Facebook has launched a new app, possibly designed to appease naysayers of the network’s Timeline feature.
Utilizing the new profile layout, the Facebook Timeline Movie Maker app turns your content into a minute-long movie that highlights noteworthy moments from your Timeline.
“You don’t have to do anything, and apparently you don’t pick the photos; the app does it for you. The app checks your content, identifies the most engaging and relevant life moments, then builds a chronological story for your movie, and renders it up in a few minutes. You get to pick background music from five tracks, and then the movie is posted to your site and can be shared with friends,” explains SlashGear.
The article points out the app is likely Facebook’s attempt to encourage Timeline adoption even though the format will be mandatory soon.
“Want to run Boxee on your PC or Mac?” asks GigaOM. “Then hurry up; Boxee is removing all copies of its PC-based app from its servers by the end of the day Tuesday to fully concentrate on the Boxee Box.”
The company announced it is removing its PC-based app from its servers and will no longer support the most recent PC version.
“We believe the future of TV will be driven by devices such as the Boxee Box, Connected TVs/Blu-rays and 2nd screen devices such as tablets and phones,” wrote Andrew Kippen, Boxee’s VP of marketing. “While there are still many users who have computers connected to their TVs, we believe this use case is likely to decline as users find better alternatives.”
“As for Boxee, cutting its losses and concentrating on its CE platform should help the company to keep up with an emerging market that pits it against much bigger players like Google and its Google TV platform,” comments GigaOM.
Following the controversy over network diagnostics software Carrier IQ, U.S. Rep. Edward Markey has released draft legislation that would require consumer consent for any monitoring.
Called the “Mobile Device Privacy Act,” the legislation would require full disclosure concerning monitoring software when a consumer buys a mobile phone. It would also require written consent before manufacturers can collect or transmit information and establishes security policies for handling personal information received.
“Consumers have the right to know and to say no to the presence of software on their mobile devices that can collect and transmit their personal and sensitive information,” Markey said.
For now, the draft is still in the early stages of the legislation process and would take time to be enforced.
A source from Microsoft revealed to The Daily some facts about the Kinect motion-sensing technology for Windows 8-equipped devices.
According to the inside source, Microsoft will license the technology to other manufacturers with the requirement that it is the only motion-control tech on the devices.
Asus will likely be a launch partner, but the company is not directly involved in testing the product.
Microsoft techs have been using prototypes “in the wild” at crowded locales to fine-tune the sensor.
Devices with the technology should be plugged in as much as possible because it quickly drains batteries.
Fragmentation, like that of Android when manufacturers created dissimilar versions, may happen because Microsoft enables makers to customize the look of Windows 8 on Kinect-enabled devices.
Perhaps most notable, the “log me in” feature enables the Kinect sensors to analyze the user’s voice and face to grant access.
Facing competition from the likes of Netflix and Amazon, Hulu has invested in securing exclusive content and curating original series. However, content creation is not its top priority.
“It’s important for us to differentiate the service and create content not out there right now, [to tell] stories that aren’t being told right now,” CEO Jason Kilar said. “Consumers are asking for it … [and] it does build up heavy differentiation. But it’s not ‘the thing’ on our agenda; it’s part of it.”
Hulu’s primary focus is distributing content to customers and “that’s about developing a solution that serves both content consumers and creators, one that makes premium video content available to consumers on as many connected devices and platforms as possible, and compensates content providers generously,” explains Mashable.
In 2011, the company earned $420 million in advertising and subscription revenues, a 60 percent increase over 2010. Kilar said Hulu plans to spend $500 million on content this year, but won’t need to raise additional funding.
According to a recent article by the Financial Times, over 3 million people are now paying to use digital music service Spotify. It seems the company’s freemium business model was successful enough to start converting users to subscribers.
“That’s a conversion rate of more than 20 percent, a figure that has reportedly increased by 5 percent since the service hit 1 million users last year,” explains ReadWriteWeb. “In other words, not only is Spotify itself growing, but the rate at which people sign up for a premium or unlimited account is also increasing.”
