November 2008 Archives

In an attempt to make headway against rampant film piracy, Warner Bros. will distribute newly released films online in China.

The studio struck a deal with Union Voole Technology in China to offer new movies as well as those that have never been seen in Chinese theaters at rental prices ranging from 60 cents to $1.

The inexpensive video-on-demand service seeks to entice China's estimated 253 million Internet users to pay for Hollywood fare rather than download illicit copies. 

How about a "Coming to America" version for all of us over here?

More at the Los Angeles Times.

Greg Galitzine has an interesting interview with Carl Ford (formerly with VON) about the future of wireless, including 4G and the pending 4GWE (4G Wireless Evolution) event co-located with ITEXPO. Carl discusses gadgets, smart phones, the Amazon Kindle, and more as the future growth factors in an saturated wireless phone market. He also discusses the challenges of 3G, femtocells, and more.
Go check it out:
http://www.tmcnet.com/tmc/videos/default.aspx?vid=657

Another interesting video is Carl Ford and Greg Galitzine discussing how TMCnet is able to have such a visible presence on the web via TMCnet's plethora of technology news coverage. They also cover 4G and Carl has an inside track on what is on the carrier's minds since he has excellent sources and friends in the carrier space. Carl also discusses the future of a "single" converged wireless device or whether we will continue to have multiple devices - each suited to a better capability obviously (email, web, etc.)

Definitely worth a look:
http://www.tmcnet.com/tmc/videos/default.aspx?vid=658

In an auspicious time for the music business, we may have the first big hint that the Beatles may finally be on the way to Apple's iTunes.

That's a big leap of faith but hear me out: The Beatles' label Apple Corps will join MTV to unveil plans to bring the Beatles' catalog to the wildly popular Rock Band video game. These two groups have been trying to hammer out details for months, and it appears they've finally come together (yes, pun intended.)

The reason this is so much bigger than merely MTV scoring the world's most valuable music catalogue is that it signals a monumental shift by Apple Corps to begin to embrace digital distribution. And that could mean a new opening for more discussions with Apple and its iTunes music service -- where the Beatles are still so conspicuously absent.

(And its is the world's most popular music store.)

Maybe AC/DC and Aersomith taught them something???

More at CNBC.com.

Nielsen's new TV/Internet Convergence Panel, which electronically measures both television and Internet usage in the same homes, has found that television viewing and online video streaming are complementary activities.

Gosh!

According to the convergence panel, the heaviest users of the Internet are also among the heaviest viewers of television: the top fifth of Internet users spend more than 250 minutes per day watching television, compared to 220 minutes of television viewing by people who do not use the Internet at all.

Nielsen found that the reverse is true as well -- the lowest consumers of television have the lowest usage levels for the Internet.

(And what else could they be doing?)

Nielsen also found that 31% of in-home Internet activity takes place while the user is watching television, demonstrating that there is a significant amount of simultaneous Internet and television usage. Conversely, 4% of television viewing occurs when the consumer is also using the Internet. 

Now I watch TV while on the Internet, my kids watch TV on the Internet while on the Internet and my wife is either on one or the other -- and never both.

Is this a crazy multi-tasking world or what?  

Get more at Nielsen.com.

Circuit City will close 155 stores and lay off 7,200 employees, or 17% of its workforce, as it continues to restructure its business. These closings represent more than 20% of U.S. stores and includes the exiting of 12 markets.

The store closings will shrink the number of locations the chain operates in the U.S. to 566. 

The chain also faces credit issues with its vendors. Circuit City said certain vendors have changed payment terms, including demanding cash for inventory before shipping merchandise, as the all-important holiday shopping season approaches. Vendors also have limited the credit available to the company for purchases, including in some cases not providing customary increases in credit lines for holiday purchases.

We just hope that Best Buy and other more general retailers (Target, Wal-Mart) will take up the slack. While we all love to shop and buy online, there's nothing quite like walking into a huge gadgets retailer and touching and feeling all of these gadgets before buying them. Don't you think?

