Rovi technology is being incorporated into release 2.0 of the BlackBerry PlayBook Video Store, the movie-streaming service for the PlayBook.
“The BlackBerry PlayBook Video Store allows users to watch content moments after a download begins, and the tablet device includes an HDMI output for connecting to an HDTV,” reports Home Media Magazine.
In related news, Rovi announced this week that its Rovi Entertainment Store would be used to power Dixons Retail’s KnowHow Movies video service in the UK.
“The service, launching March 1, offers catalog video titles to connected devices, including HDTVs, Blu-ray Disc players and gaming consoles,” explains the article. “Dixons aims to expand the service to mobile devices later this year. The service uses Rovi’s DivX Plus streaming video technology, which includes 1080p video, subtitles and multiple language tracks.”
The New York Times has turned to Tumblr for a photo blog that showcases highlights from the paper’s old news photos.
“The Lively Morgue, as the new Tumblr is called, launched Monday with a black and white photo of news images being sorted in the paper’s physical photo ‘morgue,’ where millions of pictures are stored in filing cabinets and manila folders,” reports Mashable.
Officials say the newspaper has enough images to post 10 archival photos a day for the next 1,900 years.
“Images added so far include a close-up of Yankees catcher Yogi Berra’s gnarled hands, shot in 1965; a policeman, nightstick in hand, watching his beat after a recent nearby double homicide in 1959; and a pair of Philadelphia police officers proudly showing off a captured liquor-smuggling mannequin in Prohibition-era 1930,” explains the post.
The service also includes the option to purchase prints for $169, in addition to featuring marked-up reverse sides of photos. “The reverse sides of the photos are home to a photo-nerd bonanza of information, including how much freelancers were paid for shots, published captions and photos’ sequence numbers.”
While Pew Research says Facebook and Twitter will play “modest roles” in the next presidential election, it is hard to ignore signs to the contrary, suggests author and former hedge fund manager Andy Kessler.
Last election, Facebook had only 50 million users compared to 845 million today. President Obama’s Twitter followers have grown from 4 million to 12 million users.
Facebook and Twitter have closely followed politically-influenced opinions, events and people including Rick Perry’s “oops,” Obama girl, Obama’s insider deals at DOE, and the Republican primaries.
Moreover, political affiliations can be determined by one’s likes and tweets making users a target for political advertising and promotion.
Social media may also be used to influence opinion leaders and grow ideas into blog stories that will eventually make their way into mainstream media.
“Those with social-media ‘influence’ are most likely to help campaigns convert interest into votes. Finding them in the haystack of the real world is tedious and expensive,” comments Kessler in the Wall Street Journal. “But harnessing fast servers and constantly upgraded algorithms to find them on social networks is already happening — and it’ll definitely sway who becomes our next president.”
Warner Music Group is launching its YouTube channel, “The Warner Sound,” that CEO Lyor Cohen says, “will be a unique opportunity for artists to further their creativity, excite their fans and diversify their careers.”
According to Variety: “Channel succeeds similar dedicated YouTube destinations by Pitchfork, Fuse, Bonnaroo and Vice, among others. The online video outlet began partnering with the content providers in October.”
Exclusive new content will include: a SXSW live webcast; “ManTazia,” an experimental film series by Cee-Lo Green; a documentary of WMG acts; and “Staged,” a scripted drama based on lyrics by WMG artists.
“The Warner Sound’s production partners include new media production company Mighty Fresh, which will be responsible for day-to-day editorial and production of original content.,” reports Variety.
Time Warner Cable is testing a broadband service in Texas markets that offers a $5-a-month discount to subscribers who use less than 5GB a month.
The plan could also charge users up to $25 a month extra if they use more than 5GB.
“While that amount of broadband would be plenty for a casual email user, it wouldn’t work for a voracious consumer of online video,” points out the Wall Street Journal. “Streaming just three high-definition movies over Netflix could push a consumer over the five gigabyte cap, according to Novarum, a wireless broadband consulting firm.”
TWC believes the option will be better received than a previous plan that required subscribers to pay based on consumption because users now have the choice of picking unlimited service or getting a discount.
“The move is a small but potentially significant step toward a sensitive subject in the U.S.: charging consumers for the amount of broadband they use,” reports WSJ.
“According to a study last year by Cisco Systems Inc., the average Internet household used 17.1 GB of data per month in 2010.”
