Archive for the 'software' Category


Digital Media News, February 6-19

Monday, February 22nd, 2010

by DMEC Careers Della Huff and Chris Finegold

Internet and Social Networks

  • Google acquired social search engine Aardvark for approximately $50 million. The service, started by several former Google employees, enables users to ping its community by asking questions and receiving immediate answers from friends and contacts connected to them. Link
  • Google has won approval to enter the speculative energy trading business. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued an order giving the company the authority to buy and sell wholesale electricity just like a utility. Link
  • Zynga is opening an office in India, in the hopes of capitalizing on the rapidly growing market. Zynga says that India has 81 million internet users, and is projected to become the third biggest online market by 2013 (behind the United States and China). Link
  • The decision to leave Flash off the iPad is exasperating a feud between Apple and Adobe and putting the spotlight on the up-and-coming HTML5 standard for video and interactive graphics. Link
  • Content and Distribution

  • Some (as yet unnamed) TV networks, including CBS, have reportedly agreed to allow Apple to cut the price of their TV episodes from $1.99 to $1 on the iTunes Store in connection with the launch of the company’s iPad. Link
  • HBO is preparing to launch an online streaming service for cable, satellite and telco TV service subscribers to its pay-TV channels, The New York Times reported. The HBO GO service has launched in beta for Comcast and Verizon FiOS TV subscribers; HBO counts about 35 million subscribers overall. Link
  • After getting Netflix to agree to wait 28 days before renting any new release Warner Bros. DVDs, kiosk rental chain RedBox has agreed with the studio to honor the same window, ending a testy feud between the two companies. Link
  • NBC Universal’s NBCOlympics.com website drew 13.6 million visitors in the first four days of the games, an increase of 250% from the traffic seen during the opening weekend of the 2006 Winter Olympics. Link
  • Online video start-up Veoh is finally shutting down operations, laying off remaining employees and planning a chapter 7 bankruptcy filing. The company has burned through more than $70 million in funding from a long list of prominent investors. Link
  • Mobile

  • Google CEO Eric Schmidt announced that the company was adopting a “mobile first” strategy in his Mobile World Congress keynote, creating software and applications with mobile as a top priority. He said Google is now shipping 60,000 Android-based handsets a day worldwide. Link
  • Verizon Wireless announced a landmark deal with Skype to allow Verizon smartphone users to make international calls at bargain basement “Skype Out” rates. Future plans include integrating Skype into FiOS TV or Verizon’s 4G LTE service. Link
  • AT&T has reversed its stance and will allow live TV streaming over its 3G network to iPhones using Sling Media’s streaming service. Link
  • T-Mobile’s new 3G-powered HTC HD2 handset, launching on the Windows mobile platform March 24, will include premium content services including Blockbuster On Demand movies, Paramount Pictures films and Barnes & Noble eReader titles. Link
  • Hardware

  • Sony’s answer to the iPad is the $199 Dash Personal Internet Viewer due out in April, a Wi-Fi capable tablet device with a 7″ touch screen. Sony is leveraging existing content partnerships struck through its Bravia line of TVs to bring lots of popular services including Netflix movies, eHow videos and Pandora music stations. A partnership with Chumby will also deliver over 1,000 internet apps. Link
  • Sony introduced its first standalone 3D-ready Blu-ray player. It will be available this month and will retail for around $200. Link

  • Ads in PDF’s will make Adobe user experience more annoying still

    Thursday, November 29th, 2007

    Sounds like Adobe and Yahoo are getting together on a plan to include ads in Adobe PDF documents.  Are you serious?  As if I needed another reason to be annoyed by Adobe’s reader… long load times, countless frustrations with digital rights management procedures… I’m not saying they won’t make any money from it, and this is just my initial reaction without knowing all of the details, but at least give me something in return: additional features, exclusive content, something to justify interrupting my document reading experience.
    If you have a Mac, you probably love to use Preview, which opens in a snap and is a great viewer for PDF’s, JPG’s and more.  If you don’t, you might want to look into Foxit


    Why is Yahoo! still appending advertisements to emails?

    Saturday, November 17th, 2007

    I saw the following at the end of a Google Groups email:

    Regards,
    _name_

    Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your homepage.
    –~–~———~–~—-~————~——-~–~—-~

    You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups “_group name_” group.
    To post to this group, send email to _group abbreviation_@googlegroups.com
    To unsubscribe from this group, send email to _group abbreviation_-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
    For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/_group abbreviation_?hl=en
    -~———-~—-~—-~—-~——~—-~——~–~—

    The contrast between the information shown above from Yahoo! and Google reminds me of one of the main reasons I stopped using Yahoo! Mail altogether: I don’t like serving as a billboard. Others have felt similarly for many years now. The message from Yahoo!, appended to the sender’s email because she uses Yahoo! Mail, is irrelevant to most recipients. Most web surfers are well aware of what yahoo.com has to offer. If they wanted to set it as their homepage, they would have long ago. In contrast, the message from Google contains information relevant to many recipients of the email (albeit probably more information than needed by most).

    I realize I’m comparing email appendages to mailing list appendages. In the case of email, Google does not advertise to recipients at all. Don’t even get me started on the corruption of messages from Yahoo! Groups…

    I’m curious: has Yahoo! reevaluated the decision to append advertisements to their members’ emails, or has improving existing services been lost in the (literal) shuffle? (I hope I get called out.) Has Yahoo! decided their target market doesn’t mind having the Yahoo! brand clutter up their email conversations and they’re willing to pass on people who care? Granted, maintaining an email platform may be a secondary concern as communication shifts to authenticated mediums like IM and other social networking tools.


    Introduction to Android, featuring Sergey Brin!

    Tuesday, November 13th, 2007

    Over the weekend Google released this video, featuring none other than man of the year Sergey Brin, which introduces the public to the Android Mobile Software platform.

    Not only that, but Google also announced a $10M fund to give the best Android developers cash prizes for releasing the best applications for the platform. Now is about the time I wished I knew how to code…


    The Big Daddy of Platform as a Service

    Monday, November 12th, 2007

    Salesforce.com name is clearly associated with Software as a Service (SaaS). They also want to become the platform of choice, except that the Platform is not in your premises, it is delivered as a service too (PaaS). Salesforce.com is threatened by big players SAP, Microsoft and by small players like NetSuite and of course the open source free versions. While it is not obvious, there is one player who don’t directly associate with SaaS or Paas, the big daddy of them all with loads of cash, Google.

    Google is working with mobile providers and delivers them software as  service, delivers Office applications a s a service, delivers software as a service (their API to Google maps), Ads as  a service, soon your social network as service …

    Salesforce.com is associating closely with Google, as New York Times calls it,
     

    … hoping to ride whatever success that company has in social networking
    and office applications, a field now dominated by Microsoft.

    “Marc is waiting for Google applications to mature,” said one former
    Salesforce executive, who asked not to be identified. “If it can link
    with Google applications, then maybe Salesforce can develop into a
    platform.”

    It is an oft repeated remark from businesses partnering with Google that they view Google as both friend and foe. Is Marc relying too much on Google for Salesforce.com’s success? Despite all the rumors in summer about Google acquiring Salesforce.com, nothing happened and I believe nothing will. Google’s  philosophy of open platforms, open networks doesn’t jive with the Salesforce.com model:

    “The more our users customize, the more they are tied to our service,”
    said Steve Fisher, the Salesforce executive overseeing the platform
    project.

     Is the ecosystem a perfect match? Is there a danger of Google turning into the worst foe for Salesforce.com, bigger than SAP and Microsoft combined?

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