TiVo has released its Spring update, with the promised and much anticipated Netflix and YouTube apps in tow, but Engadget isn’t very impressed.
“Netflix is the most intriguing of the additions, but while TiVo Premiere owners can now watch Netflix 1080p programming with Dolby Digital Plus discrete surround sound, like Hulu Plus, it isn’t a TiVo experience,” suggests Engadget.
It also notes that the Google-built YouTube app is “like any other streamer” and with the exception of the search capability, “there isn’t much integration at all.”
While parental control features are now included, they aren’t “as full featured as it was with the old UI and is a far cry from KidZone,” notes the post.
“What the update doesn’t do yet however, is complete the HD interface transformation that some Premiere owners have been waiting two years for,” concludes Engadget. “Still, we suspect that caveat won’t stop owners from rolling the dice on an update check for their TiVo every day over the next few weeks.”
Nokia announced new app partnerships for its Lumia line of phones at the CTIA Wireless show in New Orleans this week.
New apps will include the PGA Tour, keeping golf fans abreast of news and highlights, an ESPN sports app and a Lumia-only Fantasy Football app coming in the fall.
Gamers will be happy to hear of new titles from Electronic Arts, including “FIFA,” “Madden,” “NBA Jam” and others.
Rovio is also a significant piece of the puzzle, “creating a dedicated development team to create titles for Nokia Windows phones,” according to Engadget.
According to the official Nokia blog, AOL will launch its Entertainment Hub: “Exclusive to Nokia Lumia owners for six months from launch, this AOL app brings the cream of AOL’s content to Nokia Lumia owners. That includes the ability to play any of its 55,000 SHOUTcast radio stations, streaming albums with Listening Party. movie trailers and more.”
Nokia also announced new apps or updates from Groupon, PayPal, Time, Newsweek and others.
Mobile payments company Square continues to expand its reach, moving heavily into art fairs and farmers’ markets. The platform, which processes about $416 million in payments each month, has already proven successful with charities, taxis, food trucks, political campaigns and more.
The company claims that “at Etsy’s New York’s Spring Handmade Cavalcade last weekend in Brooklyn, over 90 percent of the vendors used Square to accept payments,” according to TechCrunch.
A similar event, Unique LA (the largest independent fashion market in the country), will be using Square to process payments this coming weekend. The event expects to see over one and a half million dollars in transactions.
“It’s not surprising that Square is being used by independent purveyors at fairs and markets. The company’s smartphone dongle and companion payments app makes taking credit cards easy,” suggests TechCrunch.
Square is now processing $5 billion in annual payments, with volume up 25 percent in the past month.
Amidst stiff competition in the exploding mobile image-sharing sphere, Twitpic announced the release of its first iPhone app for editing and sharing photos.
Twitpic is best known as the go-to photo sharing service for Twitter users, making it possible to upload directly to Twitter and not via a third party service.
“Twitpic is hoping that free and simple-to-use editing features will be enticing enough to stay relevant” in the market, according to The New York Times.
“A free built-in photo editor will allow people to polish photos through a number of tools, including cropping and visual filters. People can also see the most popular pictures shared each day,” details the article. The photos will be shared on Twitter.
However, Twitpic is facing an increasing number of competitors, including “dozens of free photo-editing apps and social image-sharing services available for the iPhone,” notes NYT. Additionally, Instagram (recently purchased by Facebook for $1 billion) is adding millions of users per month.
Google is trying to push the boundaries of email, a typically static communication medium. Rolling out to users throughout the week, its Google+ notifications in Gmail promise to be more interactive.
“This is actually Google’s second step in this direction. Since March, Google+ users were already able to add people to their circles from inside the Google+ notifications email,” details TechCrunch.
But Google is going a step further this week, “basically bringing the full interactive Google+ experience to these messages. Users can now view, comment on and +1 posts from their inboxes. Responses from their friends will also appear in real time right inside the message,” according to the post.
Other start-ups, including PowerInbox are also attempting to convert email into more of an interactive platform. “The PowerInbox browser plugin, for example works with Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo Mail and Outlook and its API is already being used by a number of other email clients, including Unified Inbox,” adds TechCrunch.
