On Monday, Comcast announced that it’s making its newest set-top box, the X1, available in Boston in the coming weeks, “with a rollout planned across the entire country later this year. It’s also introducing a mobile app to control the set-top box from the iPhone or iPad,” according to TechCrunch.
This announcement comes after several years of aiming to develop a set-top box “that would take all of the smarts out of the box and put it in the network, essentially allowing the cable provider to launch new services and update the new features without having to totally rewrite applications or push out new firmware,” details the article.
All the processing for the X1 is done on the network, giving Comcast the ability to test and create new apps for its customers without considering the age or version of the set-top box.
“It will also provide more personalized features, such as allowing customers to see which shows their Facebook friends are watching,” adds TechCrunch. “The new X1 iOS app will improve navigation on the set-top box, allowing subscribers to use the virtual keyboard to search through all the live and on-demand channels more efficiently than using a traditional remote control. Users can also filter by genre and interact with other social media apps.”
Leap Motion has developed a motion control system that it claims is significantly more accurate than Microsoft’s Kinect.
According to the Leap Motion blog, The Leap is described as a “revolutionary piece of hardware no larger than your iPod that’s two hundred times more accurate than any product currently on the market. We believe that with The Leap, tomorrow we will no longer be tethered to hardware.”
“The Leap consists of a small USB device with industry-standard sensors and cameras that, in tandem with the company’s software, can track multiple objects and recognize gestures,” reports The Verge.
The system provides Web browsing, 3D modeling, and gaming with pinch-to-zoom and precision drawing capabilities.
The company is hoping to lure developers to their software by giving away free sensors to what the company defines as qualified developers.
The $69.99 system will be released early next year and will run on both Windows and Mac OS X. Pre-orders are available via the company blog.
ETCentric staffer Phil Lelyveld recommends this CNET article about The Leap (including videos) that “describes how they are working on an App Store to encourage developers, and are echoing Apple’s design/usability philosophy.”
Microsoft’s experimental social network site So.cl is now available to anyone. Previously, only “students studying information and design at the University of Washington, Syracuse University, and New York University” could access the network, reports VentureBeat.
“So.cl (pronounced ‘social’) is an experimental research project, developed by Microsoft’s FUSE Labs, focused on exploring the possibilities of social search for the purpose of learning,” according to the FAQ page.
Users can sign up using either their Facebook account or Windows Live ID. When using the Facebook option, users can choose to deny automatic posts and comments to their Facebook pages.
The social networking site “closely resembles Google+’s layout, but it also takes ideas from Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest,” explains the post. “You can follow other So.cl users or follow interests like food, art, or movies.”
The “Everyone” feed provides a simple way for users to see what most So.cl users are searching.
“So.cl can be used by the general public, but it is our goal to focus on learning communities,” indicates the FAQ page.
A survey of 15,000 computer users from 33 countries found that 57 percent admitted to using pirated software. This represents a significant increase from last year’s 42 percent.
The Business Software Alliance (BSA) estimates that the global cost of software piracy has reached $63.4 billion annually.
Computer users in emerging markets worldwide are more likely to use pirated software than those from mature markets.
The BSA says only 20 percent of software pirates feel current enforcement approaches are an effective deterrent.
“It is clear that the fight against software piracy is far from over. Although emerging markets are of the greatest concern, the problem is still persisting in mature markets, in which one in four admit to using pirated software. One of the more troubling issues is that business decision makers purchase some legitimate copies but then turn a blind eye to further (illegal) installations for new users, locations and devices,” said Robin Fry, commercial services partner at DAC Beachcroft.
Dolby has developed a way to improve the playback performance of soundtracks on Blu-ray discs. Using its TrueHD lossless audio technology, Dolby hopes to provide more of a surround-sound experience in home theaters.
“The company is incorporating Meridian-developed 96kHz upsampling technology into Dolby Media Producer, a post-production product that encodes Dolby TrueHD bitstreams for use on Blu-ray discs,” reports TWICE.
“The technology creates 96kHz Dolby TrueHD soundtracks from the 48kHz-PCM mixes that the movie industry creates for movie theaters, which use 48kHz playback equipment,” adds the article.
Dolby says authoring houses and sound-mixing facilities worldwide have upgraded to its Dolby TrueHD with advanced 96k upsampling in version 2 of the Dolby Media Producer Encoder.
Amazon is looking to place advertisements on the welcome screen of its popular Kindle Fire. The advertising would cost $600,000 and would also buy space in Amazon’s “special offers” section.
