According to reports, Microsoft is set to launch a new Xbox bundle next week, that will include a 4GB Xbox 360 console and a Kinect sensor for only $99.
The catch: bundle buyers will have to sign a two-year contract for $15 a month.
That contract will provide access to the Xbox Live Gold service and “potentially some additional streaming content, as well as a two-year warranty,” details Engadget.
“There will be an early termination fee for those wishing to break the contract ahead of its two-year duration, and we understand that Microsoft will position the package as a competitor to Apple TV, Roku, and PlayStation 3,” reports The Verge in a related post. “For those buying the bundle now and getting the cheapest two-year Xbox Live Gold option, that’s about $299.00 + $120 = $420 vs. $459 over a duration of two years.”
With E3 about a month away, and Microsoft developing its own music service, the company wants to get as many consoles into homes as possible.
Amazon Studios has decided to get into the television market with its own original comedy and kids programming.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, starting this week “creative types will be able to upload their TV proposals, with the best projects to be distributed through Amazon Instant Video.”
This open source approach mirrors that of Silicon Valley, which has produced significant results over the years. “Amazon Studios director Roy Price suggests the goal is to democratize the process,” reports THR.
Amazon Studios has previously practiced this model with movies. “Since Amazon Studios’ late 2010 launch, more than 700 test movies and 7,000 scripts have been submitted; 15 movie projects are currently in development,” explains the article.
The TV initiative is being led by Joe Lewis, formerly of 20th Century Fox and Comedy Central, and Tara Sorensen, from National Geographic Kids. The studio plans to option one new project for development each month.
“If it chooses to produce the series, the creator will then receive a $55,000 fee, up to 5 percent of Amazon’s revenues from toy and t-shirt licensing and other royalties and bonuses,” notes THR.
Twitter continues to grow, with more than one million new users each week and more than a billion tweets posted every three days.
Because of that growth, “Twitter is looking for ways to help people find information they will actually care about,” reports The New York Times.
It updated its algorithm and the design of its Discover page with the intention of pointing out “why each featured ‘story’ mattered and to make it easier for people to ‘join the conversation,’” explains the article.
The Discover page focuses on content that is popular amongst those you follow, as well as providing information on which users are sharing which stories.
Discover “is our opportunity to help you understand what’s happening on Twitter right now that’s relevant to you, on top of your timeline or any accounts you’re following. It’s based on what we think your interests are,” said Dick Costolo, Twitter’s chief executive.
Harvard University and MIT jointly announced their new non-profit venture, the edX online learning initiative. A variety of classes from both schools will be offered free of charge worldwide via the Internet.
Both schools contributed $30 million to edX, but the program is still considered an independent entity with its own board.
“The two schools plan to build up the open-source MITx platform which itself was only announced at the end of last year. The goal is to make the platform available to other institutions as well, so they too can jump in and offer their own content,” reports TechCrunch.
MITx provides “embedded quizzes, immediate feedback, student-ranked questions and answers, online laboratories and student-paced learning,” according to the post.
“The drive is not to make money,” said MIT Provost Rafael Reif. “That said, we intend to find a way to support those activities. There are several approaches we are considering, and we don’t want this project to become a drain on the budgets of MIT or Harvard.”
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced that it plans to keep the Academy Awards at the former Kodak Theatre located at Hollywood & Highland.
Additionally, Dolby Laboratories has signed on as the 3,400-seat complex’s new name sponsor, in a 20-year deal with owner CIM Group.
Dolby replaces Kodak, which filed for bankruptcy earlier his year. CIM began looking for a new sponsor when Kodak asked to be let out of its contract.
Although AMPAS had entertained offers to relocate the Oscar ceremony, the board voted unanimously in March to stay in Hollywood.
“As part of Dolby’s 20-year naming rights deal with CIM, which begins this summer, the theater will be renamed the Dolby Theatre and the technology company will upgrade it with its latest equipment, including a new sound system,” reports the Los Angeles Times.
“Along with getting its name mentioned frequently in the Oscars broadcasts and coverage leading up to the show,” reports CNN in a related article, “Dolby will use the theater as a ‘world class showcase for Dolby innovation,’ said Ramzi Haidamus, Dolby’s sales and marketing executive vice president.”
The Digital Content NewFronts have featured Web platforms pitching their original content in addition to marketers that are ready to invest in online video and digital ads.
