Sony revealed its NEX-FS700U Full HD super slow motion camcorder at that NAB Show in April and since then has accepted nearly 1,000 pre-orders, according to one Sony executive.
The new camera, scheduled to be available in late June, is priced at around $10,000 and captures footage at up to 960 frames per second.
“The camcorder supports full HD quality at 120 and 240 frames per second in a 16 or 8 second burst mode respectively,” writes Carolyn Giardina for The Hollywood Reporter. “Its 480 fps and 960 fps at reduced resolution are available.”
“The NEX-FS700U uses a new 4K Super 35 CMOS sensor, and Sony said it is planning a future firmware upgrade aimed at enabling the camera to output 4K bitstream data over 3G HD-SDI when used with an optional Sony 4K recorder,” notes Giardina.
Netflix upgraded its iOS app last week by improving upon some existing functionality and adding new features.
The streaming video service has updated the iPhone and iPad software by enlarging the scrub bar to make it easier to navigate through videos, enlarging the volume controls, and adding icons for switching between language choices.
Additionally, a “do not share” option is now available in the player for Facebook users who want to keep their video choices private.
CNET highlights the scrub bar update: “The bar itself is bigger and better, letting you more easily navigate to any section of your video. Thumbnails now appear above your finger on the scrub bar so you can travel to a specific scene of your favorite TV show or movie. You can also rewind 10 seconds at a time.”
According to the Netflix blog, the same features will soon be available for Android users.
Web designer Jake Caputo and coder Dominic Balasuriya teamed up to collect data on how much people would be willing to pay for access to a standalone HBO GO subscription.
After collecting over 2,000 data points in tweets, the consensus seemed that people would pay slightly over $12 per month for access to HBO programming and movie releases on tablets, phones, and connected TVs.
Caputo created the site takemymoneyhbo.com and Balasuriya wrote a script to analyze the data stream coming from tweets with the hashtag #takemymoneyhbo.
HBO currently makes $7 to $8 per subscriber per month.
TechCrunch speculates that even though HBO could hypothetically make more money per user by opening HBO GO access to everyone (currently users must have HBO through their cable provider to have access to the service), offering HBO GO without the cable tie-ins would not only anger cable companies, but would increase distribution and sales costs.
The Walt Disney Company already allows sports fans to watch ESPN on mobile devices using the WatchESPN app, and soon Disney Channel fans will experience the benefits of the TV Everywhere trend with a similar app that provides access to Disney Channel content on mobile devices.
“TV networks have been increasingly embracing TV Everywhere, the industry term for letting paying cable and satellite customers watch TV on mobile devices,” explains Ad Age. “The strategy is intended to make cable and satellite subscriptions more appealing and undermine the threat from streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu.”
Disney will first offer the app to Comcast customers. CEO Bob Iger described the deal as “an important step because it delivers more value to the multichannel distributor and it delivers more value to the customer.”
The company plans to bring ABC Family and ABC to its streaming offerings in the future, reports Ad Age.
Two of Napster’s founders, Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning, introduced their newest project on Tuesday, a video chat site called Airtime.
It allows users to chat with Facebook friends or strangers using a webcam. “Users can search for chat partners based on their interests, shared social connections and location. Once connected, they can talk, type messages or even watch YouTube videos together,” explains The New York Times.
“The downside of all our interactions online is that they are constrained by the social graph,” notes Parker. “There is a gaping hole that exists. Facebook shrunk the world and constrained our interactions to the 500 people that you are connected to.”
Airtime was inspired in part by the chatting service Chatroulette, which randomly pairs people together online for video chats. But Airtime is taking precautions against some of the problems that users ran into on Chatroulette, namely the fact that many were paired up with chatters unclothed.
“To combat that, they have built in a number of systems, including facial-recognition software that sends up a flag if no faces are detected on camera, and a ranking system that scores people based on their interactions. People who are frequently ‘nexted,’ or passed over for another partner, will have a lower ranking than those who stay in lengthy chat sessions,” details the article.
Airtime has already attracted financial backers, raising close to $40 million in venture funding thus far.
New analysis of tablet advertising suggests that although the Kindle Fire is 2.7-inches smaller than the iPad, users actually click on advertisements at a higher rate on the Fire than on Apple’s device.
But the report also notes that most of the Fire’s clicks come from Baby Boomers (ages 45 to 64) and that these people are unlikely to make purchases from tablets.