For $1 million, advertisers could purchase a welcome screen ad, more inventory in the special offers section, and Amazon would include the company in its “public relations push,” according to Ad Age.
A new Kindle Fire with a larger screen is rumored to release soon, and it is not clear if the welcome screen advertisements are intended to appear only on this new version, or if the advertisements would also be shown on existing Kindle Fire models.
Amazon’s high asking price is based on the Kindle Fire’s 19 percent daily growth in ad impressions, but it has yet to be seen whether advertisers will be willing to invest.
“It’s kind of an expensive buy to not get a guaranteed audience and measurement,” one executive told Ad Age. “It doesn’t comply with a lot of our necessary planning rigor.”
Google announced its new Knowledge Graph last week that marks “a significant change to how search results are delivered that the company believes will make their search engine think more like a human,” reports CNN.
Knowledge Graph categorizes searches by theme. If a general search yields a wide variety of results, the Knowledge Graph will group related searches into themed boxes.
Users can then click on one of the boxes to streamline the search results to reflect the desired theme. Google’s director of product management Jack Menzel explains that Knowledge Graph “hones your search results right in on the task that you’re after.”
“Menzel says the initial version of Knowledge Graph has information on 500 million people, places and things and uses 3.5 billion defining attributes and connections to create categories for them,” explains the post.
Verizon CFO Fran Shammo has clarified statements made about Verizon’s termination of unlimited data plans. Verizon still plans to move all customers to tiered data packages, but some customers who use unlimited data packages can keep their current plans.
For example, customers who recently upgraded from 3G to 4G and kept their unlimited data package can keep using the unlimited plan until their next phone upgrade.
Additionally, customers can also keep unlimited data plans if they buy a new smartphone at its full retail price.
“When we introduce our new shared data plans, Unlimited Data will no longer be available to customers when purchasing handsets at discounted pricing,” explains Verizon.
Customers do not often buy smartphones for full price, instead choosing to get a discounted price in exchange for agreeing to a new two-year contract with Verizon.
Senate and congressional lawmakers have proposed a joint bill that would require law enforcement officials to obtain a warrant before collecting geolocation data.
Wired reports that the bill “is an attempt to set a nationwide standard on not only GPS tracking, but on the collection of cellphone location data and any other geolocational data that could be introduced by future technologies.”
The bill aims to protect personal privacy following a Supreme Court decision earlier this year that classified placing a GPS tracking device in someone’s vehicle as a Fourth Amendment violation. However, the ruling “fell short of asserting that such tracking amounted to the kind of search that should always require a warrant and probable cause,” reports Wired.
Proponents of the bill want restrictions on geolocation tracking to mirror the legislation for home searches. Supporters especially want law enforcement to secure probable cause before beginning searches.
“Requiring agents to obtain such warrants is backward logic, since they often use geolocation data they’ve collected on an individual in order to then obtain a probable cause warrant for further collection of evidence, according to John Ramsey, national vice president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, who spoke to the House Judiciary’s Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security,” explains the article.
Sony and Panasonic are reportedly in early talks to jointly develop and/or produce OLED TV sets, according to people familiar with the matter.
“The talks are still in the preliminary stages, and there is a chance that discussions might not reach a conclusion or that other potential partners might join the alliance,” reports the Wall Street Journal.
“OLED is considered a promising technology for next-generation television sets because it doesn’t require a backlight, making it thinner than existing liquid-crystal or plasma displays,” explains WSJ. “In the future, the technology is expected to enable curved or flexible screens.”
While OLED technology is making its way into the smaller screens of smartphones and tablets, it remains an expensive proposition for TV manufacturing.
“An alliance between Sony and Panasonic, the first of its kind between the two companies, would mark a watershed moment in the Japanese consumer-electronics industry as companies face difficult market conditions and shifting industry dynamics,” suggests the article.
Both Samsung and LG are planning to launch 55-inch OLED models this year, expected to be priced in the $8,000 range.
Netflix claims that approximately one-third of its new subscribers are actually former customers who are now returning to the service, after leaving last year in the wake of the price increases.
According to David Wells, Netflix’s chief financial officer, speaking at the J.P. Morgan Technology Media and Telecom conference: “…we’ve said before that the brand hit will take years to recover from and I think that’s still true, with the bulk of the recovery coming in the full year and I think we still feel that way.”
The company is approaching the first anniversary of its price increases, which were initially met with public and media criticism.
