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.”
Nikon has finally announced its $2,099 (body only), full-frame, 24-megapixel D600. The new DSLR costs considerably less than the D800.
“As such, the D600 — which offers similar build quality and operational ergonomics as the popular DX-format D7000 — is hugely significant,” reports Digital Photography Review.
“It matches or exceeds the pixel count of every other full-frame DSLR bar one (the D800) at the sort of price point that up to now, has been almost exclusively the preserve of high-end APS-C cameras.”
The review notes that users will be impressed with the new camera’s “5.5fps shooting at full-resolution, 100 percent viewfinder coverage, full HD video capture with an option to record uncompressed footage via HDMI and customizable 39-point AF system.”
The review provides detailed specs and side-by-side comparisons to the D7000 and D800.
“It’s interesting to note, too, that with the D600, Nikon has significantly undercut Sony’s recent full-frame offerings — the SLT-A99 and Cyber-shot RX1, not to mention presented a daunting challenge to arch-rival Canon,” according to the review.
Passwords for online banking, social networks and email could soon be replaced by the wave of a hand if Intel’s prototype technology comes to fruition.
The technology aims “to do away with the need to remember passwords for growing numbers of online services,” reports Reuters. “Intel researchers have put together a tablet with new software and a biometric sensor that recognizes the unique patterns of veins on a person’s palm.”
“The problem with passwords — we use too many of them, their rules are complex, and they differ for different websites,” notes Sridhar Iyengar, director of security research at Intel Labs. “There is a way out of it, and biometrics is an option.”
“Making laptops, tablets and smartphones responsible for identifying users would take that requirement away from individual websites and do away with the need to individually enter passwords into each of them, Iyengar said.”
To answer security issue questions, Reuters explains that “a device using the technology would use built-in accelerometers to detect when a user puts it down, and would then log its owner off to keep unauthorized people from getting in.”
According to Intel CTO Justin Rattner, the palm-reading technology will require software and sensors built into devices, but not the development of new chips.
“Looking to the future, all computing will become wireless computing, with an ever-increasing demand for faster wireless communication,” Intel CTO Justin Rattner said in a statement.
To address this trend, Intel has worked to develop WiGig, a multi-gigabit wireless docking technology that provides speeds of up to 7Gbps, ten times as fast as current Wi-Fi networks.
Intel demonstrated the technology at its annual Intel Developers Forum, claiming “WiGig is on track to becoming the most important next-generation multi-gigabit wireless technology,” Computerworld reports.
WiGig is based on the IEEE 802.11n standard and “operates in the unlicensed 60GHz frequency band, which has more spectrum available than the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands used by existing Wi-Fi products,” the article explains. “This allows wider channels that support faster transmission speeds.”
The specification also supports Wi-Fi over 60GHz and a wide range of applications. It enables wireless connectivity using HDMI and display extensions, which could allow laptops to connect to TVs to stream video.
“The technology is nearly ready, and with chips from multiple WiGig member companies already in production and certification ready for mid-2013, I would expect a real explosion in the number of WiGig devices coming to market soon,” said Ali Sadri, chairman of the WiGig Alliance.
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.
Online ads will be getting a whole new look thanks to the cinemagraph, an animated gif that “repeatedly replays as a short piece of short video created from dozens of still shots layered on top of each other,” reports Business Insider.
“The innovation with a cinemagraph is that most of the image remains still, and only a piece of it moves. The result is a gif of much higher quality, within which is a subtle, often haunting piece of movement,” notes the article.
First coined by graphic designer Kevin Burg and photographer Jamie Beck, cinemagraphs have had strong traction on social media sites like Twitter and Tumblr as users have taken to sharing their favorites.
Tumblr has even created a new service for advertisers called Tumblr Radar that helps advertisers promote cinemagraphs.
The BI post includes a selection of stunning ads — from the likes of Coca-Cola, Tiffany & Co., Bloomingdale’s and Diesel — that effectively use cinemagraphs.
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.”
