Apple has released a standalone app for podcasts ahead of its scheduled release of iOS 6.
The free app is called “Podcasts” and works on iOS devices running 5.1 or later, including both iPads and iPhones. It will sync with iTunes on a Mac or Windows PC, so long as they’re updated to iTunes 10.6.3.
“It expectedly offers a variety of ways to browse and discover podcasts among the thousands available (including a new Top Stations feature that groups select podcasts by category), as well as the ability to either stream episodes or download them for offline use,” details Engadget.
“The Podcasts application for iOS also includes the ability to share shows or specific episodes with other users via e-mail, Twitter or text message,” notes Apple Insider in a more detailed hands-on review. “Presumably with the launch of iOS 6 this fall, Facebook integration will also become part of the Podcasts application.”
Verizon and T-Mobile have agreed to an Advanced Wireless Services spectrum swap that would add LTE capabilities to T-Mobile’s network, reports CNET. The deal must first secure approval from the FCC, and then would allow T-Mobile to begin building its LTE support.
“For iPhone users, this deal is particularly interesting, especially if you’ve already been using Apple’s smartphone on T-Mobile’s existing HSPA+ network,” notes the post. “T-Mobile already offers tremendous support for the iPhone on its network even though it is not officially part of Apple’s sales partnership.”
Current iPhone models do not support LTE connectivity, although the long rumored iPhone 5 would presumably include this technology. T-Mobile is clearly preparing for this release.
“By adding 4G speeds, T-Mobile would have to be high on Apple’s partner list (and high on the lists of iPad owners looking for cheaper data plans), though no official deals have been announced” explains CNET.
The trailer for “Breaking Dawn – Part 2” — the final installment of the “Twilight” series — has broken the Yahoo! Movies record for unique streams with over 7 million views in 24 hours.
“Yahoo! Movies attracts over 27 million unique users a month, so 7 million streams is a sizable achievement for a single day,” explains a Yahoo! spokesman.
“Twilight” studio Summit released its trailer on Wednesday in an exclusive window partnership with Yahoo! Movies for 24 hours. The previous record-holder was “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1.” Even though the trailer is no longer an exclusive, its viewing numbers are holding strong.
In October 2011 users downloaded “The Avengers” trailer on iTunes 10 million times in one day. In December 2011 the trailer for “The Dark Knight Rises” received 12.5 million downloads in a single day.
“It’s possible that the discrepancy may be the size of the different platforms — ‘Breaking Dawn – Part 2’ was, after all, a record breaker for Yahoo! — or simply a commentary on the ways in which different audiences interact with material offered to them, but it’s also a strong possibility that, in this year’s conflict between superheroes and vampire romance, it’s the guys in the skintight suits who’ll emerge victorious,” comments Digital Trends.
“Apple is making potentially significant changes to the search algorithm in the App Store, at least according to some app developers,” reports TechCrunch.
“If you’re a developer or publisher counting on a well-chosen name to help with visibility, things could get tougher from here on out. But if you’re a popular and well-reviewed app, things might be looking up,” notes the post.
Apple acquired app discovery start-up Chomp in February, but developers are just beginning to see the results of its topic detection.
Developers report changes in Apple’s search algorithm which seems to now focus more on downloads, ratings, and themes rather than simple keywords.
“Chomp’s proprietary algorithm learns the functions and topics of apps, so you can search based on what apps do, not just what they’re called,” explains Chomp.
TechCrunch uses the BestParking app as an example, noting that this app is now displayed as the top result for searches such as “chicago parking” and “sf parking.” The post notes that this change benefits generalized apps that serve multiple geographies and possibly hurts app developers who focus on local markets.
Start-up CloudMine originally envisioned developing a sophisticated data sync and storage app solution.
Over time, its efforts transitioned to the development and launch of a new back-end platform designed to streamline the app development process for others.
“CloudMine wants to take the back-end focus away from engineers so they can focus on the part users actually interact with,” reports Digital Trends. “To be specific, tasks like data storage, user account management, password encryption, any sort of permissioning, dealing with public and private data, and scaling.”
During its beta period, the service charged for pay-as-you-go API usage until CloudMine learned that approach made its clients nervous. Now clients have the option of paying 5-cents per active user or working with CloudMine to create a custom pricing plan.
“CloudMind is a product of Startup Weekend (which it’s now a global sponsor of), and though it’s in its infancy, it’s already home to about 1,500 clients who have made about 1,500 apps with its service,” explains the post. “They range in shape, size, and form — from college kids building weekend projects to creative agencies working as third party builders-for-hire to Fortune 500 companies.”
Needham & Co. released a report on Friday — “The Future of TV: the Invisible Hand” — that helps explain how the television industry has so far weathered the digital storm that has affected other media segments.
“TV offers one of the best price/value ratios of any consumer product,” note media analysts Laura Martin and Dan Medina in the report.
For the average U.S. monthly cable bill of $75 a month for 135 TV channels, “consumers pay about 30 cents for every hour of TV they watch. Compared with other forms of leisure time, this looks inexpensive.”
