“[With the Web] you’d get 12 different things going on at the same time,” he pointed out at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco. “It’s not that immersive. The smartphone is one screen for the user to focus on, in a device they have a deep emotional connection to.”
Mobile advertising has historically struggled as users bemoan the experience. This leads to tight pocketed advertisers refusing to spend much on mobile.
Cohler has not invested in any companies this year, but suggests mobile payment systems and mobile marketplaces are set to break out into more successful entities.
“In the very early days of Facebook, around when they were moving into their first offices, the company would talk about itself as ‘a device in your pocket, that would tell you what your shared context was with anyone around you,'” writes TechCrunch, summarizing a story told by Cohler. “This was before the iPhone, Android and other smartphones of today — and now, that device in your pocket really is what you use, just like early Facebookers had imagined.”
Businesses now invest more resources into individual computing, and particularly into Apple iPads, according to a report from Forrester Research.
Government and business computer purchases will grow only 1.7 percent over last year, according to Forrester’s estimates. Much of this growth comes from the purchase of iPads, expected to increase 76 percent in sales this year. This brings government and business iPad purchases to about $10 billion this year.
Forrester expects Mac sales to businesses to grow 9 percent while Windows products are expected to see a 3 percent drop over last year. Linux and Android tablets will rise 52 percent, estimates Forrester.
Forrester used surveys of I.T. managers to estimate Mac sales. Apple does not release corporate sales information, so it is difficult to verify the statistics.
One of the largest reasons for the Mac increase is the growing popularity of “bring your own device” policies. These types of policies often lead to Mac purchases, for which companies sometimes reimburse employees.
Forrester’s grim outlook for Microsoft assumes the upcoming release of Windows 8 and Surface Tablets will not create a great stir in the corporate world. “I think it will have a positive impact, but it just won’t be a great positive impact,” explained Forrester analyst Andrew Bartels.
The FBI will devote $1 billion to its Next Generation Identification program. The facial recognition program will include iris scans, DNA analysis and voice identification, reports New Scientist.
The FBI hopes to use facial recognition data from existing mugshots to help track suspects in crowds. The agency can also scan existing mugshots for matches with new arrests.
“Another application would be the reverse,” explains the article. “Images of a person of interest from security cameras or public photos uploaded onto the Internet could be compared against a national repository of images held by the FBI.” This technology could help police find new leads in cases.
Privacy advocates argue against the FBI’s plans, noting that the Next Generation Identification program’s privacy statement does not clearly state that only known criminals will be included in the database.
Existing algorithms have achieved facial recognition accuracy of up to 92 percent when dealing with as many as 1.6 million mugshots.
Carnegie Mellon researcher Marios Savvides created an algorithm that can “analyze features of a front and side view set of mugshots, create a 3D model of the face, rotate it as much as 70 degrees to match the angle of the face in the photo, and then match the new 2D image with a fairly high degree of accuracy,” explains New Scientist.
The largest obstacle facing the FBI may be low light situations. Researchers have had difficulty matching faces in dimly lit situations. Although infrared cameras allow more accuracy, they are expensive.
Facebook recently increased its automated efforts to remove “likes” that were generated from fraudulent accounts, according to a post on the company’s security blog.
Since Facebook often bills advertisers on a per click basis, Facebook’s own admission of fake likes will possibly cause an uproar in the advertising world.
“Facebook’s advertising system is built on the idea that consumers will be willing to build closer relationships with advertisers, ‘liking’ the advertiser’s pages, reading the advertiser’s status updates, and circulating content about the advertiser to friends,” explains Wired.
“If an advertiser’s popularity is exaggerated by fake ‘likes,’ it makes the business less trustworthy and less likely to be engaged by real consumers,” contends the article.
Facebook’s blog post references “vendors” of fake likes and the illegal practices of purchasing or selling Facebook likes. Facebook says businesses will only lose about 1 percent of their likes, but this could represent a huge loss for some of the most popular businesses on Facebook.
General Keith Alexander, commander of U.S. Cyber Command and head of the National Security Agency, stresses the importance of an Internet infrastructure redesign. He wants automatic triggers to help the NSA track hacking efforts against both public and private infrastructure.
