Amazon’s stock jumped more than 12 percent yesterday after the company announced Q1 earnings of $29.1 billion (a 29 percent increase over last year’s revenue for the same period). The company’s $1.07 per share profit easily beat Wall Street expectations of 58 cents per share. AWS cloud computing increased 64 percent over last year, posting revenue of about $2.6 billion. According to Re/code, “The quarterly results mark the first time since 2012 that Amazon has turned a profit in four straight quarters — a scary proposition for competitors who can no longer say that Amazon is completely sacrificing profitability for growth.” Continue reading Amazon Stock Jumps After Q1 Earnings Surpass Expectations

Following last week’s reports that online advertising revenue in the U.S. reached a record $59.6 billion in 2015, and that Google and Facebook claimed the largest share of the digital advertising pie, social giant Facebook announced yesterday that its ad revenue increased 57 percent in the first quarter to $5.2 billion. Notably, mobile ads represented about four-fifths of the network’s revenue. Facebook’s news countered announcements from other tech companies — including Alphabet, Apple and Twitter — all of which released disappointing first quarter figures. Continue reading Facebook Credits Mobile Ad Growth for Major Revenue Jump

During Samsung’s developer conference in San Francisco yesterday, the company’s head of R&D for software and services Injong Rhee announced that plans are underway to go beyond the Gear VR headset. “The company is working on a standalone virtual reality headset that will incorporate positional tracking similar to the technologies now available on higher-end headsets like the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive,” reports Variety. While Samsung explores wireless VR devices and hand and gesture tracking, the company officially announced its VR Upload SDK, and plans to release its Gear 360 camera this week. Continue reading Samsung Teases Standalone VR Headset at Developer Event

HTC has allocated $100 million to fund a ‘Vive X’ accelerator program with the goal to “help cultivate, and grow the global VR ecosystem by supporting startups and providing them with expertise, special access to advanced VR technology, financial investment, mentorship and unmatched go-to-market support.” The fund will support a wide range of startups. This differentiates it from the Oculus fund, which is one-tenth the amount and has an emphasis on the game industry, explains Road to VR. The program is open to companies that are creating content and tools that enrich the VR ecosystem and end-user experience. The global accelerator will initially open offices in Beijing, Taipei and San Francisco. Continue reading Applications Being Accepted for HTC VR Accelerator Program

Reports have surfaced that Comcast is in talks to purchase DreamWorks Animation SKG for more than $3 billion. The unconfirmed deal would make the cable giant a major player in the family entertainment business, and possibly provide additional leverage for building out theme park and consumer product businesses. According to The Wall Street Journal, “One person with knowledge of the talks said that DreamWorks and Illumination Entertainment, Universal’s animation studio, would remain separate brands.” However, a deal could provide Universal with a greater presence in China, where DreamWorks chief exec Jeffrey Katzenberg has focused much of his attention. Continue reading Comcast is Reportedly in Early Discussions to Purchase DWA

In the wake of last year’s $49 billion acquisition of DirecTV, AT&T’s quarterly profit jumped 17 percent. The telecom lost some wireless and video subscribers, but reports that 3 million subscribers have signed up for its new unlimited wireless data plan. “AT&T has been pushing its nationwide DirecTV satellite service and de-emphasizing its old U-verse service that operates in a 21-state footprint,” notes The Wall Street Journal. “In the fourth quarter, more people left U-verse than joined DirecTV. That pattern continued in the first quarter.” However, chief financial officer John Stephens explained that the company expects to increase its number of video customers for the year. Continue reading Following DirecTV Purchase, AT&T Experiences Solid Quarter

While federal regulators are closer to approving the Charter Communications acquisitions of both Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, the FCC and Justice Department have introduced conditions designed to protect streaming video companies and help provide affordable broadband services for low income households. The $71+ billion deal would make Charter the second-largest broadband service provider in the U.S. with about 19.4 million subscribers, and the nation’s third-largest cable TV provider with 17.4 million customers. Continue reading Regulators Set Conditions for Approval of Charter-TWC Deal