President Obama is taking to the video game world to campaign for re-election in swing states.
The Obama campaign has begun running ads within Electronic Arts games, including the very popular “Madden NFL 13,” in key states like Ohio, Nevada, Colorado, Iowa, New Hampshire and Virginia.
“The ads are aimed at encouraging the gaming demographic to take advantage of early voting in these states,” reports Adweek. The campaign is also running “get out the vote” virtual ads within some popular Web games.
“It was made clear in the last election that reaching consumers through video games makes a significant impact, so it’s no surprise to see this tactic used once again in such a competitive election,” notes Dave Madden, EA’s SVP of global media solutions.
“Video games actively and emotionally engaged consumers in a way that no other medium really can and that translates into a big opportunity for political candidates,” he adds.
Ted Sarandos, chief content officer for Netflix, recently denounced staggered international release windows as “an open invitation to widespread copyright infringement online,” Variety reports.
Sarandos notes the pay window for Lionsgate’s “The Hunger Games” is scheduled at intervals across eight months.
“It begins in Latin America on August 18, when ‘Hunger’ is released day and date with VOD and DVD because of the region’s underdeveloped homevid market,” explains the article. “Three months later, ‘Hunger’ comes to Canada, followed a month after that in the U.K. and 90 days after that in the U.S.”
“The U.S. will actually have the slowest access to ‘The Hunger Games’ in a subscription model online, which I think is incredibly dangerous for distributors in terms of having this global platform, and global knowledge of when things are available, and regionalized availability dates,” Sarandos suggests. “I think it will only encourage piracy in a way that is going to only grow.”
Netflix has access to “The Hunger Games” through Epix, which also has a deal with Amazon Prime.
“I do think the gap of time between DVD, VOD and pay TV is getting increasingly frustrating for consumers,” Sarandos adds. “That’s why I will pay more to accelerate it like we did in Latin America. They were more receptive to the deal because their DVD market is almost nonexistent.”
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.”
20th Century Fox has begun a big marketing push to promote its new Digital HD initiative. It’s first goal: to lure in sports fans.
The new initiative “will make future Fox films available for download about two weeks before their homevid release; there are also 600 library titles,” reports Variety.
The focus on sports fans and ESPN in particular reflects Fox’s interest in the young male audience, “an enthusiastic demo for digital downloads, especially via gaming consoles such as PlayStation and Xbox,” notes the article.
ESPN fans can expect to see digital download promos splashed across the site’s homepage, on its tablet homepage and on its mobile app.
Fox will also promote via major gaming and music sites.
The promotion behind Digital HD marks a new direction for Hollywood, which has been tentative regarding digital distribution. “The Digital HD campaign is in keeping with Fox chairman Jim Gianopulos’ leadership on technology, anti-piracy and digital strategies,” explains Variety. “Last year, Fox was the first studio to make Oscar screeners available via free digital download on iTunes.”
According to CEO Leslie Moonves, CBS will eventually pull its broadcast network from Dish if the satcaster continues to offer its Auto Hop ad-skipping tool.
CBS and other networks are taking legal action to stop use of the Auto Hop feature.
“If they want to eliminate our commercials, we will not be in business with them — it’s pure and simple,” says Moonves. “If they want to continue down that line, then we will just not be on Dish. That’s what will happen. We will go elsewhere, and people will take our content.”
“Similarly, he said CBS will continue to fight Aereo, a device that offers CBS content on mobile devices in New York without compensating the network,” reports MediaPost.
“CBS and other networks are also in litigation with Aereo, but that case carries a different dynamic,” adds the post. “If the networks lose, they can’t pull programming off Aereo, since it plucks it via over-the-air distribution.”
Digital Trends reports on Sony’s newly announced fall line-up: “Let’s start with the one that’s been buzzing around the Net — the Sony RX1. This camera, which looks all the world like the RX100, has a 24.3-megapixel full-frame sensor and costs $2,799 (available November).” The RX1 features a fixed Zeiss 35mm F2 lens.
