According to Centris Research, one in four U.S. homes had a Blu-ray player in Q4 of 2011, an increase of 47 percent from the previous year.
DVD player ownership also showed gains, increasing to 91 percent of households, a 4 percent increase over 2010. And DVR household penetration rose 4 percent during the time period, to 38 percent.
The Centris report, which was based on 2,000 monthly survey respondents, also found that HDTV penetration grew 6 percent to 63 percent, and “high-definition TV service from multichannel video program distributors increased 11 percent to 42 percent of households,” reports Home Media Magazine.
“It is the Blu-ray market that continues to drive packaged media sales and generate higher margins for studios than standard DVD, disc rentals, transactional video-on-demand and electronic sellthrough,” explains the article. “The format also is a foundation in Hollywood’s effort to launch cloud-based digital locker UltraViolet.”
Casting and production has begun for a new media project called “Cybergeddon,” intended to serve as “a groundbreaking motion picture event which will bring to life the growing threat of cybercrime,” according to a BusinessWire press release.
Anthony E. Zuiker and his production company Dare to Pass teamed with Yahoo! and Dolphin Digital Studios to launch the project. Zuiker turned to Norton by Symantec for “technical credibility and security insights to help inform and guide the narrative.”
From the press release: “’Cybergeddon’ is the evolution of the crime genre,” says Zuiker. “Through an invaluable partnership with Norton and embracing the forward-thinking vision of Dolphin Entertainment, ‘Cybergeddon’ will be a motion picture event released through Yahoo!’s global online distribution. Instead of opening ‘wide’ at 5000 screens, ‘Cybergeddon’ has the potential to premiere on 50 million online screens all over the world at the same time. This global distribution model is the future of storytelling with unprecedented scale.”
“Cybergeddon” is scheduled to launch on Yahoo! this Fall as a series of sequential installments, “through an immersive storytelling, social media and gaming experience,” explains the release.
Smithsonian provides an interesting overview of the “transhumanist” movement that suggests we are becoming the engineers of our own evolution through tools such as gene manipulation, nanomedicine and the replacement of body parts with manmade devices.
“Enhanced humans might inject themselves with artificial, oxygen-carrying blood cells, enabling them to sprint for 15 minutes straight,” reports the article. “They could live long enough to taste a slice of their own 250th birthday cake. Or they might abandon their bodies entirely, translating the neurons of their brains into a digital consciousness.”
The article cites a bionic eye and magnetic sensors to augment the sense of touch as examples of technologies that fuel the movement.
Transhumanism is described as largely secular for those who believe technological change will gradually become a part of everyday life.
Others, however, suggest there are religious undertones, especially for those who believe there will come a time when only the humans that can merge their minds with intelligent machines will survive.
“Transhumanists say we are morally obligated to help the human race transcend its biological limits; those who disagree are sometimes called Bio-Luddites,” notes the article.
Nintendo announced it has sold 4.5 million 3DS handhelds in the U.S during its first year of availability, numbers that exceed the launch of the Nintendo DS.
According to Digital Trends, the figure marks “a very impressive turnaround” for the handheld gaming system, which had a “very rocky start.”
“How has Nintendo managed to turn the 3DS around?” asks the article. “Two ways: pricing and content.”
Since early criticism focused on unit cost and lack of compelling games, Nintendo reduced the retail price from $250 to $170 in the U.S. This was followed by the long-promised availability of new 3D content, including versions of Nintendo’s own Zelda and Mario franchises.
The result was a sharp increase in sales, placing the 3DS neck-and-neck with the Nintendo Wii console during the same year.
Video has most likely been an additional factor in the 3DS turnaround, since the device also features access to Nintendo Video and Netflix streaming.
Hulu announced an update to its user interface with a video player that is 55 percent larger than the previous version.
This won’t necessarily impact those users who regularly view movies or TV shows in the full screen mode, but should prove to be a useful upgrade for others.
The interface design also features “a new frame and a drop-shadow, and it sits over a large, dark gray video matte,” reports The Next Web.
“In addition to the larger size player, the site also implemented a number of design changes to emphasize the content,” notes VentureBeat in a related post. “All the details — like the name of the show, episode title, running time, etc. — have been moved underneath the video player. It seems odd at first but I’m guessing the majority of people won’t even notice once their show starts playing. Also, the background surrounding the video player is much darker.”
The number of job opportunities for cloud-computing professionals is increasing at a rapid rate, and the current talent pool may not be large enough to meet the demand.
