Microsoft denies Blu-ray drive rumors, while Toshiba eats $1 billion
In an interview with Reuters, Microsoft shot down claims by Sony that the companies were in discussion to bring a Blu-ray drive to the Xbox 360. Meanwhile, Toshiba is expected to take a nearly $1 billion loss for abandoning HD DVD.
Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg, group product manager for the Xbox 360, said the company was focusing on digital distribution of entertainment through Xbox Live now that no more content is being produced for HD DVD. Microsoft halted production of its HD DVD add-on and discounted remaining units last month.
Google Ad Manager enters beta amid DART acquisition
The plan has been for Google to become the full-service advertising platform supplier on the Internet, and DoubleClick is a big piece of that puzzle. But the company's big goals have always started small, and today's new beta is just one more example.
Throughout its short history, Google's approach to the software side of its business has been to let the code fly free, and monetize that investment through the sale of services to the segment of the market that can afford them. With its DoubleClick acquisition now complete, that approach changes a bit, since that firm's DART tools for publishers represent a lucrative revenue source in both the code and services department.
AT&T gets a new BlackBerry Pearl with Wi-Fi
AT&T announced that it will begin selling RIM's fourth edition (and counting) of its BlackBerry Pearl, the 8120.
The BlackBerry Pearl 8120 is almost identical to RIM's other Pearl offerings, with the main difference being that it supports 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi connectivity. Verizon's counterpart, the 8130 is the CDMA/ 1x EV-DO version of the 8110, the Pearl "standard edition."
AOL scoops up social media provider Bebo
The Time Warner division said it would acquire social media network Bebo, which is highly popular outside of the US, for about $850 million in cash.
That international draw appears to be much of the reason why AOL looked to Bebo, and it should play a large part in the company's overall international expansion strategy. In addition, the link-up between AOL's AIM and ICQ properties and Bebo will help it draw in more users.
Acer eyes future desktop systems, including game machine
Over the next year, Taiwan-based notebook PC maker Acer will start to produce desktop units under the Acer brand...and a senior Acer official told BetaNews yesterday that a PC-based game machine is one of the ideas being bandied about.
NEW YORK CITY (BetaNews) - Right now, the Acer brand name is still equated with PC notebooks only, despite Acer's acquisition of Gateway. But in an interview with BetaNews at its press event on Wednesday, Acer's senior vice president, James T. Wong, said that his company has a game machine in mind, and that it will be based on "open standards."
Microsoft's Doug Mahugh: Inside the real OOXML debate
The Office Open XML format may or may not be ratified by the ISO, but in either event, it will still be a driving force in millions of the world's offices. So one way or the other, its senior product manager tells us, the interoperability debate will be resolved.
From the outside, the debate over whether the International Organization for Standardization should formally ratify Microsoft's Office Open XML format as international standard DIS 29500 seems almost completely political. And during last month's ballot resolution meeting (BRM), the reports on how that debate was proceeding were so wild and uncorroborated as to be almost unintelligible.
A new SDK for OOXML aims to mobilize developers
There are any number of varying definitions of "interoperability," but developers take it to mean the ability to get into the software and make it work right. So today's announcement from Microsoft of a finalized OOXML SDK could be more important than even a victory at the ISO.
This morning, Microsoft announced that the system developers' kit for Microsoft's Office Open XML document format will officially emerge from the CTP stage next month, as version 1.0. What this will enable is a high-level vernacular for the different components of the OOXML formats, similar in concept to the role that type libraries played in characterizing the old Office 2000 and 2003 binary formats for use in Visual Basic for Applications macros.
The iPhone SDK: Could this be a movement?
Apple announced today that the iPhone SDK was downloaded over 100,000 times in the first four days. So with the documentation officially "out there," what comes next for the developer?
JupiterResearch analyst Michael Gartenberg said today, "This is super important because if even just a fraction of those downloads yield product, there's going to be a pretty complete catalog of applications available come June. Considering that iPhone wasn't a software platform as recently as week ago, this is really important news and bodes well for the iPhone/iPod Touch ecosystem."
