Buena Vista Preps More Blu-ray Titles
Buena Vista Worldwide Home Entertainment plans to continue its delivery of dual-layer 50GB Blu-ray movies early next year with the release of 4 new titles on January 23. The studio previously announced plans to ship its first 50GB Blu-ray titles on November 21 - just after the launch of Sony's PlayStation 3.
"Casanova," "Chicago," "The Guardian" and "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" will debut after the holidays at a cost of $34.99 USD each. Because they utilize Blu-ray's full storage capacity, Buena Vista says the titles will contain a host of special features, including alternate endings, making of featurettes, as well as improved menus and Web connectivity for connecting to live events held by the studio.
NBC Posts Podcasts of News on iTunes
NBC said Monday that it plans to make two of its most popular news programs, "NBC Nightly News" and "Meet the Press," available for free via video podcasts on iTunes. Both shows would be published following their West coast airings. "NBC Nightly News" will appear on iTunes weeknights at 10pm ET, and "Meet The Press" at 1pm ET.
All three major networks have offered both video clips and audio podcasts through the iTunes service for some time, howeer this arrangement with NBC is the first of its kind. While both ABC and CBS have offered streaming versions of their national newscasts, neither allows for the programs to be downloaded.
Sony: PS3 Has Backwards Compatibility Issues
Sony disclosed Tuesday that its next-generation PlayStation 3 console is apparently having issues playing some PlayStation and PlayStation 2 games. The company is checking the 8,000 or so titles released in Japan for issues, a spokesperson said. So far, approximately 200 titles or roughly three percent of all games have been found incompatible.
Issues range from a loss of sound to complete failure to run, according to reports. A fix is underway, Sony said, and would likely be delivered to consoles via an online update. Sony is locked in a fierce battle with Microsoft and Nintendo for next-generation console supremacy, and will launch the PlayStation 3 in North America on Friday.
AMD Abandons Low-Cost PC Project
A filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission has disclosed that AMD has abandoned the Personal Internet Communicator project due to lack of market interest and slow sales. Part of the chipmaker's "50x15" initative, aimed at equipping 50 percent of the worlds popular with Internet access by 2015, the device never took off.
"Revenue from sales of PIC products has not been material and in the third quarter of 2006, the Company stopped manufacturing PIC products," the company said in the filing. The demise of the PIC brings into question the viability of other low-cost PC efforts. However, unlike the so-called "$100 laptop" and a similar project by Intel, the PIC had no monitor included and was fairly expensive at about $185 USD.
Windows Live Mail Launches in Holland
While it has yet to publicly launch the service in the United States, Windows Live Mail made its official debut over the weekend in The Netherlands, Microsoft announces. The service, which is the successor to Hotmail, provides users with @live.nl addresses.
"Why the Netherlands? Well, the Netherlands is a prime location for the preview because of the local popularity of Hotmail," the Windows Live Mail team wrote in a blog post. "We will be using this experience to test some new scenarios, like those surrounding Windows Live IDs , as well as to go deeper into customer feedback. We will then incorporate and make improvements based on this feedback before launching in additional markets in the coming months."
Fox to Sell Cheap DVDs in China
Fox plans to sell inexpensive DVDs in China aiming to curb piracy of its movies within the region. The country accounted for some $244 million in lost ticket and DVD sales during 2005 according to the MPAA, and many studios have already given up on selling genuine discs. However, with DVD sales slowing in the United States, movie distributors are eager to find new markets to offset the decline in sales.
To lure consumers away from counterfeit DVDs, the discs would be sold at about 20 to 25 yuan (US$2.54-$3.18), about twice as much as the going price for a pirated disc on the street - about 10 yuan. The program is similar to one being tried by Warner Bros in the region. Both say they are not aiming to compete with one another; rather, both are dropping prices in order to curb piracy.
Microsoft, Epson Cross-License Patents
Microsoft and Epson announced an agreement Monday that would allow their respective companies access to each other's patent portfolios and incorporate those technologies into its products. The patents cover a wide variety of consumer and business applications, and extend an already-present relationship between the two companies. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The agreement with Epson is not a first for Microsoft. The company already has similar cross-licensing arrangements with companies such as Cisco, NEC, Nortel Networks, Siemens, SAP and Toshiba. Epson is an active patent filer; last year, it was third in published patents in Japan. Both companies also plan to extend their relations to mutually assist one another in protecting intellectual property, Epson said.