Sprint Nextel has announced a streaming app that will allow subscribers to view live TV from an array of networks on an iPhone.
“The app allows its iPhone-owners using Sprint to catch live TV and video-on-demand content on their device for free,” reports The Next Web. “The programming selection includes news, sports and shows from a range of producers that includes ABC, CBS, NBC, ESPN, The Disney Channel, MTV and Comedy Central.”
The SprintTV iOS app includes a basic free version for Sprint customers and a premium option for $10 a month.
The service also has bundled packages that include Spanish-language and children’s programming.
Spanish-language offerings include: Univision, Telemundo, ESPN Deportes, Cine Mexicano and Azteca America.
Children’s programming: PBS Kids, Sesame Street, BabyFirst TV, Pocoyo and Discovery for Families.
The new Secure Content Storage Association (SCSA) already has its first project underway.
Fox, Warner Bros., SanDisk and Western Digital are coming together for “Project Phenix,” that “will enable consumers to buy, store and playback HD Versions of movies and TV shows at home or on-the-go, easily and seamlessly,” the press release states.
The project is compatible with UltraViolet and the alliance will approve various TVs, tablets and display devices, “so that users will be able to download cloud-based media to compliant WD and SanDisk storage,” reports Engadget.
The project aligns with the SCSA’s goal to secure high-definition content, which comes into competition with popular Internet options like Netflix.
“We’ll see the technology available to license later in the year, which promises to render content ten times faster than streaming media on “over the top Internet” (translation: streaming services),” the article states.
Exceeding expectations, Sony has already sold 1.2 million PlayStation Vitas worldwide and more than 2 million games for the device.
The new Vita launched last week in the U.S. and Europe after its December debut in Japan.
Analysts expect millions more will be sold as the device is launched in other parts of the world. One analyst from Wedbush Morgan Securities estimates 4.3 million Vitas to be sold this year.
Even with competition from advancing smartphones, the handheld gaming console has made an impressive start in the gaming market.
“It’s archrival, the Nintendo 3DS, sold about 400,000 units during its launch week in Japan, though it has since gone on to sell millions more,” notes AllThingsD.
Less than a million of Logitech’s Revue boxes and Sony’s Google TV devices are activated, and more than half of those are Logitech’s set-top boxes.
Google TV includes pre-installed apps like the TV and Movies app, crucial to the Google TV experience. “The active install base for this app, according to Google’s Android Market, currently is 500,000 to 1 million. The same is true for all the other apps that come pre-installed with Google TV, which suggests that the number of Google TV devices that are currently being used by consumers is less than 1 million,” GigaOM reports.
“It’s worth pointing out that the number of active devices doesn’t necessarily translate to sales numbers. People could have bought Google TV devices and never turned them on. Devices that haven’t received the Google TV 2.0 update, which was rolled out last fall, also aren’t part of any Android Market data,” the article states.
In comparison, Apple has sold 4.2 million Apple TV units and Roku has sold 2.5 million boxes.
With the anticipated tens of billions of devices connected to the Internet by 2020, some security firms at the Mobile World Congress are concerned the new Internet of Things will face data security issues with the current network security designs for humans, not machines.
“Put another way, could a not-so-smart client on a machine-to-machine (M2M) network become a future target of malicious Internet activity?”
“The nature of malicious attacks will not be made harder or easier by the infusion of M2M,” ReadWriteWeb reports based on an interview with Adaptive Mobile’s Cathal McDaid.”While consumers may drive newer and more sophisticated communications protocols for their mobile devices, M2M communications may not require an upgrade of format for the foreseeable future — certainly not, by McDaid’s estimate, within the next 20 years. So during that time frame, the same protocol will need to be supported as the foundation for secure communications between machines.”
“The fact is, as you make more ‘doorways’ into the Internet, the challenges of controlling access will become ever more acute,” Alex Brisbourne of KORE Wireless tells ReadWriteWeb. “Machine devices will add significantly to the ‘access doorways’ — just as increasing delivery of smartphones, etc., will do.”
Brisbourne goes on to explain that smartphones are in general open in terms of Internet access, enabling virus, malware and security attacks. Oppositely, machine to machine or M2M will likely be very closed.
MTV unveiled its social TV app called “Under The Thumb” for Europe — with no immediate plans for U.S. expansion — that “will let users watch MTV content on mobile devices, share it on the go with others, and then watch those on-demand programs simultaneously with those friends,” TechCrunch reports.
