Good morning folks,
Happy Friday! Finally, on the last day of the week, we get some interesting news items to report. Here are your top stories heading into the weekend.
Enjoy!
Joshua
– Senator John McCain is prepping legislation to dramatically overhaul the television business, which is expected to receive strong opposition from the broadcast and cable industries if it gains any traction. McCain wants to require pay-TV distributors to give consumers the option to buy channels on an individual a la carte basis. Further, McCain has signaled his support for Aereo adding language that would allow the FCC to strip the licenses of any broadcaster that moves to a cable model, which Fox and CBS have threatened to do if Aereo continues to survive. While there is a lot of saber rattling here, McCain may meet a lot of resistance when he gets to the Senate as he has tried this type of legislation before, but this time, he’s no longer a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, which oversees the FCC and media industry. (link)
– As rumored, YouTube has unveiled a pilot program for paid channels. Users can now get access to a number of channels for a subscription fee of 99 cents or more per month. Further, they are offering a free two week trial period for any channel before the charges kick in and provide discounts for those wanting annual subscriptions. (link)
– Samsung filed for a patent which allows you to bend your TV thanks to flexible display technology. Even better, you don’t have to get off the couch, as Samsung’s patent filing includes the ability to bend that TV with a remote control. Wonder if we’ll see this at CES next year? (link)
– RUMOR: Microsoft is reportedly considering a $1 billion bid to buy complete control of Nook Media, despite the fact it already has a $300 million investment in the property giving it 16.8% control. Apparently Microsoft would dump the college book division while retaining the digital assets. (link)
– RUMOR: The WSJ is reporting that Amazon is working on a new high-end smartphone with a screen that allows for 3D images without glasses. Using retina-tracking technology, images would seem to float above the screen like a hologram and appear 3D from all angles. Further, with the eye-tracking technology, users may be able to navigate through content just by using their eyes. Amazon has declined to comment on the rumors. (link)
– Looking at just the last quarter, Canalys projects that 308.7 million smart mobile devices were shipped worldwide in Q1 of this year, representing growth of 37.4% YOY. Breaking down by operating system, and Android still leads with 59.5% of the share, followed by iOS at 19.3% and Windows Phone / Microsoft Windows at 18.1%. For the purposes of this study, its important to note that smart devices include notebooks, tablets and smartphones, with the tablet market growing the fastest with a 106.1% growth YOY, compared to smartphones with 47.9% growth and notebooks growing at 13.1%. Breaking down by vendor, Samsung still dominates with 26.6% of the market share, followed by Apple at 19.3%, and then Lenovo at 5.0%. (link)
– Twitter has acquired Ubalo, which is a startup founded on making large-scale computing easier. The startup wrote code for multiple machines with no additional overhead, using the same tools as a single computer, but cutting processing times for complicated tasks down to nothing after distributing the workload. (link)
– After a month of being live, Facebook announced its Facebook Home is just at about 1 million downloads. While the numbers are not where the team wants to be at this time, they are focusing on the engagement of those current active users and will slowly rollout enhancements once a month with the intention of making the experience better. Facebook acknowledges they have learned a lot from user reviews on Google Play about what users love and what’s missing and want to correct things. (link)
– Sony’s CFO Masaru Kato recently commented that he does not think it will take as long for the PlayStation 4 to turn a profit as it did for its predecessor. Back when the PS3 was released, the company experienced a “major loss” up front until the cost for the console came down and finally started gaining traction among users. Further, most of the technology for the PS3 was new at the time, forcing development costs to be higher, but with the PS4 much of the technology is existing. (link)
– Finally, for those of you 20th Century Fox fans out there, anxiously awaiting the arrival of their new logo as they become 21st Century Fox, here is a look at their new logo animation – Click HERE. I have to say, I hope this is a work in progress. I miss the fanfare and majesty of the old logo.
