Yahoo has signed a streaming music deal with TRI Studios, a state-of-the-art music facility built by Bob Weir, a founding member of the Grateful Dead. The studio will provide HD-quality streaming content to Yahoo Music’s 34 million viewers.
CNBC suggests the deal “could help bring high quality music and videos into homes around the world and change the music streaming business model that has so far made losers out of both the studios and the artists.”
The studio has already provided online shows from Weir, Sammy Hagar and Carlos Santana. Shows are ad-supported and designed to watch on home theater systems.
“Weir said he sees the advertising linked to the live music as a move away from traditional corporate sponsorship of performances and toward ‘patronage for rock and roll’ the way companies underwrite classical music,” reports CNBC.
Viewers from all over the world will be able to watch the shows and simultaneously interact through Facebook and Twitter to communicate with other viewers and performers in real-time.
Put on some earbuds and check out the music from TRI Studios. It’s worth a listen.
Google is providing a redesign of its social network Google+, which could very well lure early users back to the platform.
“The UI has been greatly streamlined with a customizable ribbon of shortcuts on the left and your buddy list moved to the right. The main interface has been tidied up quite a bit and a new focus has been placed on one of the universally beloved features of the beleaguered social network — Hangouts,” Engadget writes.
Hangouts will now have their own dedicated home page, allowing users to more easily see any available video chat party lines.
“Replacing the old static toolbar at the top, the Navigation bar includes the usual icons for Home, Profile, Photos, and more. But this bar is customizable,” details CNET in a related report. Users can change the order of the icons, dragging their favorite ones to the top and removing ones they do not use at all.
Multimedia sharing has also been enhanced. Larger photos are coming to profile pages and Sparks have been replaced by an Explore tab.
The Washington Post has launched a real-time advertising campaign, one that pulls live content from social networks.
In order to do this, the publication is using Trove, it’s news aggregation technology that was previously used to launch reading services like Social Reader and Personal Post.
TechCrunch explains that “it’s using this technology for a campaign from the Cleveland Clinic, which is the official sponsor of the TEDMED event in Washington, D.C. The ads will automatically pull headlines and tweets about the TEDMED conference into the clinic’s display ads.”
While real-time advertising is not a new concept, the Washington Post’s approach is original in that Trove is its very own system, giving the company a chance to sell ads directly and not through an ad tech company or network.
As Xbox expands its entertainment offerings with new apps, it is coming in direct competition with other set-top box solutions.
All the apps are free to download but most require a paid membership as well as an Xbox Live Gold account, which cost about $60-$100 a year. For example, the HBO Go app requires a current cable subscription; for Netflix and Hulu Plus, users must pay the $8/month subscription; and to access the MLB.TV you must have the $125 annual Premium account.
To use these apps on other devices, consumers also have to have accounts set up. However, the Roku and Apple TV set-top boxes don’t require annual fees like Xbox Live Gold. Additionally, both alternatives are much more compact and they only cost $50 and $99 respectively, compared to the Xbox’s $200-$400 price tag.
According to the Wall Street Journal it’s clear that Microsoft is serious about its non-gaming apps, but “a smaller, more stylish console would make the device even more welcome in the living room,” which could more effectively compete with other options.
Apple and five publishers are facing lawsuits for their adoption of an agency pricing model, “where the vendor takes a 30 percent cut of each sale rather than the wholesale model which allows stores to sell books at rock-bottom prices,” reports Engadget.
Three of the publishers — Simon & Schuster, Lagardère SCA’s Hachette Book Group and HarperCollins — have already made settlements with the Department of Justice.
“Apple and Macmillian have already denied any wrongdoing, saying that the agreements were enhancing competition in an industry previously dominated by Amazon,” explains Engadget.
“If successful, the DoJ will allow Amazon and Barnes and Noble amongst others to return to the wholesale model to sell best-sellers at a loss, something that the big five are desperate to avoid, and will look to fight the battle in court,” adds the post.