MTV is working to make the mobile and computer experience seamless as well as integrating Facebook.
“The main part of the service ‘Tiny Thumb’ which offers celebrity news and MTV highlights, as a limited selection of episodes to watch, will be free to use. ‘Super Thumb’ unlocks further shows, seasons and content to subscribers on a monthly basis for €2.99, and those who pay up €29.99 annually will have access to everything — that content is only available to those users who take contracts with MTV Mobile, the company’s mobile service,” TechCrunch writes.
Despite no announcement regarding a U.S. launch: “But of course the U.S. is aware and is following what we are doing. All the content is cleared and we have buy-in from at the Viacom level but no short term plans to launch it there,” said Michel Dupont, SVP of MTV in Europe.
According to inside sources, Apple will announce its Apple TV with the new iPad next week at the company’s scheduled event in San Francisco.
“We initially reported that Apple would be releasing two major new products in early March, and then believed the product would be a new Apple TV due to mounting code-based evidence for such a product with simultaneous supply constraints,” comments 9to5 Mac. “Now, sources have outright said Apple is launching this J33 (the new Apple TV’s codename) alongside the new iPad.”
“The new Apple TV is rumored to include a faster processor, possibly a variation of the dual-core A5 chip,” adds the post. “The dual-core A5 chip has been said to be required for the Apple TV to finally stream 1080p quality video, but Apple is also working on an ‘A5X’ chip that is dual-core, which also includes an improved graphics engine. Those two components of the chip would likely deliver the smooth video playback that Apple would include in such a product.”
It is rumored the Apple TV will also include Bluetooth 4.0 remote control, Siri support and host a new 1080P movie service from the iTunes Store.
Additionally, Apple will be revealing three new iPad variants, not one (if the sources are correct).
HBO Co-President Eric Kessler reports that 75 percent of all viewing on HBO GO is dedicated to original programming with movies only accounting for 20 percent, and sports programming taking up the last 5 percent.
This announcement aligns with a trend that rival Netflix has been seeing where the majority of the viewing on its streaming service involves TV content, not movies.
Of the movies viewers watch on HBO GO, 80 percent were new releases. Here, HBO has the advantage over Netlfix, which has a very limited selection of new films.
“Netflix still has a large lead in the device world, however, which is something that HBO is trying to change,” GigaOM reports. “HBO GO recently became available on Roku streaming players and Samsung TVs, and Kessler announced that the service would launch on the Xbox 360 on April 1 — which coincides with the season opener of HBO’s ‘Game of Thrones.'”
A press invitation from Apple announces an iPad-related event in San Francisco on March 7. In true Apple fashion, the invite doesn’t explicitly state the reveal of an iPad 3 but shows an iPad with the words, “we have something you really have to see. And touch.”
“Apple has not officially confirmed any details about its next iPad. However, people familiar with the product have said that the third-generation iPad would include an improved display and a faster processor, and essentially be the same shape and size as the iPad 2,” reports The New York Times.
Other sources report that the new iPad will be compatible with the 4G LTE networks of AT&T and Verizon.
In an earnings call, CEO Tim Cook says he expect the tablet market to eclipse the PC market, saying “we’re going to continue to innovate like crazy in this area, and continue to compete with anyone that is currently shipping tablets, or that might enter in the future.”
The loss of its Starz contract may not actually hurt Netflix as much as originally thought. Now, more that half of all Netflix viewing is dedicated to TV, not films, presenting an opportunity for the company to compensate for the loss of movies.
“Analysts say the prioritizing of television partly explains why the company has been able to retain about 21.7 million streaming subscribers in the United States — totaling one in four households that have broadband — despite complaints about an inadequate feature film selection. It’s a transition that Netflix has made rather successfully in the last six to 12 months,” reports The New York Times.
The new-release movies from Starz only account for 2 percent of all Netflix viewing, a fairly big drop from 8 percent a year ago.
Even so, people remain critical of Netflix’s selection of films available to stream. An analyst firm Piper Jaffray reported only four of the 2011 top-50 grossing films were available on the site, and one of them — “Gnomeo and Juliet” — will be removed Wednesday.
Netflix continues to offer popular newer films through its DVD service but is placing more focus on TV with original content and expanding with older, cheaper TV content offerings.