Archives

Twitter Introduces Geo-tagging Feature

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 20, 2009 - 11:46am.
San Francisco - Twitter on Friday announced the launch of a new geo-tagging feature for its API, which will allow users of third-party applications like Seesmic, Birdfeed and Twindroid to opt-in to include their location information when they tweet. "The added information provides valuable context when reading your friends tweets and allows you to better focus in on local conversations," the company wrote on its blog.

tags: Publishing | Twitter |

EPIX to Premiere Pilot of First Original Series in 2010

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 20, 2009 - 11:44am.
New York - EPIX, the pay-TV and online video joint venture from Viacom (NYSE: NWS), Paramount, MGM and Lionsgate, announced on Friday that actor Sam Shepard will star in Lionsgate's "Tough Trade," the first original series pilot destined for the EPIX service. Production on the pilot, which is slated to debut on EPIX in 2010, begins next month.

tags: Video | TV | Viacom | MGM | Paramount | Lionsgate | Epix |

IFC Inks Deal to Distribute Indie Films on Netflix

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 20, 2009 - 11:42am.
New York - IFC Entertainment has signed a deal with online DVD rental service Netflix (NASD: NFLX), to distribute 53 independent films on the service, Variety reports. The deal includes "The Thin Blue Line," "Return of the Secaucus Seven" and "Following."  IFC's catalog is also available via iTunes, Blockbuster and Amazon.

tags: Movies | Netflix | IFC |

Sony to Launch Online Entertainment Store in 2010

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 20, 2009 - 11:23am.
Tokyo - Sony (NYSE: SNE) announced plans on Friday to launch a new online store next year that will sell books, music and movies next year, and deliver content to networked televisions and other devices. The company did not provide many details about the "Sony Online Service," as it is tentatively being called, but is expected to be positioned as a competitor to Apple's iTunes Store.
tags: Games | Video | TV | Sony | Apple | Movies | Publishing | Books | iTunes Store | Sony Online Service |

Google Book Settlement Gets Preliminary Approval; Hearing in 2010

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 20, 2009 - 11:02am.
New York - The judge overseeing the settlement agreement between Google (NASD: GOOG) and authors and publishers over the direction of its massive book-scanning project has pushed a hearing on a revised settlement back to Feb. 18, while at the same time granted preliminary approval to the new deal. "The preliminary approval order sends a positive initial message; this agreement promises to benefit readers and researchers, and enhance the ability of authors and publishers to distribute their content in digital form," Google said in a statement.
tags: Law | Lawsuits | Google | Copyright | E-Books | Publishing | Books | Authors Guild | Google Book Search |

Nokia Lays Off 330 Research and Development Staff

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 20, 2009 - 10:23am.
Espoo, Finland - Cell phone maker Nokia (NYSE: NOK) announced on Friday that it will lay off up to 330 employees from its research and development operations, representing about 2% of its global research and development staff of 17,000.
tags: Mobile | Nokia | Layoffs |

Report: Video Viewing on Social Media Sites Doubles in Year

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 20, 2009 - 9:56am.
New York - Internet users now spend nearly double the amount of time watching videos on social networking sites than they did just one year ago, according to newly released figures from Nielsen.
tags: Video | Social Networking | Reports | MySpace | Facebook | Nielsen | Research | Stickam |

Details Emerge About AOL's Massive Workforce Reductions

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 20, 2009 - 9:50am.
New York - A day after AOL announced plans to cut one-third of its workforce -- up to 2,500 employees -- details are beginning to emerge about specifics of the plan.
tags: AOL | Layoffs | Time Warner |

Online Marketer QuinStreet Files for $250 Million IPO

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 20, 2009 - 9:40am.
Foster City, Calif. - QuinStreet, a provider of online marketing services, has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to raise up to $250 million in its initial public offering (IPO).
tags: Deals | Marketing | IPOs | QuinStreet |

eBay Completes Sale of Skype Unit to Investor Group

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 20, 2009 - 9:34am.
San Jose, Calif. - Nearly three months after first announcing the deal, online auction giant eBay (NASD: EBAY) said that it has completed the sale of a majority stake in its Skype Internet telephone business to an investment group headed by Silver Lake Partners. Under the deal, the investor group -- which also included Joltid Limited, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Andreessen Horowitz -- paid $1.9 billion and a $125 million note in exchange for a 70% stake in the unit.
tags: Deals | eBay | Acquisitions | Skype | Silver Lake Partners | Andreessen Horowitz | Canada Pension Plan Investment Board | Joltid | Janus Friis | Niklas Zennstrom |

Mobile Broadcast Firm IPWireless Lands $15.5 Million

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 20, 2009 - 8:08am.
San Francisco - IPWireless, a San Francisco-based developer of mobile broadband and broadcast technology, said on Wednesday that it has raised $15.5 million in its first round of funding, led by Spark Capital.
tags: Deals | Mobile | VC | IPWireless | Spark Capital |

