Amazon is expanding its Prime Instant Video service to include MGM titles. The licensing agreement will see “hundreds of classic movies and TV shows added to its Prime Instant Video catalog throughout 2012,” reports The Next Web.
The Prime Instant Video service is available to customers who pay for Amazon’s Prime two-day shipping service. The service allows users to watch streaming content on the Kindle Fire, Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and more.
“Amazon is really beginning to ramp up its media offering, having inked a deal with Paramount last month,” explains TNW. “Throw into the equation its Amazon Studios division, which seeks to develop fresh content based on user submissions (such as ‘Zombies vs. Gladiators’), the Internet giant is really beginning to cement itself in the VOD space and is a genuine rival to services such as Netflix.”
The post also notes that Google signed a deal with MGM earlier in the year, “which saw more than 600 titles added to YouTube and Google Play.”
Amazon has released its free Cloud Player app for Apple devices. This will allow iPhone and iPod touch users to access music stored in the Cloud Drive.
“This time, it’s a dedicated app, although it may mean re-purposing the music library you’ve already built up from Apple’s own collection,” notes Engadget. “You can’t buy tracks from within the app just yet, but at least your iTunes-bought AAC tracks are transferable.”
Users receive 5GB of free storage and can purchase plans for unlimited storage space.
“Customers using the Amazon Cloud Player App can stream, download, and manage their music in the cloud, eliminating the need to download files before playing them,” according to the Amazon press release. “With this new app, customers have full access to their Cloud Player music libraries and also can seamlessly add playlists that are currently on their iPhone or iPod touch.”
During Monday’s keynote at Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference, the company announced that nine automakers will soon integrate its Siri virtual assistant into their vehicles.
“How Siri will be implemented — and in what way it would possibly override the existing voice control functionality on existing vehicles — weren’t disclosed, and considering everything that Apple announced, it’s no surprise that the consumer electronics manufacturer didn’t have time to delve into the details,” reports Wired.
The automakers include Audi, BMW, Chrysler, General Motors, Honda, Jaguar, Land Rover and Toyota. Earlier this year, Mercedes announced Siri will be integrated into its A-Class models, scheduled to launch in Europe later this year.
“It’s also odd that Ford — a leader of in-car technology — wasn’t listed among the participating automakers, although it’s possibly that integrating with Sync by Microsoft may be a sticking point,” the post adds. “Also notable in its absence is Hyundai and KIA, the latter of which also has a deal with Microsoft to supply the underlying architecture of its UVO infotainment system”
After much speculation regarding its relationship with Google Maps, Apple launched its own Maps product on Monday during the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.
“We all knew it was going to happen, but Apple just launched its own, stunning, Maps product, with ‘Flyover’ or Apple’s incredible new 3D maps display which quite honestly makes Google Maps look antiquated,” reports TechCrunch.
Along with the 3D display, Apple’s Maps will feature Siri integration offering turn-by-turn directions and a focus on local search.
The company “has taken in 100 million local businesses so far, in addition to partnering up with Yelp to provide the listings,” notes TechCrunch.
“The company is also building a Waze-like traffic service, so users can see where slow traffic is and see accidents — Apple will use using anonymous crowd-sourced real time data from iOS users to keep this up to date,” according to the post.
The Maps will be vector-based, meaning that users will be able to rotate views, look from different angles and zoom.
Google’s stock was down $8 after the announcement.
Noticeably absent this week from Apple’s WWDC was an announcement regarding its long-rumored television offering. However, Peter Kafka suggests that an outline for Apple’s TV plans are emerging in plain sight.
“It’s possible that Tim Cook really will come out with a big, shiny, integrated TV set,” writes Kafka for AllThingsD. “But regardless, he appears to be building the ‘real’ Apple TV right in front of us. The key here is to focus not on the hardware but on the software, the content, and the way users will get to access all of that stuff.”
Since March, Apple TV users have been able to access the Netflix service through their iTunes accounts. This integration may serve as a template for future deals to provide additional content.