Disney Sells 500,000 Movies on iTunes
Disney continues to have success in selling movies through the iTunes Music Store, saying Thursday it had now sold about 500,000 films in just the first two months of operation. Consumers are downloading movies at rate of about 9,000 per day, generating about $4 million in revenue. At the current time, Disney's studios are the only films available through the service.
That could soon change, however, as CNN> reported Thursday that Fox had said it restarted talks with the Cupertino company. Apple enthusiast site AppleInsider also reported that independent studio Lions Gate had also restarted talks. Perhaps the studios are drawn to the service by its early success: Disney reiterated it expected to sell $50 million worth of movies in the first year.
Google Accidentally Spreads Virus
Google may have accidentally infected some subscribers of the Google Video mailing list with the W32/Kapser.A@mm virus, better known as the "Karma Sutra" worm. At least three separate e-mails went out over the list that may have been infected, reaching approximately 50,000 subscribers. The virus will overwrite selected files on a specific date and was first discovered in February of this year.
"If you think you have downloaded this virus from the group or an email message, we recommend you run your antivirus program to remove it," the company said in an e-mail that went over the list on Wednesday. Google officials said the company was taking steps to prevent future occurrences.
Google Moves Closer to Radio Ads
Following its moves into both magazine and newspaper advertising, Google is now preparing to go into radio. According to Reuters, the company has begun hiring sales people and plans to launch the Google Audio Ads service by the end of the year. Like the magazine and newspaper offerings, participants would upload their audio ads through the same AdWords Web application used to post text ads.
Google Audio Ads was made possible through the company's $102 million acquisition of radio advertising agency dMarc Broadcasting in January. So far, XM has agreed to allow some of its own advertising to be available through the service, and it is rumored that Google may be in talks with radio giant Clear Channel Communications to purchase as much as $1 billion of its advertising inventory.
AOL Acquires Financial News Search
AOL on Wednesday made its fifth acquisition of the year, snapping up financial news search company Relegence. Relegance monitors and filters through 20,000 sources of live content streams, creating a customized feed based on a user's preferences.
AOL plans to use Relegance's technology to build filtered news streams for consumers. Although Relegance currently charges a subscription fee for its service, AOL will likely make it available to users at no cost. "This acquisition is a perfectly timed enhancement and complement to our web services strategy, where content management for web publishing will be a critical component of delivering the best experience for our users," said Jim Bankoff, AOL Executive Vice President.
Yahoo to Deliver Banner Ads to Phones
Yahoo is embarking on a pilot program in which it sends graphical advertisements to mobile phones and other wireless devices, testing the effectiveness of brand advertising on small screens. The ads, 150x21 pixels in size, will be delivered to users of Yahoo's Mobile Web service.
Yahoo previously began testing text advertisements on phones in the United States and the UK. Wireless devices have traditionally been limited by slow speeds and high bandwidth prices, making graphical ads an expensive proposition with a limited audience. But as speeds and devices themselves have improved, more consumers are turning to their phone to look up information on the Web.
PayPal to Give Buyers $20 Rebate
In an effort to convince consumers to pay via its service, PayPal is planning a massive promotion in which it will give $100 million back to users. Those who buy from a list of merchants that have joined the holiday program will be eligible to receive up to $20 off their purchase.
The promotion will run from November 23 to May 15, 2007. In addition to rebates, customers can receive coupons and free shipping. On the list of those merchants taking part are Dell, Barnes and Noble, Starbucks, PetSmart, and Hewlett-Packard. PayPal parent company eBay says the promotion could involve up to 100,000 merchants that use the service.
Google, YouTube Deal Given Go-Ahead
Google on Friday received approval from the United States Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission to go ahead with its proposed $1.65 billion buyout of popular video sharing site YouTube. No antitrust issues were raised by the agencies.
Although no official announcement was made, the antitrust review was mentioned in the FTC's daily publication of transactions. When the deal was announced last month, Google said it expected it to close before the end of the year. The company plans to keep Google Video as a separate product.
Microsoft's Xbox Hacking Fix Backfires
With the Fall software update for the Xbox 360, a few gamers got an unexpected surprise along with 1080p support - an error code. The message "ERROR CODE E71" has appeared on approximately one percent of all consoles, essentially preventing Xbox Live use or gameplay. Microsoft has acknowledged the error, which seems to be caused by the company's attempts to prevent hacking of the console.
However, it also seems to affect those who may have had repairs done to their systems, which would require possible modifications. At least one user to the 1up.com gaming site reported that he had just received his console back and downloaded the update only to receive the error code. Microsoft is working to ensure the issue does not affect additional consoles.
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