The report explains that consumers 18 to 34 are most likely to own an iPad and that customers 25 to 34 are the most likely to make purchases from a tablet.
The solution may be in building advertisements that can operate on multiple screen sizes. Advertisers will likely lean this way soon if Apple’s rumored iPad Mini ever comes to fruition.
In a related CNET article, the iPad continues to dominate the tablet market, while the demand for Amazon’s Kindle Fire is dwindling. The tablet market is growing rapidly, with sales numbers up 185 percent last year and 18.2 million devices shipped in just the first quarter of this year.
“Apple accounted for 11.8 million of those shipments, or 65 percent of the market. That’s largely thanks to the launch of Apple’s third-generation iPad and a price reduction on iPad 2 models,” explains CNET. Samsung Electronics comes in second, shipping 1.1 million tablets.
The Windows Phone Marketplace is growing fast, taking just over five months to double its numbers in application submissions.
The Marketplace has had around 100,000 applications submitted in total, averaging 313 submissions daily.
“As a disclaimer, this doesn’t mean we currently have access to all hundred-thousand apps — just over 10,000 of them are no longer available, which translates into 88,371 apps being live somewhere in the world,” explains Engadget.
The Windows Phone Marketplace achieved this milestone about five months faster than the Android Market and three months slower than the iOS App Store.
“Given the popularity of both competitors, we’d say that developer growth has been strong and steady for Windows Phone — and with an exciting ‘sneak peek’ of the OS’s future (Apollo) coming up in a couple weeks, the trend is likely to continue increasing at an exponential pace,” adds the post.
While Android has about 50 percent of the global handset market share, compared to less than 30 percent for Apple’s iOS, Web traffic for the two show a much different story.
Apple accounts for more than 60 percent of mobile Web traffic. Android has only 20 percent. Similarly, e-commerce sites report that most mobile buying comes from Apple devices.
Android users appear to be made up of a largely consumer mass market which is less interested in reading, using apps or buying. If true, the value of Android as a platform is less than its market share numbers suggest.
This may have long term consequences regarding which mobile development platform becomes dominant.
In a related Business Insider article, senior editor Jay Yarow suggests Android is suddenly in a great deal of trouble. He cites trends such as developers leaning toward iOS, the fact that Android has been an “utter disaster in the tablet space,” Verizon’s plans to back Windows Phones, and lack of interest in Android’s latest operating system Ice Cream Sandwich.
In late May, Apple published its first ever iOS security guide intended for an IT audience.
“The new guide includes four sections dedicated to topics like system architecture, encryption and data protection, network security, and device access,” reports TechCrunch.
According to the guide: “Apple designed the iOS platform with security at its core. Keeping information secure on mobile devices is critical for any user, whether they’re accessing corporate or customer information or storing personal photos, banking information, and addresses.”
“For organizations considering the security of iOS devices, it is helpful to understand how the built-in security features work together to provide a secure mobile computing platform,” adds Apple.
TechCrunch suggests not to view the guide as a trend towards openness, but rather as a repackaging of largely existing information specifically designed for an IT audience.
“It’s important that these details are documented in language IT understands as more and more businesses allow personal devices on their network and implement their own BYOD (bring your own device) programs,” notes the post.
Sony has announced its new home cinema projector that offers super high-definition at 4096 x 2160 image resolution.
“The VPL-WV1000ES is the first 4K resolution projector designed for home theaters,” reports Electronista. “The new projector displays not only the ultra-high definition 4K format, but also upscales SD and HD content to 4K resolution.”
The $26,000 projector touts brightness of 2,000 ANSI-lumens and 1,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio with a 330W bulb promising 2,000-2,500 hours of life.
It features a 2.1x motorized zoom and can display images from 60 to 300 diagonal inches.
“The projector also supports 3D content, although it relies upon active-shutter 3D glasses, requiring USB-chargeable 3D glasses,” notes the article. “It comes with two HDMI ports, component input, a mini D-sub port, and an Ethernet port.”
Foursquare’s Twitter feed has exploded with the hashtag #allnew4sq — a not so subtle hint at the complete revamping of the location-based application expected within the next week.
During the past year, Foursquare users have begun using the application less as a way to check in and let everyone know where they are at all times, and more as a way to find what local restaurants are popular or what activity is generating a lot of buzz on a particular night.