According to Wanted Analytics, there has been a 92 percent rise in cloud-related job postings compared with a year ago and more than four times the level in 2010.
Job listings with the highest demand include software engineers, systems engineers and network administrators. Companies advertising the highest number of postings include VMware, Microsoft, Amazon.com, URS Corp. and Google.
Leading locations for cloud-based jobs: San Jose, Seattle, Washington DC, San Francisco and New York City.
“With the demand for cloud skills growing so quickly, the gap between hiring demand and talent supply across the United States is getting larger and causing more difficulties in sourcing candidates,” the report states.
“Microsoft has been working on ‘Lifebrowser,’ a software akin to an intelligent search engine that collects, organizes and curates your virtual life,” reports Digital Trends.
The prototype curation software is essentially a “scaled down and personal solution” of the approach companies are taking with their “big data.”
“You can think of it as a smart search engine of your virtual proclivities,” adds Digital Trends. “Lifebrowser’s machine-learning algorithm will crawl through all of your online and offline activities, find only what it discerns as significant events in your life, and save the information in chronological order for later perusal.”
The software is designed to emulate how humans recall information. “You always think that machine learning is kind of cold,” explains Microsoft researcher Eric Horvitz. “This is showing that a model is not only learning about how I think, it’s also very warmly understanding what it means to capture humanity.”
No word on when the algorithm and timeline design may go public, although Digital Trends suggests it would be a nice addition to Windows 9.
DirecTV announced this week that it plans to adopt Ultra HDTV in the future and is already working on its spectrum needs.
According to Philip Goswitz, SVP Space and Communications R&D: “At DirecTV we see a couple of things happening. First, our subscribers are migrating away from Ku-band, and upgrading themselves to Ka-band and its HDTV services. In four or five years, our Ku-band [transmissions] could end. We are also developing the so-called Reverse Band for DBS services, and these are on our Road Map for future international services. 4000-line is exciting to us because of its image quality, and the potential for glasses-free 3D.”
Advanced Television reports that Japan’s introduction of Ultra HDTV is slated for 2020 and will use Ka-band. DirecTV is already using Ka-band in North America.
“But Ka-band doesn’t just mean broadband. To us it means broadcasting. The truth is that as our Ku-band transmissions end, then increasingly every dollar in revenue is attributable to Ka-band. We’ll be entirely Ka-band in about five years. Currently, of our total $27 billion in annual revenues, about $20 billion comes from Ka-band,” said Goswitz.
Chinese manufacturer TCL Corporation has developed an LCD TV screen that measures 110 inches and features 4,096 x 2,160 resolution and 3D with active-shutter glasses.
According to the press release, additional specifications of the China Stardisplay include “multi-touch technology, intelligent and dynamic backlight technology, ultra-high brightness of 800nits, and 92 percent NTSC color gamut.”
The company has donated two of the giant HDTV screens to the Great Hall of the People at Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
However, it has not been announced whether or when TCL may market the screens.
“China will replace Japan and South Korea as the world leader in TV display screens in terms of manufacturing and R&D in three to five years, and will provide a higher level of quality and more cost-effective products to the global community,” says Gu Zhihua, director of the flat panel display center at Fudan University.
As noted in our ETCentric CES coverage, the cost of 3D printing is coming down and may soon be entering mainstream adoption.
For example: “The price has come down enough that Ted Griffiths offers 3D printing services at his Buckley mailroom business, one of the first examples of a retail 3D printing,” reports the Bonney Lake-Sumner Courier Herald in Washington.
“I’m working very closely with (printer manufacturer) 3D Systems,” said Griffiths, the owner of Diane’s Mailroom. “They have equipment that costs in the millions of dollars. I’m networked with them, so if anyone comes in with a really big 3D modeling job, I can just upload it to them and they’ll ship it out.”
Griffiths has an in-house 3D printer in the back corner of the store, and maintains a computer station with 3D modeling programs (including Blender and AutoCAD). Customers can rent time at the station for $15 an hour.
“I think what we’re going to see here is some Do-It-Yourself engineers who come in to work on their designs on our station,” Griffith said. “And they can build the prototype right here from our printer.”
ETCentric staffer Philip Lelyveld predicts that there will soon be a Kinkos-like national service for 3D printing.
A team of scientists led by the University of Rochester and North Carolina State University have achieved a first in particle transmission.
The scientists “sent a message using a beam of neutrinos — nearly massless particles that travel at almost the speed of light. The message was sent through 240 meters of stone and said simply, ‘Neutrino,'” reports ScienceBlog.com.