This week in San Francisco, Apple unveiled AirPlay mirroring via the Mountain Lion OS that allows users to send content from a Mac directly to the TV using the Apple TV box, what Kafka describes as “another important piece of the puzzle.”
Although not yet promoted as such, AirPlay mirroring may open new possibilities for sending whatever is on your Safari browser (from multiple devices) directly to your TV, potentially leading to “a new breed of dual-screen Apple TV + AirPlay apps.”
“It’s already happening: From MLB, which allows you to use your iPad as a second screen for HD baseball game broadcasts, to games that render on the TV while using your phone or tablet as a controller, to many of Apple’s own native apps like iPhoto and Keynote which present rich interactive interfaces on the iPad while rendering media onto the TV,” says Brightcove CEO Jeremy Allaire.
Canon has announced its EOS Rebel T4i, the next iteration of the company’s T3i DSLR. According to Digital Trends, Canon has outfitted the T4i “with some stunning new video capture capabilities as well as a barrier-breaking feature, the touchscreen display.”
Highlights of the new camera include a 3-inch, 1.04 million dot resolution LCD touchscreen; 18-megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor; ISO 100-12800 (expandable to 25600); 9-point all cross-type AF system; and high-speed continuous shooting up to 5fps.
We’ve seen touchscreens featured on point-and-shoot cameras and mirrorless Micro Four Thirds systems, but this is the first DSLR to include the technology (this could potentially open the door to mobile OS integration, enabling quality cameras to interact more directly with apps).
“The electronic-static touch-panel is the most advanced that Canon has released to date with multi-touch capabilities allowing photographers to use familiar gestures such as ‘pinch-to-zoom’ and ‘swiping’ to scroll between pictures,” the company said in its press release.
The Rebel T4i will launch the end of June starting at $850 (body only).
Nick Alt, founder and CEO of Clear Media, has introduced what could potentially become “the Instagram of Animated GIFs,” reports Wired. “Animated GIFs are making a comeback, and Echograph, a new iPad app, is taking them to the next level.”
“You shoot a video, select a five-second clip, and choose one still as the main frame. Next, use your finger to erase part of the image. That portion of the frozen image is replaced by video playing on an endless loop,” explains the post. “The result? Hybrid images that keep your eye guessing.”
With the $2.99 iPad app, “photographers can instantly download a shot from a high-definition camera, make an Echograph, and if it doesn’t work, immediately reshoot it,” notes Wired. “Why shouldn’t users be able to ‘test right on the fly, not come back to the studio to import and process footage,’ Alt says. ‘Instead of being a bunch of developers back at the shop, we’re trying to solve our own problems.'”
The Echograph site also features a $29.99 CF+USB Kit for importing stills and video to all models of the iPad (not required for use of the Echograph app). “Perfect for importing raw Compact Flash card media into the iPad,” notes the product description. “Works with h.264 video, RAW and JPG.”
The post includes a quick video demo and several interesting animated images created with Echograph.
Microsoft and Encyclopedia Britannica have joined forces in an attempt to make Bing a smarter search engine.
The partnership hopes to deliver “relevant information in a more organized way to help you find what you need more quickly and get stuff done,” says Franco Salvetti, principal development lead of Bing.
“The search engine’s answer feature tries to provide users with a snippet of useful information related to their questions and keywords without having to visit a webpage,” reports TechCrunch. “Results from Encyclopedia Britannica will now feature a thumbnail and some useful facts about the topic (as well as links to Wikipedia, Britannica, Freebase and — for those who don’t like to read — Qwiki).”
The posts suggests Microsoft’s plans are similar to the goals of Google’s Knowledge Graph project, but notes that “Google’s project is far more complex and ambitious.”
“Indeed, in some ways this partnership with Encyclopedia Britannica feels like a poor man’s version of Google’s project,” comments TechCrunch. “Google’s Knowledge Graph knows about 500 million entities and how they relate to each other. While it’s probably not quite fair to compare this directly to Britannica Online, its worth noting that the old-school encyclopedia features ‘just’ 120,000 articles.”
Cary Sherman, CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America, testified before Congress last week on “The Future of Audio.”