Chegg.com Gets $57 Million for Online Textbook Rentals

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 20, 2009 - 8:06am.
Santa Clara, Calif. - Chegg.com, an online textbook rental company, said on Thursday that it has raised one of the largest funding rounds for a Silicon Valley tech company this year, landing $57 million in its fourth round.
tags: Deals | VC | Publishing | Insight Venture Partners | Chegg.com |

Digital Media Association Head Jon Potter Resigns

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 19, 2009 - 12:09pm.
Washington - Jonathan Potter has resigned as executive director of the Digital Media Association (DiMA), a trade group representing the interests of larger webcasters and technology firms that he founded in 1998. "I am grateful to DiMA's member companies for allowing me to serve them -- and their innovative technologies and services and their passionate people -- for so long and in so many exciting ways. I hope that my next adventure is as challenging and rewarding," said Potter. DiMA general counsel Lee Knife will serve as interim executive director while the organization searches for a replacement.

tags: Law | Policy | Music | Moves | DiMA | Webcasting | Jonathan Potter |

Report: U.S. Labels Concerned on Spotify Premium Conversions

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 19, 2009 - 12:02pm.
London - The major record labels are reportedly concerned about the percentage of U.S. users likely to pay for ad-supported streaming music service Spotify's for-pay premium version, the Financial Times reported. Spotify, which is available in several European countries, had planned to launch in the U.S. in the fall, but recently said it would delay the launch to 2010. "We think Spotify is a great service but they're going to have to convince us they can convert enough people from free to paid subscriptions to make it worth our while," one label executive told FT.

tags: Advertising | Music | Spotify |

YouTube Debuts Automated Closed Captioning

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 19, 2009 - 12:01pm.
Mountain View, Calif. - Google (NASD: GOOG) announced on Thursday that it has combined its automatic speech recognition technology with the YouTube close captioning system, to offer automatic captioning of YouTube videos. The company acknowledged that the automatic captions "will not always be perfect," but can improve accessibility and help translate videos into other languages. YouTube also added automatic caption timing, so that users captioning videos by hand can simply create a text file, and let Google's automatic speech recognition sync their captions to the video.

tags: Video | Google | YouTube |

Wall Street Journal Counts 30,000 Kindle Subscribers

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 19, 2009 - 12:00pm.
New York - News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) The Wall Street Journal currently counts around 30,000 subscribers via Amazon's (NASD: AMZN) Kindle e-book reader, PaidContent reported, citing comments made by Down Jones head Les Hinton on Thursday. With a subscription fee of $15 per month, that translates to about $5.4 million in annual revenues -- although PaidContent notes that Dow Jones's cut would be less than half that figure.

tags: Newspapers | E-Books | News Corp. | Publishing | Amazon.com | Kindle | The Wall Street Journal |

Susan Boyle CD Breaks Amazon.com Pre-Order Record

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 19, 2009 - 11:58am.
Seattle - Amazon.com (NASD: AMZN) said on Thursday that reality TV singing star Susan Boyle's forthcoming album, "I Dreamed a Dream," has become the largest global pre-order CD in the company's history. Boyle racked up millions of views on YouTube for her performances on "Britain's Got Talent."

tags: Music | Retail | Amazon.com | Susan Boyle |

Movie Gallery to Test Digiboo Digital Download Kiosks

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 19, 2009 - 11:57am.
Los Angeles - Digiboo, a new digital media firm that is developing digital movie kiosks, on Thursday announced a distribution deal with Movie Gallery, the parent company of Hollywood Video and Movie Gallery stores. A pilot program will see Digiboo kiosks placed in up to 100 of Movie Gallery's stores. The kiosks allow consumers to plug in a portable flash drive, and select from 1,000 titles to rent or purchase, which are then downloaded to the drive in under 30 seconds.

tags: Movies | Kiosks | Movie Gallery | Digiboo |

BBC to Launch All-U.K. Radio Station Streamer Next Year

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 19, 2009 - 11:55am.
London - The BBC announced on Thursday that it has partnered with a number of U.K. radio broadcasters to launch an online radio player application that includes streams from every licensed station in the U.K. Set to launch early next year, the UK Radioplayer will offered live and on-demand content from more than 400 stations. Partners in the venture include RadioCentre, Global Radio and Guardian Media Group.

tags: Radio | Music | BBC | UK Radioplayer |

MySpace Debuts Music Charts

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 19, 2009 - 11:54am.
Los Angeles - News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) MySpace on Thursday introduced its own MySpace Music Charts, which will provide data on the most popular music amongst MySpace Music users. The charts will run across all genres, and include real-time data on current trends.

tags: Social Networking | Music | MySpace | News Corp. |
123456789…next ›last »