A new iPad app from LA-based Jitterbug.tv is providing children and their parents with kid-friendly access to music content, both audio and video.
The subscription-based service will target an audience aged 2-7 years old and will include music and videos from popular kids artists such as “23 Skidoo, The Jimmies, Laura Veirs, Milkshake Music, The Verve Pipe (yes, they’re a kids’ band now), Recess Monkey, and Gustafar Yellowgold,” details TechCrunch.
“The app is reminiscent of another one we briefly reviewed, called Happly for iPad,” explains the post. “Like Happly, the new Jitterbug app serves up a curated selection of videos, but Happly is focused on more educational fare pulled from YouTube, which it combines with other content, like stories and games. Jitterbug, meanwhile, is all about the music.”
The app is free to download and try for 15 days, but then costs $3.99 per month. Ad-free music will be accessible via the iPad or the Web.
“Revenue generated through the app is shared with the artists featured on the platform,” explains TechCrunch. “In other words, it’s not just a slapped together selection of stuff from YouTube.”
Target was the first brick-and-mortar store to sell the Amazon Kindle, but it will soon pull the device from its physical shelves. It has already removed the Kindle from its website.
The last Kindle shipment will arrive at Target stores on May 13 and once out of stock, that will be the end.
“Target is phasing out Amazon- and Kindle-branded products in the spring of 2012,” explained the retailer in a statement. “We will continue to offer our guests a full assortment of e-readers and supporting accessories.”
It is unclear why Target is phasing out the Kindle, although The Verge suggests “conflict of interest.”
AllThingsD points out there could be a number of reasons: “A contract negotiation gone bad, Target’s decision to open iPad-peddling Apple mini-stores at a few dozen of its locations, or the growing retail rivalry between the two companies. Remember, Amazon’s Kindle Fire is very tightly integrated with the company’s vast online retail store, which competes directly with Target and has a penchant for undercutting the prices of traditional retailers.”
According to reports, Microsoft is set to launch a new Xbox bundle next week, that will include a 4GB Xbox 360 console and a Kinect sensor for only $99.
The catch: bundle buyers will have to sign a two-year contract for $15 a month.
That contract will provide access to the Xbox Live Gold service and “potentially some additional streaming content, as well as a two-year warranty,” details Engadget.
“There will be an early termination fee for those wishing to break the contract ahead of its two-year duration, and we understand that Microsoft will position the package as a competitor to Apple TV, Roku, and PlayStation 3,” reports The Verge in a related post. “For those buying the bundle now and getting the cheapest two-year Xbox Live Gold option, that’s about $299.00 + $120 = $420 vs. $459 over a duration of two years.”
With E3 about a month away, and Microsoft developing its own music service, the company wants to get as many consoles into homes as possible.
Amazon Studios has decided to get into the television market with its own original comedy and kids programming.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, starting this week “creative types will be able to upload their TV proposals, with the best projects to be distributed through Amazon Instant Video.”
This open source approach mirrors that of Silicon Valley, which has produced significant results over the years. “Amazon Studios director Roy Price suggests the goal is to democratize the process,” reports THR.
Amazon Studios has previously practiced this model with movies. “Since Amazon Studios’ late 2010 launch, more than 700 test movies and 7,000 scripts have been submitted; 15 movie projects are currently in development,” explains the article.
The TV initiative is being led by Joe Lewis, formerly of 20th Century Fox and Comedy Central, and Tara Sorensen, from National Geographic Kids. The studio plans to option one new project for development each month.
“If it chooses to produce the series, the creator will then receive a $55,000 fee, up to 5 percent of Amazon’s revenues from toy and t-shirt licensing and other royalties and bonuses,” notes THR.
Twitter continues to grow, with more than one million new users each week and more than a billion tweets posted every three days.
Because of that growth, “Twitter is looking for ways to help people find information they will actually care about,” reports The New York Times.
It updated its algorithm and the design of its Discover page with the intention of pointing out “why each featured ‘story’ mattered and to make it easier for people to ‘join the conversation,’” explains the article.
The Discover page focuses on content that is popular amongst those you follow, as well as providing information on which users are sharing which stories.
Discover “is our opportunity to help you understand what’s happening on Twitter right now that’s relevant to you, on top of your timeline or any accounts you’re following. It’s based on what we think your interests are,” said Dick Costolo, Twitter’s chief executive.