“Today, the Internet content creators cannot create perfect substitutes for TV content, owing to the enormous content costs,” write Martin and Medina. “For example, broadcast networks — ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC — typically spend $2 billion to $3 billion each year, equating to about $2 million to $5 million per hour of prime-time programming.”
“The primary reason that TV networks can commit to these enormous production budgets is because the business model of the ecosystem raises money before anyone knows which channels and shows will be hits,” adds the report.
More than three-quarters of network revenues is derived from the upfront advertising market. “Advertisers this month agreed to shell out $9 billion for prime-time commercials on the major television networks,” reports the Los Angeles Times.
Search giant Google doubled its global ad and promotion spending to $1.5 billion last year. “Factor in 2011 ad spending for just-acquired Motorola Mobility Holdings, and Google is now a $2.1 billion global advertiser,” reports Advertising Age.
Google receives most of its revenue through advertising, with 96 percent of its $38 billion revenue in 2011 coming from advertising.
Ad Age notes that Google is also a big ad buyer: “Google’s stated worldwide advertising and promotion spending doubled in 2010 and doubled again in 2011. Ad and promo spending as a percentage of revenue reached 4.1 percent in 2011, up from 2.6 percent in 2010 and 1.5 percent in 2009.”
“Estimated U.S. ad spending for Google and Motorola topped $1 billion in 2011, placing the combined company No. 34 on Ad Age‘s ranking of the 100 Leading National Advertisers,” adds the article. “This marks Google’s debut on the list.”
According to Google: “We expect that sales and marketing expenses will increase in dollar amount and may increase as a percentage of revenues in 2012 and future periods as we expand our business globally, increase advertising and promotional expenditures in connection with new and existing products, and increase the level of service we provide to our advertisers … and other partners.”
Reviews for Google TV have been less than complimentary. Hands-on reviews from CNET and Gizmodo have commented on its “kludgy integration,” and “overly complex and buggy software.”
“What makes sense works poorly, and what works well shouldn’t be available at all, pulling together all the worst possible parts of using Android together and putting them on the biggest screen you own,” suggests Gizmodo.
Forbes questions the wisdom of the two-sided remote and notes there may not be enough third party content deals yet to make Google TV attractive.
Nevertheless, Google is rolling out Google TV in the UK next month. And later this year, it will be available in Canada, Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Mexico and the Netherlands on two new Sony set-top boxes.
Rather than provide an overly complex system for users who want to watch everything, everywhere, anytime; most users would settle for a curated a la carte selection that matches their interests and use patterns.
The question is whether Google can attract sufficient developer support to create the apps that provide that kind of experience. We’ll see if there are any significant Google TV announcements at the I/O Conference on Wednesday. If not, there will be more interest in an Apple TV.
Facebook announced it will replace its Facebook Credits system with a payment system that allows global users to pay in their local currency.
The move signals the beginning of a payment rivalry between Facebook, PayPal, Google Wallet, and iTunes, reports VentureBeat.
Facebook explained the move, saying that it makes “it easier to reach a global audience of Facebook users who want a way to pay for your apps and games in their local currency” because “you will be able to set more granular and consistent prices for non-U.S. users and price the same item differently on a market-by-market basis.”
VentureBeat contributor Rocky Agrawal noted that “Facebook is PayPal on steroids, with the strength of a billion members.”
Perhaps this move, and not advertising, is the most effective way for Facebook to monetize its massive user base.
Over the past week, Facebook introduced a new Timeline feature that creates an @facebook email address while it also hides your existing email address.
The new settings options make it unclear which address is being shared with the outside world. This change was made by default meaning millions of users may likely be using their new addresses.
This is part of a major effort by Facebook to replace existing communication systems and increase the “stickiness” and use of Facebook.
So how does Facebook describe the change? “As we announced back in April, we’ve been updating addresses on Facebook to make them consistent across our site,” explains the press release. “In addition to everyone receiving an address, we’re also rolling out a new setting that gives people the choice to decide which addresses they want to show on their Timelines.”
“Ever since the launch of Timeline, people have had the ability to control what posts they want to show or hide on their own Timelines, and today we’re extending that to other information they post, starting with the Facebook address,” adds the release.
One can only imagine how Facebook will use your email contacts (and perhaps even the messages too)!
Following weeks of speculation, Microsoft has announced it will purchase enterprise social networking start-up Yammer for $1.2 billion.
The deal marks Microsoft’s largest acquisition since the $8.5 billion Skype deal.
“The acquisition of Yammer underscores our commitment to deliver technology that businesses need and people love,” said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. “Yammer adds a best-in-class enterprise social networking service to Microsoft’s growing portfolio of complementary cloud services.”
“Yammer operates like a gated Facebook: A business can set up a private network where employees can post announcements, share files, create events, swap messages and more,” reports CNNMoney. “It also offers more traditional corporate features like a content management system and an ‘extranet’ that businesses can use to communicate with outside contacts like customers and vendors.”
Microsoft is betting that corporate America is ready to integrate social networking tools with traditional office and enterprise tools.