Sherman published a statement of his speech, in which “he stresses that online piracy must be stopped and one of the ways to do this is by having search engines, like Google and Bing, censor any results that could lead users to sites with illegally obtained copyrighted material,” reports CNET.
“Thank you RIAA, this is great news for us!” responded The Pirate Bay on its blog, suggesting that such a crackdown would increase traffic to its own search engine.
The Pirate Bay ends its blog post sarcastically: “Hugs’n’kisses from your pals at The Pirate Bay — soon to be the biggest media search engine in the world!”
“Google said it was tackling piracy by removing millions of URLs containing copyrighted material monthly. The RIAA says that these numbers are inflated,” explains CNET. The RIAA also gave Google an overall grade of “incomplete” in December, suggesting the search engine still receives financial benefits from pirate sites.
However, the organization believes Google is making an effort. “Let us be clear: there is no doubt that Google has taken productive steps to combat content theft online and we are one of many that have commended these improvements,” the RIAA wrote in April. “These efforts are encouraging and give us hope that Google is truly committed to working with those of us that produce the content that Google users want to see and hear.”
On Sunday, Twitter revealed its new hashtag brand pages in its first ever television advertisement.
Twitter’s ad ran during NASCAR’s Pocono 400 and referenced Twitter.com/#NASCAR, which includes “commentary from drivers, their crews, and expert commentators, as well as a whole bunch of beautiful behind-the-scenes photos, all surfaced through a combination of algorithms and curation by the race league,” according to TechCrunch.
A related post from Business Insider notes that the Twitter.com/#NASCAR address redirects users to twitter.com/hashtag/nascar. “It’s a way for Twitter and NASCAR to help fans sift through all the noise that they’d find if they just looked at the #NASCAR hashtag in search,” notes TechCrunch.
The new pages will allow companies to “curate the experience around what people are saying” rather than “simply purchasing sponsored hashtags or tweets,” explains the post.
Critics highlight the similarity to AOL keywords, which once performed a similar task of combining news and commentary around a particular brand, but did so with limited success.
Intel has quietly been planning a November release of its own set-top-box and over-the-top streaming service to rival traditional cable offerings.
The plan is to offer “smaller, cheaper bundles of channels rather than the hundreds that come with a basic cable subscription,” details Engadget.
Intel also plans to use its facial recognition technology “both by offering precise ratings data to networks and by showing targeted adverts to whoever it can see is watching,” according to the post.
“If they can create a virtual network and it incorporates proprietary Intel technology, they could certainly bring something different to the subscription TV model,” said JMP analyst Alex Gauna.
However, most studios are not on board, unwilling to offer discounts to a service so new and untested, leaving Intel in a tough spot and likely making it difficult to deliver the product by November.
“Underscoring the difficulty insurgent tech companies face in securing content, Microsoft in January indefinitely postponed plans for its own online TV subscription service after deciding that licensing costs were too high, according to people familiar with those discussions,” reports Reuters in a related report. “And therein lies that dilemma that Intel and other insurgent over-the-top providers must tackle before their big plans can be realized.”
Gaikai’s cloud gaming platform — which enables gaming on multiple devices — will soon be integrated with Samsung TV sets. The platform is already used on Facebook and LG TVs.
“Called Samsung Cloud Gaming (SCG), it’ll be available via the Smart Hub on Samsung 7000 series and up Smart TVs in the U.S. this summer,” reports Engadget. “The technology powering SCG is the same as what’s behind LG’s service, but Sammy’s customized the UI to suit its sensibilities.”
The alliance has been in development for nine months. “Samsung’s buying dedicated bandwidth from Gaikai’s 24 data centers on a per-device basis, with Gaikai handling overflow traffic while it builds out its network to meet increased demand as needed,” notes the post.
According to the press release, Samsung will soon begin accepting signups for the beta of SCG for its Smart TVs.
Engadget has included a 3-minute video demo featuring games being played on a Samsung TV.
At Monday’s WWDC event, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced a new MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion and iOS 6, a Google Maps replacement, Facetime without Wi-Fi and more. However, it was a new mirroring feature that caught the attention of many.