Alexander emphasizes denial of service attacks — a common tactic used by groups like Anonymous to disrupt websites. “My concern is that it’s going to flow into destructive attacks that could have consequences for our critical national infrastructure and the Internet itself,” he notes.
The Internet is currently a web of independent networks. This makes it difficult for agencies like the NSA to easily track activity and catch offenders.
The NSA has implemented a plan to help prevent attacks, including development of the Defense Industrial Base Cyber Pilot to automatically alert the agency when a company’s security has been breached.
Many people are critical of the NSA and their attempts to control the Internet. Alexander dismisses these privacy concerns, explaining that when “you go down the highway, and you go down the EZ Pass lane, what you’re doing is sending that code. That system is not looking in your car, reading the e-mail, or intercepting anything, it’s just getting that code.”
The Internet has led to an information revolution. And while the changes make access easier, it also makes hiding personal information more difficult.
A new crop of businesses have launched with one task in mind: helping people hide their mistakes from the Internet. Companies like Reputation Changer specialize in helping to hide negative search results.
Individuals pay Reputation Changer to release a stream of positive content about the individual. As the new stories flood the Internet, they eventually will flush the negative stories further down the search results, and off the first page. Since 89.7 percent of Google’s click-through traffic comes from the first page of search results, this method greatly reduces the risk of people uncovering the undesirable content.
But Reputation.com CEO and founder Michael Fertik explains that his company does more than simply spam the Internet with positive reviews and press releases. His company uses databases of social expectations to determine how to craft the press releases for each individual customer.
Fertik stresses that his company typically helps only people looking to change their image, or those who have unfairly been the victim of a cyber attack. He does not help people cover up criminal activities, he says.
“Like many other things on the Internet, online reputation management is moving towards self-service solutions,” explains ReadWriteWeb. “Last week, Reputation Changer announced dashboard software designed to let its users monitor their own reputations. Other reputation management companies have similar tools in place or in the works.”
Apple has filed a patent titled “Life Streaming,” intended to give consumers the ability to use a “life recorder” to easily record and publish every day experiences using both video and audio components.
“A life recorder is a recording device that continuously captures life experiences, including unanticipated life experiences, in video and/or audio recordings,” details a post on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office website.
Without having to even hit record, users could capture video, audio and/or photos.
Since most smartphones are equipped with audio, video and photography features, the life recorder could help better utilize these devices by recording, publishing and sharing as a live feed.
“By indexing and storing life recordings, a life recorder may search for and acquire life recordings generated by itself or another life recorder, thereby allowing life experiences to be shared minutes or even years later,” notes the abstract.
“In some embodiments, recordings generated by a life recorder may be analyzed in real-time and automatically pushed to one or more target devices. The ability to automatically and instantaneously push life recordings as live feeds to one or more target devices allows friends and family to experience one’s life experience in real-time.”
In his Dashes.com blog, entrepreneur and tech writer Anil Dash suggests that Web pages are outdated, and cites the popularity of Facebook, Twitter, Gmail and Tumblr as evidence of people’s preference to streams of data rather than Web pages.
Effective streams of data allow for customization. Sometimes customization means choosing friends on Facebook or who to follow on Twitter. Other times customization means filtering a writer’s stories by topic, and only receiving these types of stories within a stream.
One reason Web pages still persist is because advertising operates on a page-view model. Dash suggests in-stream advertisements that deal with the user’s interests are not only more effective, but do not stop the flow of reading and will not disturb the reader as much.
Dash concludes that effective Web publishers should adopt a more fluid style. He suggests trusting “readers to know how to scroll down and skim across a simple stream, since that’s what they’re already doing all day on the Web.”
“Pay attention to the fact that all the links you click on Twitter, on Facebook, on Pinterest, all take you to out of the simple flow of those apps and into a jarring, cluttered experience where the most appealing option is the back button,” he notes. “Stop being one of those dead-end experiences and start being more like what users have repeatedly demonstrated they prefer.”
Dash wants publishers to give readers “the chance to customize those streams to include (or exclude!) just the content they want.”