Spotify is looking to expand its user base by using a new “play button” widget on Web pages. Sites can use the feature to run free music on their sites and Spotify will get numerous new promotion partners.
“The integrations echo the Spotify/Facebook partnership, where the widget works as a remote control for the Spotify software. But, just like the Spotify/Facebook link, it won’t do you any good if you don’t have the Spotify software on your machine,” AllThingsD explains.
If you don’t have the software running or have it at all, you have to click a couple of buttons to open or download it.
“Things would be a whole lot easier if you could just click a button and get Spotify streamed directly from the Web, and Spotify might end up there one day. For now, it can’t, because of both technical and biz-dev reasons,” the article reports.
Google is looking to its new $12.5 billion Motorola Mobility acquisition to create innovative new devices. But they will need to do so without scaring away Android’s 55 manufacturers.
The challenge for Android is that more companies will develop so-called “forked” versions like Amazon. Each will have features to differentiate them that may be at odds with Google itself. Samsung, for example, is bringing out its own advertising network that will compete with Google.
Moreover, Google will be challenged to maintain its traditional high margins in a hardware business where companies are barely profitable. Motorola Mobility, in fact, has been losing money. Google may be forced to sell off parts of the company such as the cable set-top box business. And there are rumors that the handset business is also for sale.
But Google denies that rumor. “And that may be the scariest part of all for Google’s investors. The company really believes it can be all things to all people,” reports the Wall Street Journal.
Verizon has long been the only wireless carrier of the “big four” to allow upgrading for free. No longer. Starting on April 22, Verizon will begin charging a $30 upgrade fee whenever an existing customer wants to extend a contract with new hardware.
According to a released statement, this new fee will be used to help Verizon “continue to provide customers with the level of service and support they have come to expect.” According to TechCrunch, “that apparently includes Verizon’s online support tools, their in-person Wireless Workshops, and ‘consultations with experts who provide advice and guidance on devices.’”
AT&T bumped up its fee from $18 to $36 earlier this year, which is about equal to Sprint’s. T-Mobile’s upgrade fee still stands at $18 for now.
“In fairness, it’s a fee that doesn’t come into play but once every two years or so (unless something tragic happens to your device before that), but it makes for an unsightly bill that can temper the joy of new phone ownership,” comments TechCrunch. “Families in particular will have it rough — the bill for a bog-standard four-person family plan could easily double if everyone gets a new phone at the same time.”
Research firm Gartner forecasts that tablet sales will hit 119 million in 2012, nearly doubling last year’s 60 million tablets across the world.
“Of those 119 million tablets, approximately 73 million, or 61 percent, will be iPads, Gartner predicts. The researcher thinks that the Apple device will continue to dominate the tablet market through 2016, despite increased competition from the likes of Amazon and Microsoft,” Mashable reports.
In 2012, Android tablet sales will only be about half of the iPad sales but the OS will catch up by 2016 when an estimated 137.6 million Android tablets will be sold, only slightly behind the forecasted 169.6 million iPads.
The study also found that enterprise will be a big sector for tablets, taking up 35 percent of all tablet sales in 2015.
The TriggerHappy camera remote is yet another Kickstarter success story.
TriggerHappy, from engineer Kevin Harrington and his development team, provides digital SLR control via its iPhone or Android app.
As of April 6, the Kickstarter campaign had 27 days remaining, yet the TriggerHappy team had already raised $125,000 (their initial funding goal was $25,000).
Digital Trends interviewed the young software engineer about his concept and his team’s experience with Kickstarter.
According to Harrington: “Kickstarter is a great place to bootstrap a business. That’s what we wanted. We don’t see TriggerHappy as a project, but instead we see it as a business with an ever-improving product. Starting a business requires capital. Kickstarter is a great place to raise that capital without giving away company equity to investors. Crowdfunding is how we wanted to raise capital, and Kickstarter is the premium crowdfunding service.”