Successful Facebook integration — and the first wave of six-month unlimited free music windows coming to a close for early adopters — have worked to expand usage and the number of paying customers.
The music labels are content to continue working with the service for now, but some artists have started questioning its value as they receive low royalty fees.
“Sure, it’s a great way to promote one’s music, but it may not be economically advantageous for artists, especially if it ends up hurting record sales,” suggests the post.
Microsoft and other gaming manufacturers are reportedly considering incorporating an anti-used game system into their new consoles.
Gamers expect to be able to buy cheaper used games and sell back their new games, but Wired notes, “the death of used games is inevitable.”
“But the success of digital-only, one-owner games on PC, phones, tablets and social networks must surely be helping to change consumers’ attitudes about what a game system is ‘supposed’ to do. So as soon as Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo et al. think they can get away with it, the disc or cartridge will simply disappear, replaced entirely by digital game sales,” explains the article.
“What we are possibly looking at now is an interim period in which the disc as a delivery method is still around but it becomes more like a PC game, which are sold with one-time-use keys that grant one owner a license to play the game on his machine.”
This doesn’t necessarily mean that used games will disappear; it’s possible that vendors like GameStop will pay sellers less for used games and use that money to buy new codes from the publisher for each used game it sells.
Also, the articles notes that discs will still exist to store a library of games, “but it can fill that role while still being only tied to one owner.”
Wireless Direct from Hewlett Packard enables people to print from iOS devices with AirPrint, even without the name or password of the local wireless network.
Apple’s AirPrint standard lets iPhones and iPads print from any networked printer without setup, configuration or driver installation.
All of HP printers include AirPrint-supported ePrint, which enables wireless printing, printing documents from anywhere in the world using email, accessing documents in the cloud, and other features.
With Wireless Direct, printing is becoming entirely seamless: “Wireless Direct-enabled printers broadcast their own SSID, allowing iOS devices (or any Wi-Fi enabled computer) to connect directly without knowing any details of the local network. Users can choose ‘HP-Print-4f-LaserJet’ as their network, for instance, and as far as your iPhone is concerned, it is connected to a Wi-Fi network with an AirPrint-compatible printer,” explains ArsTechnica.
Wireless Direct should prove useful in situations where network passwords aren’t commonly shared.
Google just announced an expansion to its Business Photos program, an initiative to take high-res and panoramic pictures of businesses (inside and out) for Google Maps and Google Places profiles.
For those companies interested, the program connects owners with local “Trusted Photographers.” The photographers then take pictures according to Google’s rules, and agree on payment individually with the businesses.
“It’s pretty systematic,” says Chris Favis, a Google Trusted Photographer based in Orlando, Florida. “Google loans us the cameras, and within the business you have to follow the rules, like getting the set of panos [panoramic shots] as soon as you walk in. The timing can be complicated — it’s a very specialized thing.”
As of now, only 14 U.S. cities and locations in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and France have Trusted Photographers, but Google will expand the program based on demand.
Organizing with the hashtag #TwitterBlackout, Twitter users collaborated to speak out (or rather go silent) on January 28 for a day-long protest against Twitter’s new plan to block tweets and accounts from certain countries.
“The protest follows less than two weeks after thousands of websites, including Wikipedia, Google, and Reddit, protested two controversial anti-piracy bills, the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act, by shutting down or posting notices outlining the downsides of the proposed legislation,” reports The Huffington Post.
“Yet this online protest, and others like it, have relied on Twitter as a means of communicating between protestors and buttressing support for their movements. It remains to be seen whether silencing tweets will call attention to the cause, or whether the mute accounts will go unnoticed.”
Twitter said it remains committed to free speech online: “We try to keep content up wherever and whenever we can, and we will be transparent with users when we can’t. The Tweets must continue to flow,” Twitter wrote on its blog.
Facebook could be filing for an initial public offering this week and is “close” to picking Morgan Stanley as the lead underwriter, although rival Goldman Sachs may still “play a significant role.”