Time Warner’s Turner plans to launch a standalone on-demand service called FilmStruck by next fall. While official launch date, pricing information or additional details have yet to be announced, Re/code reports that many titles will come from the Criterion Collection. Managed by the team behind Turner Classic Movies, the service will offer an “eclectic mix of contemporary and classic art house, indie, foreign and cult films.” Turner will join a growing collection of programmers — including CBS, ESPN, HBO, NBCUniversal, Showtime and Starz — that now offers content directly to consumers via the Internet. Continue reading Turner to Offer Indies and Cult Classics via Web Video Service

ETC@USC has rescheduled its panel discussion — “Audience Intelligence at the Frontier: The AI Revolution & What it Means for Hollywood” — originally slated for April 27. We will post additional details once the new date has been confirmed. Yves Bergquist, co-founder & CEO of Novamente, and director of ETC’s new Data & Analytics project will moderate the panel. Industry insiders will discuss the impact of artificial intelligence and cognitive computing on Hollywood. The free event is sponsored by Cloudera. Continue reading ETC Panel to Examine AI Revolution and Impact on Hollywood

Two companies at last week’s NAB Show, Sphericam and Liquid Cinema, are making interesting contributions to the advancement of VR Cinema. Sphericam is preparing to launch a 6-sensor, 4-microphone spherical camera the size of a baseball into the prosumer market. The camera can internally stitch at 30 fps and, with an attached PC, output 60 fps live video. Liquid Cinema has developed a comprehensive yet simple-to-use software package for editing VR footage, adding effects, and, most interestingly, re-establishing the director’s intent for where viewers should look at cut-points within the video. Continue reading NAB 2016: Sphericam and Liquid Cinema Look to Advance VR

Amazon unveiled two new Prime plans on its website, introducing a video-only option for monthly subscribers. The new offering could ramp up the competition between its video service and Netflix. The first new plan costs $8.99 per month to stream TV shows and movies through a video-only version of Prime, while the second runs $10.99 per month for all Prime benefits, including video and music streaming, free two-day shipping on Amazon purchases, and more. Amazon hopes to reach consumers that have been reluctant to pay $99 up front for an annual Prime membership. Continue reading Amazon Offers New Monthly Subs, No Annual Commitment

Apple has decided it will no longer support or update its QuickTime software for Windows PCs. The company recently posted instructions online for uninstalling the popular multimedia player. Windows PC users should note that keeping QuickTime on their computers could pose a risk since there will be no more security updates (two new security holes were discovered by researchers at Trend Micro just last week). Apple offers an alternative to QuickTime via iTunes for playing back video and audio files. Additionally, Microsoft has its own media player. Continue reading Windows Users are Encouraged to Uninstall Apple QuickTime

“Being There – Virtual Reality News and Documentaries” was the title of a panel on VR journalism at the NAB Show in Las Vegas. Panelists included senior journalists from Sky, RYOT, Condition One, and USA Today Network, as well as one of Google’s lead VR evangelists. Lessons learned include the importance of proximity (e.g. close-ups), making sure that everyone on the team has experience with the key steps in the workflow so they understand the process and can fill in for others, and the need to experiment and fail. The panelists hope that post-production tools improve soon so a greater portion of their time can be spent planning and shooting stories. Continue reading NAB Panel Addresses Impact of VR on News, Documentaries

European officials have charged Google with violating competition rules by favoring Android over rival mobile software. Europe’s competition chief Margrethe Vestager accused the tech giant of unfairly promoting its own mobile search and Chrome browser with phone makers. “We believe that Google’s behavior denies consumers a wider choice of mobile apps and services and stands in the way of innovation by other players,” said Vestager. From Brussels, the European Commission issued a release stating that Google has “abused its dominant position by imposing restrictions on Android device manufacturers and mobile network operators.” Continue reading European Officials Accuse Google of Breaking Antitrust Rules

YouTube has begun supporting 360-degree live streaming video and spatial audio. Google has supported 360-degree video since last year and spatial audio in the Cardboard since January via the company’s VR platform. This announcement broadens that support to the main YouTube platform. For YouTube creators, all that’s required is a camera that captures 360 video. From the end-user perspective, there’s no extra technology or headsets required to watch 360-degree live streams. The videos will play on any device, including desktop, tablet, iOS and Android. Continue reading YouTube Supports Live Streaming 360 Video and Spatial Audio