The post features a 4-minute video describing the TriggerHappy project.
New York-based startup Yapp has launched a beta version of its Yapp Events app that allows users to create special event apps without doing any programming.
“Yapp’s first product is like a mobile Paperless Post,” reports Business Insider. “Instead of sending an email or Facebook invite, Yapp lets you create a mobile app invite that can be downloaded by friends.”
Yapp Events works on iOS and Android devices.
The company is also working on a product that will allow non-programmers to create other mobile products. Is this the future of app development?
Take a look at the 2-minute video to see how simple it is to use.
YouTube Live has now been around for a year and to celebrate the milestone, YouTube added some new features on Tuesday.
“Most of these (new production software, improved publishing flows and real-time analytics) are mostly of interest to video producers,” reports TechCrunch. “The most important new feature, though, is the addition of pay-per-view as a monetization option for all publishers.”
Additionally, publishers will be able to see how many users are watching their live stream in real time.
“It’s worth noting that Ustream and a number of other live streaming services have offered pay-per-view as an option for a while now,” explains TechCrunch.
It was also announced that there will now be a special YouTube Live version of Wirecast available to its partners — “a professional webcasting solution that generally retails for around $449,” explains the post. This will make it easier to produce live events and give them a more professional look.
Toshiba is taking another stab at the tablet market after backlash from its Thrive tablets that were criticized for poor battery life and chunky design.
Its latest three models are much more slim and sleek with textured aluminum backs. The Excite 7.7-, 10- and 13-inch slates will run Ice Cream Sandwich and feature NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 SoC.
The 7.7 has an AMOLED display and will launch on June 10, costing $500 for 16GB and $580 for 32GB versions.
Launching the same day, the Excite 13 will have 1600×900 resolution, a full-sized SD slot and will sell for $650 and $750 for 32GB and 64GB versions, respectively.
The Excite 10 will roll out a little sooner on May 6 for $500, $530, or $650 for 16GB, 32GB and 64GB versions. The tablet will also have a full-sized SD slot.
“Each tablet is equipped with a 5-megapixel camera on the back, along with a 2-megapixel front-facing shooter for convenient photography, video capture and chat. The tablets also include stereo speakers with exclusive sound enhancements by Toshiba and SRS Labs, as well as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity,” the press release states.
Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson has issued a memo to his staff, outlining a “new organizational structure and a focus on commerce initiatives,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.
This memo comes after Yahoo laid off 2,000 employees last week. According to THR, that move and the start of this new plan indicate that “Thompson is looking to return the Internet giant to prominence, with commerce revenue being one key focus.”
Thompson said he would split the company into three groups with different objectives. “They are a consumer group, which includes Yahoo’s media sites and commerce-related, search and email services; regions, which is broken up into the Americas, Europe and Asia divisions that work with advertising partners; and technology.,” explains the article.
According to Thompson’s memo, the overall goal of focusing on commerce is “driving higher [return on investment] for advertisers and agencies that reach users on Yahoo by closing the loop for them between user interests, advertiser spend, consumer intent and purchase behavior,” reports THR.
Yahoo currently generates about $1 billion in annual revenue via commerce partnerships.
Best Buy has been struggling to keep customers coming into its stores with competitors like Amazon that often sell the same electronics for less. The retail chain announced it would have to close 50 stores to return to a profit margin.
In the wake of these challenges, CEO Brian Dunn has resigned, handing over the reigns to director and board member G. Mike Mikian while the company searches for his replacement.
“There were no disagreements between Mr. Dunn and the company on any matter relating to operations, financial controls, policies or procedures,” Best Buy stated in a press release. “There was mutual agreement that it was time for new leadership to address the challenges that face the company.”
Dunn started at Best Buy in 1985 as a store associate. By June 2009, he had worked his way up to CEO, right when the company was facing mounting pressure from Amazon and Walmart.
According to VentureBeat, “Dunn did not radically change the company’s strategy to deal with these threats.”