“At a valuation between $75 billion and $100 billion, Facebook is looking to raise as much as $10 billion, said people familiar with the matter,” reports the Wall Street Journal. “The final valuation will be determined by a variety of factors, people familiar with the matter cautioned, such as investor demand for social media, the IPO market and the health of the European economy.”
In 2004, Google’s offering became the largest U.S. Internet IPO (and third in the world), which sold at $1.9 billion with the company valued at $23 billion.
“A $10 billion Facebook offering would rank fourth among U.S. companies, behind Visa Inc., General Motors Co. and AT&T Wireless. At a $100 billion valuation, Facebook would be worth about the same as McDonald’s Corp. and nearly half of Google Inc.,” according to WSJ.
The planned IPO is reportedly targeted for sometime between late spring and early summer 2012.
Using white space spectrum, “Super Wi-Fi” is rolling out to Hanover County in North Carolina.
In 2010, the FCC approved devices to run using this spectrum but instituted regulations on manufacturers based on concerns that the spectrum would interfere with TV signals. Now, the current requirements only mandate that the device have geolocation capabilities and access to the spectrum database.
“The white space will operate at 40 milliwatts alongside these stations,” SlashGear explains. “Without interference, the network will operate at 100 milliwatts, and users should see much faster speeds.”
If all goes well in Hanover, Super Wi-Fi could expand across the nation. “Actual purchase for these white space spectrums will be very competitive. They are essentially untouched television stations, so all broadcasting and wireless companies will be potential buyers,” SlashGear notes.
For anyone who goes by the California Science Center just south of USC, you may have seen this curious-looking CHIP Solar House, a prototype of a highly efficient, futuristic living space.
The “Compact, Hyper-Insulated Prototype” was created by students from CalTech and the Southern California Institute of Architecture.
“CHIP’s flexible, stepped interior adopts the ethic of ‘doing-more-with-less,’ allowing a single, continuous volume to perform in a variety of different ways to serve the occupants’ daily needs. The program is divided into a series of platforms which are terraced upward and inwards, from the most public to most private. The distribution of program from north-to-south, and high-to-low, facilitates the occupants’ daily rhythms: a progression downhill in the morning in the form of sleep/groom/dress/eat/live – and vice versa in the evening,” the team explained.
CHIP produces all the energy it requires and can even save and sell back power to the grid in some parts of the country.
An Xbox Kinect command station enables occupants to use hand gestures to operate home systems. Also, a 3D camera tracks movement and turns off lights when an area becomes empty.
The Mashable post includes pictures. The house is on display until May 31.
SITA and Orange have announced a joint proof-of-concept NFC-based check-in solution designed for air travelers.
The new NFC-capable SIM card allows travelers to get through check-ins and security, enter lounges and board planes without worries of bad service or batteries dying. “And because you’re not futzing with loading a webpage, nor relying on a fussy image-based scanner, the tech should mean less time spent waiting at checkpoints,” reports Engadget.
With the NFC SIM, there is no need to run an application or to have a data connection. The communication works with the phone turned off and simply requires the user to tap their phone on the airport’s NFC sensor.
The companies hope this will reduce wait times and streamline usage of mobile boarding passes.
The 4-minute video explains NFC technology and shows the card in action.
Time Warner Investments led the $12 million funding of social TV data company Bluefin Labs.
Bluefin sells data regarding TV engagement to programmers, distributors, agencies and advertisers.
“Social TV analytics is a hot space right now, with startups crunching social data to strive to measure engagement — the missing link of TV metrics,” according to Lost Remote.
Bluefin Labs co-founder and CEO Deb Roy said, “Bluefin Labs data provides this deeper insight and can also share where marketers can find the most social media-engaged television audiences.” The company will use the funding for R&D and to expand sales and client service offerings.
Lost Remote suggests that, for social TV analytics companies, the key is to establish “industry-standard metrics that become the new currency of television and second-screen experiences.”
GetGlue and Zeebox, two other social TV companies, also received noteworthy investments this January.