“A potentially disruptive feature of the upgraded OS X enables Mac users to mirror their laptop’s display on their TV sets with one click, via Apple TV and AirPlay,” notes Lost Remote. “Until now, porting video to your TV set outside iTunes required running a cable from your laptop to your TV. But now, if you’re watching a clip on Hulu or a TV website (or playing a game, editing a document, etc.), just click and watch it on the big screen.”
“That alone may be worth the $99 for Apple TV, which becomes a wireless receiver, to boot,” adds the post.
“If you have an Apple TV, you’re going to love Apple’s new AirPlay Mirroring, which allows you to mirror what’s on your Mac in a 1080p stream to your Apple TV, allowing everybody to look at what you’re working on,” reports 9to5 Mac in a related post. “This feature is perfect for meetings, getting rid of the need for expensive projectors.”
SlashGear adds: “…the introduction of Game Center on OS X Mountain Lion also means that games can be streamed or mirrored. With AirPlay and Game Center now integrated into the Mac, users can play against other Mac users or even iPhone and iPad users.”
The new Mountain Lion OS X will be available in July.
Apple’s new top-of-the-line MacBook Pro, introduced yesterday at the Worldwide Developers Conference, is almost as thin as the Air, as powerful as a desktop and features the highest resolution screen ever seen on a notebook.
“It will likely take rivals a year or two to catch up,” says Forrester analyst Frank Gillet. “Anybody can go buy the processors from Intel, but even the track pads from these companies can’t match Apple. Apple has more discipline and control over every aspect of these machines, so it’s tough for the other guys, the Windows guys, to compete.”
Apple’s MacBook Pro with Retina display features a 15.4-inch display with a 2880×1800 resolution. This compares to the regular 15-inch MacBook Pro which has a 1440×900 resolution screen.
In addition, it has an 2.7GHz Intel Core i7 quad-core processor, up to 16GB of RAM, up to 768GB of flash storage, an Nvidia GeForce GT 650M graphics cards built in, two Thunderbolt and two USB 3.0 ports, an SD card slot, and an HDMI port for connecting to displays for HDTVs. However, there is no optical drive.
“The only thing that you could argue against the MacBook Pro with Retina display is that it’s heavy compared to an ultrabook, at about four and a half pounds,” Gillet said. “But it isn’t an ultrabook. The MacBook competes with ultrabooks, but there isn’t an ultrabook on the market that fully matches the Air right now.”
Pricing starts at $2,199 and can run up to $3,749 with added options.
Apple’s new iOS will be available this fall, with a focus on convenience and accessibility. Much more than a simple operating system update, iOS 6 brings some 200 new features to touch-based mobile computing. Wired takes a look at the top 10 key improvements.
Digital assistant Siri has additional functionality in areas such as real-time sports information, dining (including integration with Yelp and OpenTable), and movies (through a partnership with Rotten Tomatoes).
Users can post comments, photos, maps, and more to Facebook across the iOS ecosystem. “For instance, you can like apps on the App Store, as well as movies, music, and TV shows in iTunes,” notes Wired. “You can also post photos from Camera Roll, share a map from the Maps app, or share a webpage from Safari.”
Apple’s Maps replaces Google Maps and will include turn-by-turn navigation, traffic information and 3D photographic rendering with Flyover.
The Do Not Disturb feature holds messages, alerts, texts and phone calls. However, users can make exceptions for important individuals or emergency situations.
Safari can cache webpages to enable offline reading and offers “smart app banners” for mobile versions of websites. Shared Photo Streams allow users to share photos across iOS and Mac devices (including Apple TV) using iCloud.
Mail updates include pull-to-refresh for new messages, VIP notifications, and access to password-protected Microsoft Office documents. A new iOS app called Passport centralizes access to tickets, boarding passes, and coupon apps. “Such apps include Fandango (for movie tickets), Starbucks (for your Starbucks card), and United Airlines (for boarding passes),” explains the article.
And the final feature to be highlighted: Guided Access provides fullscreen single-app mode for children and institutions like museums and schools.