“Using neutrinos, it would be possible to communicate between any two points on Earth without using satellites or cables,” notes Dan Stancil, professor of electrical and computer engineering at NC State and lead author of the research paper. “Neutrino communication systems would be much more complicated than today’s systems, but may have important strategic uses.”
Neutrinos have the potential to dramatically impact modes of communication since “they can penetrate almost anything they encounter.” The article sites examples such as possible advances for submarine communication over long distances through water, and even communication “with something in outer space that was on the far side of a moon or a planet, our message could travel straight through without impediment.”
The experiments are costly and require a great deal of equipment. However, this research may be the first step toward practical applications.
As George Gerba noted when he submitted this article: “Next — video anywhere… Really anywhere…”
The latest Apple rumor suggests the company is gearing up to release a smaller version of its popular iPad.
A Samsung official has reportedly told the Korea Times that Apple plans to release an iPad mini with 7.85-inch screen. The official claims the smaller version will use Samsung-made displays.
“Despite its ongoing patent battles with Samsung, Apple will reportedly buy $11 billion worth of parts from the South Korean electronics giant this year,” reports Digital Trends. “Part of that $11 billion will go toward the purchase of smaller touch-screen displays.”
“The contract is expected to rise to $11 billion by the end of this year as Apple is planning to release a smaller iPad, probably with a 7.85-inch screen, and to sell more of its MacBook Air PCs using Samsung’s faster solid state drive (SSD) storage,” the official said.
Sony has announced the Alpha a57 DSLR as a replacement for its Alpha a55 intended to compete with the Nikon D5100, Canon EOS Rebel T3i and other mid-range cameras.
“Using a 16.1MP CMOS sensor, the Alpha a57 shoots 10 frames-per-second at the full 16-megapixel resolution and 12 frames-per-second at an 8-megapixel resolution,” reports Digital Trends. “When using manual aperture control, the a57 can shoot 8 frames-per-second at the full resolution.”
“The Alpha a57 also captures full HD 1080p video (AVCHD) at 60fps or 24fps and the camera offers object tracking to make sure moving subjects stay in focus,” notes the post. “Utilizing LCD technology, the Alpha a57 uses a 1,440,000 dot electronic viewfinder rather than a ‘through-the-lens’ optical viewfinder. The camera operator can also utilize the 3-inch, bottom-hinged LCD screen on the back of the a57.”
The interchangeable lens camera will be available by April for $700 (body only). Sony also plans to offer the SLT-A57K, an $800 version that includes a 18-55mm zoom lens.
At the National Association of Broadcasting conference, International Research Park (IRP) will debut a 200-inch glasses-free projection TV from Japan.
“The first U.S. demonstration of a 200-inch, glasses-free 3D projection system will be presented by the Japanese national research lab, National Institute for Information and Communication Technology (NICT),” reports TVNewsCheck. “As the world’s largest display of its kind, the viewing zone for the demonstration is large enough for 30 people to optimally view 3D images without eyewear.”
“IRP, presented by NAB Labs, is a venue designed to highlight advanced projects underway in academic, government and commercial research laboratories worldwide,” notes the article.
IRP will be in the North Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center during the NAB Show, April 16-19.
Other IRP demos scheduled: “hybrid TV broadcasting proposals (including converged broadcast/wireless-telecom systems), multi-sensory media presentations, 4K video streaming, high-dynamic range and multi-spectral video, enhanced media accessibility for visually and aurally impaired users, 2D and 3D multi-viewpoint video, advanced file-based workflows, advanced interactive gesture control and data visualization technologies.”
Double Fine was seeking $400,000 on Kickstarter for its new adventure game, but met with some surprising results.
“After raking in the first million within 24 hours of the announcement of the project on Kickstarter, game developer Double Fine and Tim Schafer have just closed out the funding round on the crowd-sourced fundraising tool and collected exactly $3,336,371 over a 35-day period,” reports Digital Trends.
The new funds will allow the company to release the game on more platforms and multiple languages.
Originally intended only as a PC game, current plans now include Mac, Linux, iOS and Android versions.
“Since Double Fine has proven that a game can be completely financed by fans, other game developers are likely going to flock to the fundraising platform with new projects,” notes the post. “Phil Fish, designer of the upcoming XBLA-exclusive release ‘Fez,’ is contemplating a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for a new game that won’t be headed to the Xbox platform… Since Fish won’t be able to collect revenue from sales of ‘Fez’ until the game is approved and released on the Xbox 360, he can raise the money required for the new project within a month on Kickstarter rather than wait three to five months to get paid by Microsoft.”