More at the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

What happens in Las Vegas stays in Las Vegas ...? Is that the same for Reno?

Following in the footsteps of Time Warner Cable, Frontier Communications and several UK Internet service providers, AT&T has unveiled a tiered broadband service in Nevada.

According to a Friday filing with the Federal Communication Commission, AT&T executives met with the legal adviser to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin to discuss "usage-based pricing" as a form of network management.

AT&T has hinted that this was coming for the last few months. From the filing:
In particular, AT&T plans to initiate a broadband Internet access usage trial in Reno, Nev., beginning in November. Consistent with AT&T's belief that consumers should have clear information about the capabilities of their broadband Internet access services and any meaningful limitations on those service, AT&T will be providing written notice to customers involved in the trial explaining that their broadband service will be subject to a certain monthly usage tier for the total amount of data they may send and receive, as well as a per gigabyte charge in the event they exceed the usage tier. 

I thought the Internet was meant to be free ...?

Get more at GigaOM.

Stonevoice has created SkyStone Video, a unique Skype-gateway product that allows video communications between enterprise video solutions from vendors such as Cisco, Sony, and Polycom and the popular Skype software. There are several voice over ip-to-Skype gateways, but this marks the first time someone has created a Video-to-Skype gateway that "bridges" the gap between high quality enterprise video conferencing solutions and Skype.

"Video has become a fundamental need in the day-by-day communications. The technology is now ready to handle video calls and conference calls; however, one fundamental element was missing to take it to the next level: simplicity - says Christian Bongiovanni, CEO of StoneVoice - today, ahead of competition, Stonevoice, has demonstrated its technical excellence and strategic thinking by releasing a unique product worldwide: SkyStone Video that allows standard based video solution interfacing with the Skype world, bringing excellent quality, rich and mobile communications, with extreme simplicity!"

With Skystone Video, Stonevoice has eliminated the Business-to-Consumer and Business-to-Business barriers. Today a user can call a business partner, a mobile employee or a customer on their Skype account and do video calls and conference calls, as simply as if they were placing a standard call (for instance through speed-dials). Furthermore, combining Skystone Video with Meetnow, Stonevoice branded software MCU, conference calls can be done with internal and external parties without the security - VPN barrier, providing a WEB 2.0 service accessible from anywhere with any device to everybody.

Skystone Video is available for early testing on http://skystone.stonevoice.com.

VoxOx is a new unified communications client launched by San Diego based startup TelCentris. Think of it as Skype on steroids since it not only support VoIP, IM, and video conferencing, but it also supports social media, such as Facebook, SMS, fax, e-mail, and content sharing all in one unified desktop application.

VoxOx creates a "meta address book" of contacts from all of a user's disparate communications networks into a single user interface, accessible from any device. To ramp up they are providing a free phone number, along with two initial hours of free talk time. TelCentris' CEO Bryan Hertz is making their API open source in hopes of duplication what Skype has done with Skype Extras and their developer community.

Features include:

• Full inbound/outbound calling capabilities
• Voicemail and interactive voice response "personal assistant"
• Two-way texting
• Call forwarding and "one-number-follow-me service"
• Inbound faxing and fax-to-e-mail
• Landline replacement option
• Interconnects users to major instant messaging networks (MSN, Yahoo, AIM, ICQ, Google Talk and others), allowing members from different IMs to chat and video conference with each other from one service
• Integrates with all major social networks, including Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and others
• Enables flexibility for integrating existing and future applications via its open standards platform

It currently supports Windows and Mac, with Linux support coming soon.

One interesting feature is Call-Back, which is similar to Jajah and a feature lacking in Skype. feature is what sets  Call-Back allows you to initiate a call-back via the Web or via SMS. Under the Web callback tab, you enter the phone number for are located as well as the number you are trying to call and VoxOx will call you from a local number.

Skype has a lot of momentum, and there have been a lot of "pretenders" to the Skype throne. However, VoxOx has a lot of "eye candy" with an iPhone skin which might attract users. It also has an interesting feature-set and the 120 free minutes might entice users to check it out.

To download VoxOx, head here.