Netflix is making good on its promise to compete directly with movie theaters now that it’s in final negotiations for the exclusive rights to a Sundance Film Festival documentary. The film, “The Square,” is about the Egyptian revolution and will be released through Netflix. It could make Netflix an Oscar contender, just a short while after its success at the Emmys with “House of Cards.” According to one source, this will be the first of many films to be released first on Netflix. Continue reading Netflix Plans to Release Sundance Award-Winning Documentary

YouTube hosted its first-ever YouTube Music Awards Sunday at Pier 36 in New York City, and viewers around the world got to stream the event live from their computers. Actor Jason Schwartzman and comedian and musician Reggie Watts were the unscripted hosts, while Spike Jonze was the creative director. The show attracted around 220,000 viewers at its highest point, and the whole event felt like a spontaneous, often chaotic, and not-at-all traditional award show. Continue reading Live-Streamed YouTube Music Awards Disorganized But Fun

Western Digital’s HGST subsidiary announced yesterday it is shipping a helium-filled, 3.5-in hard disk drive that has been more than 10 years in the making. The company says the new drive offers 50 percent more capacity than current 4TB drives and uses 23 percent less power and is 38 percent lighter. While pricing has yet to be announced, the company says the drives will “command a premium” based on the lower total cost of ownership. HGST plans to sell the drives to server and storage array manufacturers. Continue reading Breakthrough: HGST to Ship Helium-Filled Hard Disk Drives

Facebook is working toward greater interactivity between its users and the entertainment industry with television program partnerships. Using popular TV shows, celebrities and related hashtags to encourage even more communication and sharing among users, Faceboook can deliver detailed analytics to its partners about who is watching and what they’re saying on the social media site. TV networks are turning to Facebook to generate social activity and promote their content. Continue reading Social TV: Facebook Partnering with Entertainment Industry

Google, Samsung, HTC and others are on the hotseat for alleged patent infringement on Rockstar technology — including patents related to messaging, notifications and graphical user interfaces. Rockstar, which is jointly owned by Apple, Blackberry, Ericsson, Microsoft and Sony, owns and manages a portfolio of more than 4,000 patents purchased during the Nortel bankruptcy auction in 2011. The group filed a barrage of lawsuits against phone manufacturers late last week. Continue reading Google Among Many Sued by Rockstar for Patent Infringement

Google’s Android-powered Nexus 5 is now available with many of the features that were leaked prior to its release. The new smartphone includes an upgraded 4.95-inch 1080p display, Corning Gorilla Glass 3, 2.3Ghz quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor, and 2GB of RAM. It shows off the latest Android 4.4 technology, also known as KitKat, and it can be purchased on the Google Play Store today in 16GB ($349) or 32GB ($399) models. Continue reading Google Nexus 5 Smartphone Now Available for Android Fans

Gaming company Nintendo released its financial results for the last three months, and the numbers are not promising. Although hardware sales have increased and handheld gaming is experiencing growth, the company has still recorded a loss. As a result of price cuts in the middle of the year, 300,000 more Wii U users have been added, but the company is still far from its goal of 9 million consoles by March 2014. At present, 3.91 million units have been sold total. Continue reading Nintendo: Handheld Gaming Strong, Losing Money with Wii U

Media consumption continues as an integral part of the American lifestyle. According to a USC report released last week, Americans are voraciously consuming media via TV, radio, phone and computer, which led to an average consumption of 63 gigabytes per person per day last year. In 2012, total U.S. media consumption averaged 1.46 trillion hours, an average of 13.6 hours per person per day. By 2015, average media consumption is expected to reach 15.5 hours a day per person. Continue reading Media Consumption to Average 15.5 Hours Per Day in 2015

Hollywood studios adopted new terminology this week in home entertainment sell-through branding that will soon appear across marketing and communication efforts. The terms “Digital HD” and “Digital” will be used to package digital versions of filmed entertainment and television content. According to the Digital Entertainment Group, the branding intends to enhance the value of digital home entertainment offerings and offer consistency for consumers. Continue reading Home Entertainment Branding: Studios Adopt Digital Monikers

Owners of the Google-powered Moto X phone had an unexpected cinematic experience waiting for them on the home screen earlier this week when a red sombrero icon appeared. Motorola teamed up with Pixar to create an animated narrative for the mobile device that flaunts the company’s newest platform with high-level technology. And the intention is to not only redefine what it means to create a narrative, but how and where users experience it. Continue reading Moto X Owners Treated to a Pixar Experience on Their Phones

A new video rental and streaming platform by Spondo will now let Facebook users watch and share movies on the social media site. The movies are on-demand and shareable among users — in fact, users can even earn a little commission when their friends buy a movie that they’ve shared. In celebration of Halloween, Spondo launched 200 horror movies for streaming, and it plans to add more mainstream and indie films over time. Continue reading Spondo’s Video Rental and Streaming Available on Facebook

According to a study from social media analytics platform Simply Measured, the world’s top 100 brands are discovering new success with photo- and video-sharing service Instagram. Simply Measured found that 71 of the Interbrand 100 are currently using the Facebook-owned service, up from 40 last October. While the total number of brands on Instagram increased 55 percent in the past year, 57 percent of those brands average at least one post per week, a 38 percent increase from last year. Continue reading Top Brands Increasingly Turning to Facebook-Owned Instagram

Sprint is bulking up with an enhanced LTE, promising “unprecedented speeds” for its mobile subscribers. The company announced the new 4G service Spark this week, as well as two new LTE networks, which offer a vast improvement upon current speeds. In a lab test, Sprint showed off an LTE link with 1Gbps, promising speeds would continue to go up. With multiple antennas and carrier aggregation, it’s using a full spectrum of frequencies that average 50 to 60Mbps. Continue reading Sprint Delivers Increased Speed with New 4G LTE Networks

Intel has invested heavily in its plan to stream television over the Internet, but securing access to channels has been a challenge. The company is reportedly now in advanced negotiations to sell all or part of its yet-to-be-launched venture to Verizon, according to a person familiar with the talks. Intel was originally hoping to launch its service by year’s end. Tech companies including Sony and Google have plans to launch similar services, but have encountered some of the same challenges as Intel. Continue reading Intel in Talks to Hand Over its Internet TV Project to Verizon

ConnecTV’s new app allows users to share short video clips of television content in a Vine-like fashion, without the need to access a camera phone or rewind via DVR. The Los Angeles-based social TV startup has created an alternative for recording highlights from sporting events, news bloopers and music videos. The app helps users select a highlight from live TV, and then edits the clip for sharing. ConnecTV also includes an option for searching for shows by network. Continue reading New ConnecTV App Lets Users Record and Share TV Moments