Harvard University and MIT jointly announced their new non-profit venture, the edX online learning initiative. A variety of classes from both schools will be offered free of charge worldwide via the Internet.
Both schools contributed $30 million to edX, but the program is still considered an independent entity with its own board.
“The two schools plan to build up the open-source MITx platform which itself was only announced at the end of last year. The goal is to make the platform available to other institutions as well, so they too can jump in and offer their own content,” reports TechCrunch.
MITx provides “embedded quizzes, immediate feedback, student-ranked questions and answers, online laboratories and student-paced learning,” according to the post.
“The drive is not to make money,” said MIT Provost Rafael Reif. “That said, we intend to find a way to support those activities. There are several approaches we are considering, and we don’t want this project to become a drain on the budgets of MIT or Harvard.”
Numbers from media researcher IDC indicate that Samsung passed Apple during the first quarter to become the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer. Samsung shipped 42.4 million smartphones while Apple shipped 35.1 million.
However, “Cupertino retains another, far more lucrative title: Smartphone-market revenue leader,” reports AllThingsD. Data from Jupiter Research shows that Apple’s iPhone-based revenue was $22.7 billion, while Samsung’s revenue was $17 billion.
“So while Samsung may be winning on global smartphone shipments, Apple is winning on a more important metric: Smartphone profitability. And for a very simple reason: The company has the highest margins around,” suggests AllThingsD.
During the recent second-quarter earnings reports, Apple announced that its gross margin was 47.4 percent. Samsung’s gross margin was reportedly under 13 percent. “So, while Samsung is dominating smartphone shipments, Apple is dominating the smartphone industry’s pool of profits,” notes the article.
Flickr, Behance, Vimeo and YouTube will start using the Pinterest attribution tool, which Pinterest hopes will eliminate some of the copyright concerns associated with sharing content without proper attribution.
Content on those sites (that has been authorized for sharing by the user) will now have a “Pin it” button nearby. “On Flickr this is in a menu alongside Facebook, Twitter, email, Tumblr and WordPress,” details AllThingsD.
Once the item is pinned, it will automatically display an attribution statement including a permanent link that can’t be edited out as it’s repinned by other users.
“The tool was developed in conjunction with Flickr, which is interesting because the photo-hosting site had previously implemented code provided by Pinterest in order to block pinning of copyrighted images,” reports AllThingsD. “This is a separate project, said a spokeswoman for Pinterest.”
According to The New York Times, Facebook is still on track for its expected mid-May I.P.O.
“Despite whispers of delays, the world’s largest social network is in the process of finalizing its prospectus with regulators and may begin its roadshow as soon as early next week,” reports the Times.
The “roadshow,” or presentation to investors, will likely span to New York, Boston, San Francisco, Chicago, Baltimore and possibly Los Angeles and will allow for Facebook’s chief financial officer David Ebersman to convince investors and analysts of Facebook’s worthiness. It’s unclear which meetings CEO Mark Zuckerberg will attend.
The initial public offering has the potential “to be the largest Internet I.P.O. on record, dwarfing the recent offerings of Zynga and Groupon, as well as Google’s debut in 2004.”
“While interest runs high, Facebook’s executives will have to outline a compelling picture for investors in the coming weeks, to justify a valuation of $100 billion or more and to offset lackluster first quarter earnings,” suggests the article. “In the first quarter, Facebook’s profits fell 12 percent to $205 million, amid mounting expenses.”
Microsoft and Barnes & Noble announced they are creating a strategic partnership to compete with the likes of Amazon and Apple.
According to Engadget, the partnership “would come in the form of a new Barnes & Noble subsidiary that deals with all things Nook, in addition to its education business.”
“The partnership will accelerate the transition to e-reading, which is revolutionizing the way people consume, create, share and enjoy digital content,” suggests the press release.
Barnes & Noble will will hold on to 82.4 percent of the company while Microsoft will take hold of 17.6 percent.
The first item on the list is a Nook app for Microsoft’s Windows 8 phone. “Barnes & Noble’s Nook Study software would also benefit from a friendly boost on all that Windows hardware,” according to Engadget.