AOL, Google (YouTube), Hulu, Microsoft, Vevo and Yahoo were among those that held major events at the NewFronts. It’s not yet clear how much of the $70 billion brands spend on TV advertising will be diverted, but online video is already being perceived as a powerful marketing tool.
The NewFronts (or new upfronts) were originally conceived as a way “to beat a drum for change,” explains Mark Beeching, chief creative and strategy officer at Digitas, but “now, it’s servicing a need.”
“To woo Madison Avenue, the participants in the NewFronts are playing up similarities between television shows and digital content, particularly online video,” reports The New York Times. “There have been numerous announcements of new original programming, emulating the series format of TV; branded entertainment, in which products are woven into plot lines; and alliances with famous names.”
Ross B. Levinsohn, executive VP for global media at Yahoo, described the NewFronts as “a watershed moment” that he expects will be followed by new trends in online video content and a subsequent shift of ad dollars.
In the wake of cloud storage offerings from HTC, Apple, Amazon, Walmart and most recently Google, LG has announced its new LG Cloud, which offers 5GB of free space and syncing between PCs, Smart TVs and Android phones.
It is expected that storage up to 50GB will be offered, although pricing has not been announced.
“To send a file to the LG Cloud you can use the website, a downloadable client for Windows computers, or via a dedicated Android application,” reports Digital Trends. “The app is free to download from the Android Market, but needs either Android 2.2, 2.3 or 4.0 installed. LG adds that an iPhone and iPad app is in the works, too.”
The PC client includes Folder Sync for duplicating files in the cloud to be shared with other devices. Auto syncing is also available with the Android app for use with photos taken by smartphones.
“Videos uploaded to the cloud can be streamed to your TV or phone, including HD, 2D and 3D content, and all files are converted on-the-fly to match your device,” indicates the post.
In one of the nation’s largest tablet deployments, the San Diego Unified School District is purchasing 25,700 iPads for use in 340 5th-8th grade classrooms plus some high school classes.
The district will spend $15 million on iPads and has already spent more than $35 million on netbooks. Administrators requested switching to the iPad because the devices have no boot up time, have a larger screen, longer battery life and can use a large array of educational apps.
Teachers will receive training in the use of the device and educational apps. The iPads will have access to the district cloud where they can access files from the netbooks and instructors’ tablets.
There are 1.5 million iPads already in use at schools across the country. Experts caution that teachers need to be prepared to incorporate the devices into their curriculum.
Numbers from media researcher IDC indicate that Samsung passed Apple during the first quarter to become the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer. Samsung shipped 42.4 million smartphones while Apple shipped 35.1 million.
However, “Cupertino retains another, far more lucrative title: Smartphone-market revenue leader,” reports AllThingsD. Data from Jupiter Research shows that Apple’s iPhone-based revenue was $22.7 billion, while Samsung’s revenue was $17 billion.
“So while Samsung may be winning on global smartphone shipments, Apple is winning on a more important metric: Smartphone profitability. And for a very simple reason: The company has the highest margins around,” suggests AllThingsD.
During the recent second-quarter earnings reports, Apple announced that its gross margin was 47.4 percent. Samsung’s gross margin was reportedly under 13 percent. “So, while Samsung is dominating smartphone shipments, Apple is dominating the smartphone industry’s pool of profits,” notes the article.
Flickr, Behance, Vimeo and YouTube will start using the Pinterest attribution tool, which Pinterest hopes will eliminate some of the copyright concerns associated with sharing content without proper attribution.
Content on those sites (that has been authorized for sharing by the user) will now have a “Pin it” button nearby. “On Flickr this is in a menu alongside Facebook, Twitter, email, Tumblr and WordPress,” details AllThingsD.
Once the item is pinned, it will automatically display an attribution statement including a permanent link that can’t be edited out as it’s repinned by other users.
“The tool was developed in conjunction with Flickr, which is interesting because the photo-hosting site had previously implemented code provided by Pinterest in order to block pinning of copyrighted images,” reports AllThingsD. “This is a separate project, said a spokeswoman for Pinterest.”
ESPN has incorporated Twitter’s Web Intents into their website offerings. Web Intents provide pop-ups for users to access Tweet, Reply, Retweet, Follow and Favorite functions.