“Foursquare has been slowly (and sometimes in leaps and bounds) building its data set, learning the habits of its users, all as part of a quest to offer better recommendations, to help them find destinations that they’ll like — and just better explore their worlds,” reports TechCrunch.
This has Foursquare in line to compete with recommendation service Yelp. In a related article, Business Insider notes that if Foursquare can improve on Yelp’s user experience, it can overtake Yelp as the premier recommendation service.
“Improving recommendations so that they take your location into account, as well as your interest graph and time of day, along with a map and social experience that competes with Yelp, Foursquare 2.0 could be a whole lot more appealing,” adds TechCrunch.
Developers are building on top of Pinterest in an effort to feed consumer and brand needs and monetize the site’s growing popularity.
The interest has sparked competitors such as Fancy (iOS app with “buy now” functionality that recently reached one million users) and third party applications including ShopMyPins (simple bookmarklet that enables users to shop online when they see something they like on Pinterest).
Related services include PinShoppr, Pinerly and Curalate (the latter two offer analytics for brands).
“The whole conversation revolving around Pinterest and Pinterest-types and their ability to turn this new, visual, viral thing people have taken to at an astounding rate into a viable e-commerce model doesn’t end at proprietary applications though,” notes Digital Trends. “Third party developers are well aware that there’s an opportunity for them to be a part of this Web evolution as well.”
Should Pinterest be creating its own new features? “I think Pinterest is kind of going through a similar thing that Twitter went through when they were growing explosively and I really think they are focusing on the right thing,” responds Apu Gupta, Curalate CEO and co-founder. “You have to make sure the wheels stay on the bus before you do other things.”
New York City–based Kickstarter was initially developed to support creative projects, but has emerged as a significant force in financing technology start-ups.
“Entrepreneurs have used the site to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time to develop and produce products, including a networked home sensing system and a kit that prints three-dimensional objects,” notes MIT’s Technology Review.
Kickstarter has become a viable alternative to venture capital funding. Last year, it funded some $99 million, equivalent to 10 percent of all seed investment.
In April, ETCentric highlighted a report suggesting that Kickstarter funding was expected to triple this year to around $300 million. At that time, the top projects seeking funding involved film, music, design, art, publishing, games, and technology.
Typical requests for funding are modest, but some projects have attracted more than $1 million. Angel stakes are typically less than $600K. And through Kickstarter the founders retain creative control and attract committed followers and customers.
“If crowdfunding sites start offering equity shares, it will make a few dozen VC firms disappear,” suggests Paul Kedrosky, senior fellow at the Kauffman Foundation.
During yesterday’s keynote at the E3 gaming expo, Microsoft unveiled its new multiscreen entertainment platform called SmartGlass.
“The platform allows users to play video and other media from their mobile devices on their big-screen television, thanks to the Xbox 360,” reports CNET.
Users can send content from one device to another. “To add more value, tablets and smartphones will act as a companion, allowing users to see more information about the program being watched on their Xbox, creating a ‘multiscreen’ experience,” explains the post.
Launching this fall as a competitor to Apple’s AirPlay, SmartGlass will work on Windows, Windows Phone and the Xbox 360 and will support Android and iOS.
The post includes a 4-minute video from E3 in Los Angeles.
Could Microsoft’s most recent updates to the Xbox 360 change cable TV as we know it?
“The Xbox 360 has nearly always had an impressive suite of media streaming options with Netflix and others. For most households, though, the offering was never enough to replace cable. In fact, it was more of a supplement,” reports Engadget. “But today’s announcement brings a host of new options, stations, and apps to the Xbox 360. With these new features, the Xbox 360 has finally become Microsoft’s Trojan Horse. The target? Cable companies.”
Originally unveiled at the E3 conference in 2005, the Xbox 360 has since become the best selling console and has morphed into a media platform rather than just a gaming system.
At E3 2012 this week, Microsoft announced new apps and media offerings. “Now, seven years after its reveal, the 360 truly fits the definition of a home entertainment system,” comments Engadget.
The Xbox 360 will now deliver Bing, Internet Explorer and other new media apps to the box, along with added live sports from NBA TV, NHL TV and content from several ESPN channels.
In addition to more content, there is now enhanced Kinect interaction with voice controls for Bing and Internet Explorer.