“Not content to introduce one new full-frame digicam today, Sony also announced the SLT-A99, a more classic-looking DSLR with the big sensor, plus a camcorder with one as well, the NEX-VG900,” adds the post.
The $2,799 SLT-A99 will be available in October and the NEX-VG900 (pictured here) — “that’ll have the students at USC and NYU film schools drooling” — will ship one month later for $3,299 (body only, accepts E-Mount lenses). Sony has also updated its NEX-VG20 interchangeable lens camcorder with the $1,799 VG30 and $2,699 30H kit.
“On top of this trio, there’s the new NEX-6, a Compact System Camera that comes closest to fulfilling the promise of mirrorless cameras,” suggests the post.
The $999 NEX-6 (with 16-50mm lens), due in November, is the “first Compact System Camera to use faster phase detect AF rather than contrast detection, giving it DSLR speed and focusing capability in a compact body,” notes Digital Trends. “This means you can shoot 10 fps with continuous AF tracking, just like a high-end DSLR.”
For those interested in more information, Digital Photography Review goes hands-on with in-depth analyses and full specs on the Sony RX1, SLT-A99 and NEX-VG900.
Flailing tech start-ups typically have two options: watch money dwindle as they try to become the next big thing or close up shop and go to work for the big guys.
“Acqui-hires” are now becoming common place in Silicon Valley where established technology companies are buying up small start-ups for around $3 million to $6 million to bring their software-engineering talent on board.
“Now, with tech start-ups proliferating because of the relatively low cost of getting off the ground, desperation for software talent has moved even small and midsize tech companies to make acqui-hires,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
The upside is increased salaries for these coveted engineers and a cohesive team for the big companies. But the downfalls can weigh pretty heavily.
“Accepting an acqui-hire offer not only sidelines an entrepreneur’s dreams, but it typically results in negligible, or even zero, returns for the start-up’s investors,” the article explains. “Moreover, the products and services it took long days and nights to create either cease to exist or are folded into the acquirer’s portfolio. Any employees who aren’t software engineers may be left without jobs.”
There are also certain catches, like requirements to stay on as an employee for a few years in order to retain offered stocks. “Other forms of compensation might be clawed back as well, and founders might be required to sign noncompete agreements prohibiting them from engaging in the same business for a specified period after leaving the acquirer,” the article states.
But even with these setbacks, sometimes the competitive industry can prove even more tough on struggling start-ups. “This is often the alternative to liquidating and sending your résumé out,” says John Coyle, a law professor at the University of North Carolina.
Hollywood is becoming a hotspot for start-ups. “Incubators and accelerators are popping up everywhere. Venture capitalists are becoming frequent fliers at LAX. Celebrities are stamping their names on new companies. And TV industry executives are quitting their jobs to become entrepreneurs,” according to Business Insider.
Many successful entrepreneurs are investing in the Los Angeles start-up ecosystem. Investor Gary Vaynerchuk believes L.A. will eventually surpass both New York and San Francisco as the ultimate start-up location.
“I’ve seen more and more founders coming from outside L.A. and moving here; there’s a bigger talent pool now,” notes investor Paige Craig. “I was really impressed at LA Startup Weekend. I hadn’t met half the founders before. And the schools are finally getting their kids to stay.”
And Los Angeles is home to the TV and film industries, both of which are “ripe for disruption.”
“With the massive growth of YouTube and Hulu and start-ups providing alternative solutions, the TV industry is really changing and it creates opportunity,” explains Greycroft partner Dana Settle. “L.A. has always had a ton of creative business people but tech has always been trumped by Hollywood. Now Hollywood is realizing it needs to be smarter in tech. Hollywood is finally crossing over and it’s really going to charge L.A. to be the next tech center. We’re at the very tip of the iceberg.”
Celebrities are also playing a role in the start-up growth by funding various ventures. “Ryan Seacrest, Ellen DeGeneres, Christina Applegate, Justin Bieber and Justin Timberlake are just a few A-listers who have lent their names to support entrepreneurs,” writes Business Insider.