“In addition, Wells said Netflix is merchandising better and aiming to burn off ‘the negative PR swirl around the brand,'” reports CNET. “Wells added that he expects the public relations hit will ‘dissipate over time.'”
“Netflix compares the address and credit card data to match up new customers with former subscribers,” explains the post. “Netflix keeps old customer data for about a year.”
Wi-Fi technology is about to experience several significant upgrades.
“Technology upgrades we’ll see within the next year or so will make Wi-Fi much smarter and more efficient in how it distributes signals,” reports Ars Technica. “It’ll be so fast, and integrated into so many devices, that you may finally get to dump a lot of those cables cluttering your living room.”
The 802.11ac standard, which may be certified as early as December, will use the 5MHz band to enable 1.3 gigabits per second bandwidth. Moreover, it will include beamforming technology that focuses the signal to increase the range while also reducing the interference problem.
Coming later in 2013, the 802.11ad standard will operate at 5-7 gigabits per second over 60GHz. At this speed, one will be able to stream uncompressed movies.
Finally, the Wi-Fi Alliance industry group is also adding a Passpoint program to make it easier to connect to hotspots; Voice-Enterprise certification for enhanced voice quality; better power management features; and a standard that allows Wi-Fi to network with appliances, CE devices and automobiles.
The U.S. Copyright Office is deliberating whether to allow Americans to jailbreak their mobile phones as an exception to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998.
An exception was granted in 2010 for mobile phones and must be reauthorized every three years by both the Copyright Office and the Librarian of Congress. The exception must be balanced against the potential harm that increased piracy might occur.
“Jailbreaking and rooting are techniques used to get past manufacturer-installed roadblocks that prevent users from having full control over their devices,” explains Wired. “Every three years, the U.S. Copyright Office entertains requests to create temporary loopholes in the law that makes it unlawful to circumvent encryption technologies in items that you buy.”
For the moment, regulators appear to agree that jailbreaking phones may be necessary to allow users to run the apps they desire. Still, Apple has argued in the past that this may ruin its business model.
Advocates are also looking at expanding the ability to jailbreak tablets and game consoles. Regulators are more skeptical about the need to do so on consoles. Moreover, they appear to be concerned that doing so on tablets “might jeopardize” copyrighted content, especially on e-readers.
Oscar-winning screenwriter Aaron Sorkin (“The Social Network,” “A Few Good Men,” “The West Wing”) is set to write the screenplay adaptation of the best-selling Steve Jobs biography written by Walter Isaacson.
“Sony reportedly paid $1 million for the rights to the biography, picking it up in October. The book was Amazon’s best-selling title of 2011 and, according to Publisher’s Weekly, 2.2 million copies were sold last year,” details The Hollywood Reporter.
The biopic about Apple’s co-founder will be produced by Scott Rudin, Mark Gordon and Guymon Casady.
It has long been rumored that Sorkin would take on the project. Sony had expressed interest in signing him since as early as November.
This is not the only Steve Jobs film in the works. Inferno Entertainment is selling “Jobs,” a $5 million indie starring Ashton Kutcher.
A number of companies are marketing waterproofing technologies designed to protect consumer electronic devices, “an endeavor that may revolutionize the mobile market,” suggests Mobiledia.
P2i, HzO, and Liquipel are companies competing to bring their water-repellent technologies to portable devices such as phones and laptops.
P2i waterproofs by spraying devices with chemicals, placing them in a vacuum chamber, and then pulsing electronic currents through the chamber. This bonds the waterproofing chemical “to every atom on the phone’s surface.”
HzO coats a phone’s internal components and claims to protect submerged phones for longer than the P2i process. “Our coating is thicker, building layers on top of each other and providing a protection that can endure underwater for extended periods of time,” claims HzO president Paul Clayson.
California-based start-up Liquipel (which ETCentric reported on during CES), waterproofs phones at a cost of $60 per device. “Liquipel is reportedly negotiating a contract with Fujitsu to coat its upcoming tablets and phones, as the company aims to expand its mail-in business,” reports Mobiledia.
As of now, external cases dominate the market, but off-the-shelf waterproofing techniques could have numerous applications and could make other products obsolete.
On Monday, Comcast announced that it’s making its newest set-top box, the X1, available in Boston in the coming weeks, “with a rollout planned across the entire country later this year. It’s also introducing a mobile app to control the set-top box from the iPhone or iPad,” according to TechCrunch.
