Lab126 is where Amazon’s Kindle e-reader and Kindle Fire tablets were designed. A year ago, there were 500 Lab126 employees listed on LinkedIn, a number that has since increased to 937.
The research and design center could soon be getting a new influx of workers if the new 500,000 square-foot complex that Amazon has leased in Silicon Valley is any indication.
The online retail giant recently leased an office complex in Sunnyvale, California, which is expected to accommodate more than 2,500 employees. Amazon also applied for a permit to develop the interior of one of the buildings.
“Lab126’s expansion suggests Amazon is stepping up efforts to design more mobile devices, increasing competition with Apple, the maker of the iPhone and iPad,” reports Reuters.
“If you can bump up staffing 40 or 50 percent, the question is what’s it for?” notes Scott Tilghman, an analyst at Caris & Company. “Part of it could be tied to on-going evolution of the Kindle line of devices.”
PayDragon initially targeted L.A. food carts when it launched earlier this year as a mobile payment and order pickup solution for those wanting to avoid lines. Now the mobile payments app is going national with its one-click shopping tool called Checkout.
“Checkout gives PayDragon users the ability to buy grocery store items and non-perishable goods that hit the doorstep two days later, with no shipping fees and no minimum order requirement,” explains Digital Trends.
“We started with food trucks and beating that line,” says CEO and founder Hamilton Chan. “It’s called internally displaced purchasing.”
Users can scan an item with Checkout’s barcode reader and order it (there’s also a search feature if the barcode isn’t readily available). “Chan describes it as a great reorder method,” notes the post. “See that almost-empty toothpaste container in your bathroom? Scan, order, and it’ll be on your front step in two days.”
More than 40 L.A. restaurants and food carts are already using the app with a reported 60 percent return rate. PayDragon sees sports stadiums as a logical next step, where fans can use the app for ordering from their seats and avoiding lines. But first, the primary objective is increased consumer traction.
“We feel like people haven’t cracked the nut about mobile payments, so we just want to get people to use mobile to buy everyday things,” says Chan. “We intend to make money longer term, and use that consumer affinity to move products for brands and manufacturers.”
“Between 10 percent and 15 percent of all user reviews on social media sites will be paid for by companies selling the products,” CNET reports, per new research from Gartner.
“With over half of the Internet’s population on social networks, organizations are scrambling for new ways to build bigger follower bases, generate more hits on videos, garner more positive reviews than their competitors, and solicit ‘likes’ on their Facebook pages,” notes Jenny Sussin, senior research analyst at Gartner.
“Many marketers have turned to paying for positive reviews with cash, coupons, and promotions… in order to pique site visitors’ interests in the hope of increasing sales, customer loyalty, and customer advocacy through social-media ‘word of mouth’ campaigns,” she adds.
The research firm says this practice could be costly for brands in the near future, suggesting the Federal Trade Commission will pursue lawsuits against companies who pay for social media reviews.
Already, Cornell University researchers have created a solution that is 90 percent effective. The group developed software to detect fake reviews, “easily beating the average person, who identifies a fake review only half the time,” the article states.
When Magnify.net launched in 2007, it offered “digital publishers the opportunity to offer their own video channels populated by video from the video aggregators, user-generated or not,” reports TechCrunch. Since then, it has faced economic hardships and competition from the likes of Brightcove, Ooyala and YouTube.
“Many sites can’t afford their own studio, or to hire a video production and camera team,” explains the post. “Instead, Magnify gives them the opportunity to offer curated video experiences, along with providing them with the tech to upload and share videos, create playlists, offer commenting, reviewing, content controls, analytics, and monetization options.”
Now the company has teamed up with AOL to take advantage of a library of almost 420,000 videos.
“In the end solutions like Magnify are only valuable if they can help your site offer quality video that people actually want to watch,” suggests TechCrunch. Here’s where the AOL partnership is key, offering more diversified sources of video for Magnify, which currently powers more than 90,000 video channels for publishers and brands.
“We’re always looking for new ways to gain additional exposure for our content and drive advertiser value, and this partnership helps us deliver on that mission,” explains AOL, “and we’re also big believers in the power of curation, which makes Magnify’s approach to online video a natural fit for us. We see this as an important step in the evolution of how publishers and audiences will engage with online video.”
The amount of video uploaded to the Internet has increased exponentially in recent years. “Video curators, which have become critical to discovering, organizing, and contextualizing content, will play an increasingly important role,” the post states.
As Web video viewing increases, it would make sense to see a shift in ad dollars from traditional TV to Internet video. “Go where your customers have gone,” Google chairman Eric Schmidt told advertisers earlier this year.
But TV advertisers haven’t made the switch and, “it doesn’t look like [TV ad spending] is going anywhere,” AllThingsD writes.
“Year in, year out, advertisers have been dumping around $70 billion into TV, and the Web video guys really haven’t captured any of it,” the article states. “The growth they have seen comes mostly from ad dollars moved out of other Web properties.”
The post includes a chart created by an investment banker Terry Kawaja and entrepreneur Dave Morgan. It shows that the amount spent on advertising is expected to increase in the coming years, both in television and online video. But measured as a percentage of the total, the money spent on online advertisements will actually decrease.