“For each article ESPN shows a visitor, they have implemented a scrolling/following sidebar that contains its Twitter sharing widget,” reports the Twitter Developers site. “As a user scrolls through an article, the container follows the position on the page.”
“At any point, a user can click the Twitter bird logo to invoke a Tweet Intent to enable a customized sharing experience,” adds the site. “A Tweet box with text pre-loaded by the ESPN editorial staff pops up, enabling a user to quickly share the news with their followers.”
ESPN readers are generating some 1,250 Tweets per day amounting to 10 percent of all Tweets containing ESPN links. These Tweets resulted in an average of 15 clicks back to the website.
The sports site has also developed customized MLB and NFL widgets that highlight Twitter conversations from top writers and allow fans to interact with the writers directly on the page.
With only one-third of the world connected online, we are already experiencing a network explosion.
“According to Cisco, global IP traffic increased eightfold over the five years leading up to 2010 and will quadruple by 2015, hitting 966 exabytes (nearly one zettabyte) for the full year,” reports Ars Technica. “That will be the equivalent of all movies ever made crossing IP networks every four minutes.”
Video will account for more than 50 percent of consumer Internet traffic this year. By 2015, on-demand video traffic will be the equivalent of three billion DVDs per month, and one million minutes worth of video will cross global IP networks every second.
In business traffic, videoconferencing is growing faster than any other application.
Advances in network infrastructure including the upgrading of undersea cables, OpenFlow, dark fiber, and 400 Gigabit Ethernet all promise to accommodate growth over the next ten years.
According to The New York Times, Facebook is still on track for its expected mid-May I.P.O.
“Despite whispers of delays, the world’s largest social network is in the process of finalizing its prospectus with regulators and may begin its roadshow as soon as early next week,” reports the Times.
The “roadshow,” or presentation to investors, will likely span to New York, Boston, San Francisco, Chicago, Baltimore and possibly Los Angeles and will allow for Facebook’s chief financial officer David Ebersman to convince investors and analysts of Facebook’s worthiness. It’s unclear which meetings CEO Mark Zuckerberg will attend.
The initial public offering has the potential “to be the largest Internet I.P.O. on record, dwarfing the recent offerings of Zynga and Groupon, as well as Google’s debut in 2004.”
“While interest runs high, Facebook’s executives will have to outline a compelling picture for investors in the coming weeks, to justify a valuation of $100 billion or more and to offset lackluster first quarter earnings,” suggests the article. “In the first quarter, Facebook’s profits fell 12 percent to $205 million, amid mounting expenses.”
Netflix has been putting pressure on traditional pay TV, but networks like CBS, ABC and NBC haven’t been hit nearly as hard as kids’ TV networks.
“Bernstein Research used data from TiVo boxes to find out that, among households that use Netflix regularly, kids’ TV networks are losing out — Nickelodeon’s ratings declined 6 percent in streaming households despite seeing 2 percent growth elsewhere, and Teen Nick saw an even bigger 11 percent drop for Netflix users while increasing viewership 26 percent in non-streaming households,” The Verge reports.
One reason for this might be that adults are more likely to tune in for TV show premieres as they follow linear shows. Streaming services are more ideal for catching up on past seasons. For children, Netflix provides a more convenient means of accessing the content they like, when they want it.
“However, Bernstein also discovered that Netflix viewing made consumers much less likely to watch repeats of shows in off-net syndication, with the streaming group declining in off-net viewing by about 19 percent compared to 9.7 percent for non-streamers,” notes paidContent in a related article.
The Android OS is slowly encroaching on Apple’s tablet market share, which fell 6.8 percent in 2011.
One tablet has had much more success than others and accounts for much of Android’s growth. Amazon’s Kindle Fire now takes up more than half of the Android tablet market at 54.4 percent, followed by the Samsung Galaxy Tab and Motorola Zoom.
According to a new study from comScore, the Galaxy Tab saw a drop from 23.8 percent share in December to 15.4 percent today. The Zoom fell to 7 percent from 11.8 percent last year. The study did not include Barnes & Noble’s Nook, since comScore categorizes it as an e-reader, not a tablet.
Another study conducted by IDC found that Amazon likely sold 4.7 million Fires in Q4 — and the tablet remains the top-selling item on Amazon’s site — but is still dwarfed by the 15.4 million iPads that Apple sold in the same period.