“Yammer will become part of the Microsoft Office Division, run by Kurt DelBene, though the Yammer team will continue to report to [CEO David] Sacks,” reports AllThingsD in a related article. “The plan calls for Yammer to stick to its current track of developing its own service, while Microsoft pushes ahead to nudge further adoption alongside SharePoint, Office 365, Microsoft Dynamics and Skype.”
Penguin Group USA is working with 3M and New York City public libraries to make Penguin e-books available in libraries by August. “If it is a success, the program could be expanded in public libraries across the country,” according to The New York Times.
This announcement comes as publishers and libraries continue struggling to determine how much access to e-books there should be for library users.
As an increasing number of book buyers are using Kindles, Nooks and iPads to read, they’re finding library access to e-books convenient and cost-efficient. “But major publishers, including Penguin, concerned that free downloads at the library were costing them e-book sales, have scaled back their books’ availability in recent months,” details NYT.
“We have always been committed to libraries and we are hopeful that this experiment will be successful,” said David Shanks, chief executive of Penguin Group. “Our partnership with 3M and the New York Public Library is a first step toward understanding the best means of supporting the growing digital missions of our great library institutions and their sincere desire to bring writers to new readers.”
David Brady and a team of researchers at Duke University have developed a gigapixel camera that records more than 30 times the data captured by conventional cameras. The AWARE2 camera project is funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
“The new camera is not the first to generate images with more than a billion pixels (or gigapixel resolution),” notes MIT’s Technology Review. “But it is the first with the potential to be scaled down to portable dimensions.”
The AWARE2 prototype has 98 micro-cameras, each with 10-megapixel resolution, all positioned behind a shared lens. Eight graphical processing units work in tandem to correct distortions, while multiple cameras behind a shared lens make it possible to process different portions of the image separately.
Hardware required for the AWARE2 is expected to shrink as computer processing power improves.
“Imagine trying to spot an individual pixel in an image displayed across 1,000 high-definition TV screens. That’s the kind of resolution a new kind of ‘compact’ gigapixel camera is capable of producing,” notes the article.
Brady says gigapixel cameras could revolutionize digital photography, image surveillance and video broadcasting. His team hopes to offer a version of the camera by the end of next year for $100,000.
Nintendo has announced the August 19th availability of the new $200 3DS XL, a larger version of its portable console with improved battery life.
“Unlike the Nintendo DS Lite, which released just over a year and a half after the original DS, the 3DS XL does not make necessary improvements to the look and ergonomics of the 3DS,” reports Digital Trends. “The Lite made the DS more compact but dramatically improved its screens and comfort. The 3DS XL increases the size of the 3DS’ screens by 90 percent, with a 4.88-inch top screen and a 4.18-inch bottom screen.”
The new size (close to that of the iPad when the clamshell is unfolded) may make the 3DS a more usable device for some gamers.
The battery life has been improved, offering 30 minutes more play time than the original. Additionally, the 2GB SD card of the original DS has been replaced with a 4GB card.
However, Digital Trends suggests these are the only improvements. “The screens are bigger but the resolution is not improved. The 3DS XL also fails to add the most necessary hardware improvements like a second analog slide pad for improved control of the three-dimensional games,” explains the post.
Mashable takes a look at how augmented reality — although still in its early stages of deployment — is already beginning to impact retail businesses and the consumer shopping experience.
“Augmented reality technology typically overlays the virtual world on top of the real-world environment through a device, such as a mobile phone or a tablet,” explains the article. “But certain companies are redefining the bounds of virtual reality experiences by home-growing their own unique AR technologies and platforms.”
For example, the GoldRun AR platform is available in app form for iOS and Android devices. It can customize AR-based experiences to be shared via Facebook and Twitter.
“GoldRun specializes in interactive experiences accessible directly on the app platform, which hosts various campaigns at one time,” notes Mashable. “For example, clothing retailer H&M can hold a virtual photo-based scavenger hunt, while New York Giants fans can virtually try on the Super Bowl XLVI championship ring and share photos online.”
“We’re creating a platform where we can use augmented reality to create a one-stop shop, based on the concept of using virtual brands to create geo-specific or geo-targeted virtual photo opportunities,” explains Shailesh Rao, co-founder of GoldRun.
Holition is a marketing firm and AR laboratory that has created an interactive digital platform that is complex on the back end, but seamless for consumers who want to try on virtual goods via a Web cam and Internet connection.
“We are pursuing active ways in which the other senses can be integrated into augmented spaces, whether that be touch or sound,” says Holition brand director Lynne Murray. “A lot of our brands say, ‘About 50 percent of our product is ensuring customers can feel the weight of it.’ So, we’re looking at how to include haptic interfaces to our experiences to allow us to communicate multiple sensory experiences.”
ETCentric reported from January’s CES about companies such as Lego developing AR kiosks. Retailers are already letting customers try on clothing and jewelry virtually. Macy’s in Culver City, California recently conducted a demonstration of full body scans of customers in the Fox Hills Mall courtyard.