Big tech players like Apple and Google are expected to shake up the TV industry with new distribution methods.
“But that’s different from disrupting the TV ad business,” the article notes, adding, “if those guys get in, the ones likely to lose out are the existing TV distributors, like Comcast and Time Warner Cable. Then again, any TV Of The Future still needs to get delivered to your home via pipe, and the pipe guys can’t be budged…”
“The future of Microsoft’s Xbox appears to be moving briskly toward interactive TV, based on a high-profile hire of CBS Entertainment’s former television chief and the launch of two interactive TV ‘programs’ that tap into Microsoft’s Kinect peripheral,” reports ReadWriteWeb.
Former CBS executive Nancy Tellem will run a dedicated Xbox content studio under her new position as president of Microsoft’s Entertainment & Digital Media.
“According to analyst Richard Doherty, Tellem will be responsible for luring new content to the Microsoft Xbox platform, competing with Google’s YouTube and Netflix in what he characterized as a bidding war,” notes the article. “She also will be tasked with working with content providers to help develop content like the two new Kinect programs, ‘Kinect Sesame Street TV’ and ‘Kinect Nat Geo TV.'”
Tellem knows content. According to the article, she greenlit CBS hits such as “CSI,” “Everybody Loves Raymond” and “The King of Queens” — and helped create “Friends” and “ER.”
The Xbox has evolved from a gaming console to an all-inclusive entertainment hub. “Tellem’s role appears to be designed to make sense of this combination of original programming, interactive television and interactivity,” suggests ReadWriteWeb.
Shazam announced it is expanding its second-screen service in the U.S. to support nearly all channels with a new focus on Facebook and Twitter integration. The company also announced that it has exceeded a quarter of a billion users globally.
“In addition to expanding Shazam for TV, Shazam is also enhancing its social features for iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and Android devices,” notes the press release. “When Shazamers activate the Shazam Friends feature in the app, they can see what their Facebook friends are tagging, and now they will be able to make comments about their friends’ tags in the app.”
“With the activation, people’s tags will appear on their Facebook profile in their timeline, enabling people to discuss with their friends in Facebook what they are watching or listening to,” explains the release.
As a second-screen tool, Shazam users can access information related to featured music, cast members, related trivia, celebrity buzz and more. It can be also be used during sports broadcasts to access scores, stats and schedules.
“According to industry studies, 86 percent of smartphone owners use their mobile device while watching TV and, with our expansion into television, we’ve seen a surge of activity due to recent Shazam-enabled events such as the NBC Olympic broadcast, where more than one million people tagged the closing ceremony,” explains Shazam CEO Andrew Fisher.
“We think that broadening our television service and offering more comprehensive social features will continue to drive activity and engagement,” he adds.
Aereo provides broadcast TV over the Web to consumers in New York City via the iPhone, iPad, Apple TV or Roku box. With plans to move into other cities, the company says it will also offer programming that doesn’t just come from local TV stations and will soon start streaming to PCs and laptops.
CEO Chet Kanojia explained that deals have been made with content owners to provide additional programming to Aereo users for an additional fee. But who exactly?
“There’s no way Kanojia is working with any network affiliated with any of the four major broadcasters,” reports Peter Kafka for AllThingsD. “They are suing his company for copyright violation, because it distributes their over-the-air programming without paying for it. So that rules out anything from News Corp., Disney, Comcast or CBS.”
It also seems unlikely that Aereo would want to sell all-or-nothing bundles from cable programming giants like Viacom or Discovery, the article suggests.
“More likely would be deals with programmers that don’t have full cable distribution in the U.S. I could imagine a theoretical deal with someone like Bloomberg TV, for instance, or Al Jazeera English,” writes Kafka. “Asked to provide additional clarification, Aereo PR head Virginia Lam writes: ‘We have had conversations with a variety of content providers, including some cable networks.'”
CBS will launch a major social media campaign this week to garner buzz for its fall line-up of returning and new programs.
“Fans will gain access to stars and producers of shows like ‘The Big Bang Theory,’ ‘Person of Interest’ and ‘Vegas’ during the East Coast premieres,” notes The Hollywood Reporter.
“Hosted by CBS Connect Lounge, viewers can communicate with talent through Facebook and Twitter during specific times during the week,” explains the article.
Additionally, a Web series called “Fall Premiere Show” will preview the fall schedule, recap earlier seasons, include behind-the-scenes features and offer interviews with actors.
“The combination of this network and Twitter can either be looked at as a case of CBS trying to get in touch with a younger demographic — or, alternatively, a sign that Twitter and Facebook are now firmly mainstream enough that their own demographics are shifting upwards in age,” suggests Digital Trends in a related post.
THR has the full schedule for CBS Tweet Week, including the people who will be participating.
Fox is turning to Twitter’s “expanded tweet” feature to help launch its TV programming.
“The social media platform will be one of the digital hubs for a full-episode preview 11 days ahead of the third-season premiere of the Fox comedy ‘Raising Hope,'” reports Variety.
“While the episode will be available on other platforms, only Twitter users who retweet will be rewarded with a video message from the series’ cast thanking them for spreading the word,” explains the article.