New Acer Gemstone notebooks feature NVidia 9-series, Blu-ray options
On the heels of its completed acquisition of the Gateway, eMachines, and Packard Bell brands, Acer celebrated its first US-based gala unveiling this afternoon with two new widescreen multimedia notebooks and a fresh marketing strategy.
NEW YORK CITY (BetaNews) - Blue is the new color for Acer, both in terms of the new holographic logo imprinted on its new notebooks' covers, and their Blu-ray Disc options, as revealed in a gala press event here this afternoon.
"Blue is the color of the sky," said Acer's corporate VP of marketing and brand, Gianpiero Morbello. "Blue is a calm and cool color."
Motorola invests in targeted advertising for digital TV
The dream of online advertisers is to be able to reach discrete audiences by targeting them with messages tailored specifically for their tastes. But today, Motorola countered that by investing in a similar service for future television.
In its continuing efforts to find a bigger place for itself in the world, Motorola announced today it had invested an undisclosed amount in INVIDI Technologies Corp., a Princeton, N.J. company that developers addressable television advertising technology for cable and satellite operators.
Microsoft wraps its response to IBM's 'on-demand' strategy around Office
There's still a big chance for Microsoft to make serious inroads in the Web services field for businesses. But in a field where, all things being equal, Web services tend to look pretty much equal to one another, the company is banking on Office to help it distinguish its products.
Every big or even medium-sized move Microsoft has made in the business field has been leveraged, not financially the way companies that don't have a wealth of resources tend to do, but strategically, as an extension of some pre-existing real or perceived strength. Two of those strengths today are Office, which has near-ubiquitous status on the world's business desktops, and the .NET Framework, which Microsoft now believes has a bigger place in the world's IT shops than Sun's Java.
BlackBerrys to get their own music service
While BlackBerry devices have been praised for their functionality, only recently have they begun cracking the "snazzy" barrier. Next month, the venerable communicators will have one more thing in common with iPods.
Downloadable music for the Research in Motion BlackBerry device was announced today from Canadian online music provider Puretracks, to be available next month at the CTIQ Wireless show.
Worst-kept secret: LG Glimmer comes to Alltel
The rumors proved to be true: Last month an advertisement leaked for LG's Glimmer touchscreen/slider handset had a big "Alltel" brand across it; and today Alltel announced it will be exclusively offering the device beginning tomorrow.
Based upon LG's Shine, the Glimmer has a slightly larger display (2.8" 240 x 400) with capacitive touchscreen functions. This 1900/800 MHz dual band CDMA device has EVDO data connectivity and is GPS-ready. It has 128MB of onboard memory expandable via MicroSD, Bluetooth 1.2, and a 2 Megapixel camera as well.
DivX is coming for Blu-ray players, while PS3 could lag behind
The single most popular Blu-ray player sold today isn't even a dedicated console, it's the Sony PS3. As we learned today, six forthcoming dedicated Blu-ray players could get something the PS3 lacks: total DivX support.
DivX announced today that six new Blu-ray players will soon come to market that have all achieved complete DivX certification. This means Panasonic, Phillips, and Denon will soon have players that fully support the format, allowing more than 25 hours of DVD-quality DivX content to be burned onto a single Blu-ray disc.
Now bigger, Google prepares to get smaller
Although yesterday's completion of the Google + DoubleClick deal gives the combined business a big boost against Yahoo and Microsoft, Google is already planning staff layoffs.
"I'm pleased to share the news that we completed our acquisition of DoubleClick today," Google Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt wrote in his blog yesterday, when the ink on the deal was still barely dry. "An immediate task we'll undertake over the new few weeks is matching and aligning DoubleClick employees with our organizational plan for the business...As with most mergers, there may be reductions in head count. We expect these to take place in the US and possibly in other regions as well."
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