The premiere can be viewed within a tweet without having to access an outside link. “That feature can be accessed either on Twitter.com, its mobile website or apps for Twitter access via wireless devices like the iPad app, which was reintroduced earlier this week as part of a broader redesign of the service,” notes Variety.
Fred Graver, head of TV at Twitter, is looking to make the service more than just a referral source and second-screen companion, but does not suggest any type of fundamental repositioning. “It’s not like we’re getting into the distribution business,” says Graver. “That’s not what this is about.”
Enhancing Twitter with new exhibition features could deliver advertising revenue beyond the text-only “Promoted Tweets.”
The “Raising Hope” premiere will also be available via Fox.com, the show’s Facebook page, Hulu, on-demand and authenticated websites for pay TV distributors.
Apple announced it will shutter its social music tool Ping by the end of the month.
In its place, Apple will integrate Facebook features into iTunes, providing users the opportunity to “like” or “share” items in the store.
“You don’t need hindsight to figure out why Ping didn’t work — the most obvious problem with the service was that it didn’t sync up with the world’s most popular social network,” reports AllThingsD.
“But now Facebook and Apple have worked out their differences, and there’s no need to keep Ping on life support anymore,” notes the post.
According to Apple CEO Tim Cook: “We tried Ping, and I think the customer voted and said ‘This isn’t something that I want to put a lot of energy into.'”
YouTube has unveiled an iPhone app that allows users to stream content optimized for their devices, while providing YouTube parent Google the opportunity to generate revenue through ads.
The third-party app, which replaces Apple’s own YouTube platform, will also offer YouTube the ability to expand content options by adding major labels and other publishers that had opted out of the ad-free version.
“One of the app’s most notable new features, if you can call it that, are ads,” reports GigaOM. “Launching its own app means that YouTube can now monetize its videos on the iPhone. For YouTube, this means making more money with mobile: The site also announced Tuesday that it now clocks 1 billion mobile views every single day.”
“Other features include easier sharing through Twitter, Facebook and Google+, as well as the ability to leave comments on a video while you’re still watching it,” notes the post. “YouTube’s iOS app also supports AirPlay mirroring.”
The iOS app is optimized for the iPhone and iPod touch; an iPad version is in development.
Top Internet companies have come together to form The Internet Association, a lobbying group and trade association created to provide a unified voice in Washington, DC.
The group has three primary goals: protecting Internet freedom, fostering innovation and economic growth, and empowering users.
The 14 members of the association include Amazon, AOL, eBay, Expedia, Facebook, Google, IAC, LinkedIn, Monster Worldwide, Rackspace, Salesforce.com, TripAdvisor, Yahoo and Zynga.
“The Internet is the fastest-growing sector of the U.S. economy, with an unparalleled record of job creation and innovation across all sectors,” says Michael Beckerman, president and CEO of The Internet Association.
“It is the Internet’s decentralized and open model that has unleashed unprecedented entrepreneurialism, creativity and innovation,” he adds. “Policymakers must understand that the preservation of that freedom is essential to the vitality of the Internet itself and the resulting economic prosperity.”
Apple’s new iPhone 5 could potentially cause challenges for carriers as millions of new customers jump onto the faster 4G LTE networks.
“The question now is whether the networks can handle the demand,” writes Technology Review.
Carriers are preparing. “Stung by the 3G congestion debacles consumers faced in recent years, they’ve spent billions of dollars to expand networks. At the same time, they instituted tiered pricing based on how much data consumers use, which has the effect of tamping down runaway demand,” notes the article.
As of today, there are 12.7 million LTE users in the U.S. Millions more will come with the iPhone 5 and problems could come with that rush, according to Bill Moore, the CEO of Rootmetrics.
“Whatever happens in the short term, demand is expected to explode in the next few years. Bell Labs has estimated that mobile data traffic will grow by a factor of 25 by 2016; Cisco says it will grow 18-fold over that time period,” writes Technology Review.
The Wi-Fi Alliance has introduced a new specification for wireless multimedia streaming called Miracast that allows devices to transmit content without a wireless router.
Miracast uses the Alliance’s Wi-Fi Direct standard for enabling peer-to-peer ad-hoc wireless connections. This allows devices to communicate directly without access to Wi-Fi or much, if any configuration.
“Speed-wise, Miracast is based on 802.11, so connections will be limited to the slowest device in the network,” ExtremeTech reports. “Good news for content owners too: Miracast has built in content protection, using wireless versions of the same security measures used in HDMI and DisplayPort.”
Intel and Apple already have their own technology — Wireless Display (WiDi) and Airplay — for wireless multimedia streaming.
“Miracast may have the advantage here where others have failed: it is not a proprietary solution unlike AirPlay, and that it seems to be targeted towards portable devices as it is far more power efficient — one of WiDi’s biggest downfalls,” the article suggests.
Intel has already updated its WiDi pages to include support for Miracast, which “likely indicates that the industry is ready to settle on a single specification,” notes the article.
Many consumer products are already compatible with the standard. By 2016, an estimated 1.5+ billion devices will be Miracast-enabled, according to an iSuppli analyst.
