Twitter and the NBA have teamed up to deliver custom timelines and hashflags graphics for fans online through the first official partnership between the social platform and a major sports league. “Twitter users on most iOS and Android apps can access the NBA Finals timeline by searching #NBA or #NBAFinals on their mobile devices,” reports Mashable. The timeline will include “Tweets” that feature posts related to the Finals, “Commentary” that limits what is shown to select media and analysts, and “Video” that features Vines and clips from the Cavaliers, Warriors and NBA. The timeline will also include the live score of each game.

Showtime is joining HBO in introducing its own Internet streaming service that will offer unlimited on-demand access to original series, movies and sports programming without requiring a traditional TV subscription. In addition, it will include a live feed of Showtime’s broadcasts for both coasts. The cable network announced yesterday that it plans to debut the standalone service in July to coincide with the season premieres of “Masters of Sex” and “Ray Donovan.” The service will initially be available on Apple devices for $11 per month. Continue reading Showtime to Debut its Internet Streaming Service This Summer

Dish Network is in discussions to merge with T-Mobile US, say people familiar with the matter. While financial specifics remain unresolved, the people indicate that the combined company would be led by Dish Chief Exec Charlie Ergen as chairman, and his T-Mobile counterpart John Legere as CEO. The deal would merge the second-largest satellite TV operator in the U.S. with the fourth-largest wireless carrier. Dish has a current market capitalization of $33 billion, slightly higher than T-Mobile’s $31 billion. Continue reading Merger Talks Between Dish and T-Mobile at the Formative Stage

Hewlett-Packard, 20th Century Fox and James Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment announced a five-year partnership yesterday to create a new immersive entertainment experience to market future releases of the “Avatar” franchise. While features of the unnamed project were not discussed, HP will provide cloud-computing services and data security in addition to managing and analyzing collected data, reports Bloomberg. The second “Avatar” film is scheduled for a December 2017 release. Additionally, the filmmakers are working with Disney on a theme park experience and Cirque du Soleil on an “Avatar” inspired show this fall.

Through an exclusive deal with the NFL announced yesterday, Yahoo will host the first free, live webcast of a regular-season football game when the Buffalo Bills take on the Jacksonville Jaguars October 25 in London. “For the NFL, the streamed game is an experiment to understand the complex economics of digital streaming and gauge the audience for watching American football in the rest of the world,” notes The New York Times. “For Yahoo, winning the digital rights to the popular game is a rare victory against more successful rivals like Google and Facebook, who compete with it for attention and ad dollars.”

As the battle heats up with tech companies over artificial intelligence and digital assistants, SoundHound released an app this week called “Hound” that promises to enhance voice search with its ability to quickly and efficiently handle complex questions. According to Keyvan Mohajer, SoundHound founder and chief exec, Hound has a leg up on the competition since it performs voice recognition and natural-language processing in a single step, as opposed to translating speech to text and then performing a search using that text. Continue reading New Hound App Could Prove Rival to Siri, Cortana, Google Now

Customer satisfaction with cable TV, Internet and phone service providers has fallen to a seven-year low, according to a study from the American Customer Satisfaction Index. When surveyed about satisfaction involving 43 industries, consumer response placed television and Internet companies tied for last place. Recent merger talks have placed TV and Internet providers under particular scrutiny, while disappointing customer service and rising prices have taken on a different dynamic in an era of streaming options such as Netflix, Amazon and Hulu. Continue reading Study: Declining Customer Satisfaction with TV, Internet Service

Google’s paid search ads will soon help make online purchases even easier. According to Omid Kordestani, chief business officer at Google, the company is getting ready to introduce a “buy button” to accompany products featured in its shopping ads. “There’s going to be a buy button. It’s going to be imminent,” he said at the recent Code Conference. The buttons are expected to initially appear exclusively on mobile searches alongside the platform’s paid search ads. They are not expected to appear with the nonsponsored results of “organic” Google searches. Continue reading Google Confirms it Will Include Buy Buttons in Paid Search Ads

Amazon is currently testing a new feature called Amazon Stream that helps users browse and discover products on its site — via a grid of daily updated product photos — and then click a button to save them if desired. The service is still under development. “Currently, products on Amazon Stream can only be filtered by ‘Women,’ ‘Men,’ or ‘Your Saves,’ and not by product category, price range, ratings or other criteria,” according to TechCrunch. This could be seen as an attempt to take on the visual style of Pinterest for online shopping, similar to what Amazon Collections tried to accomplish in 2013.

San Francisco-based social bookmarking site Pinterest announced yesterday that it plans to introduce e-commerce to its platform with “Buyable Pins,” which could go a long way to justify the company’s $11 billion valuation. Pinterest, popular with users for discovering and sharing real world things through a digital scrapbook approach featuring “pinned” items, will allow interested sellers to add “buy” buttons to items they post. The product’s early retail partners include Cole Haan, Ethan Allen, Macy’s, Kate Spade and others. Continue reading Pinterest Adds E-Commerce to Discovery with New Buy Button

Facebook-owned Instagram announced that it plans to open its photo feed to all advertisers later this year. Aside from working with a few select brands to post commercial messages, the mobile photo-sharing service has remained largely free of ads to this point. Opening the feed to advertisers of all sizes will provide marketers with the ability to target the platform’s 300 million users by age, gender, interests, and other factors. The service also plans to introduce a new ad type that encourages users to click links to make product purchases or install advertised apps. Continue reading Instagram Unveils Plans to Open its Photo Feed to Advertisers

On the eve of its Worldwide Developer Conference, Apple has unveiled the first products from third party manufacturers to integrate its new smart home technology. Apple announced its HomeKit software last year as a framework for Siri and iOS devices to communicate with connected accessories. According to Re/code, iHome’s SmartPlug uses Siri to control lighting, fans and other devices; Lutron Electronics’ Caséta Wireless Lighting Starter Kit offers lighting control and notifications; Ecobee’s wireless thermostat can control heating and cooling using Siri; and Insteon’s HomeKit-compatible hub enables users to control door locks, lighting and more.

At last week’s Google I/O developer conference in San Francisco, Google announced a new initiative to mix online video services with popular television content. Via Android TV Channels, Internet video app publishers have the ability to add linear channels of programming to Google’s Android TV platform on the same program grid used for broadcast TV networks. According to Google, the initial launch partners include AOL, Bloomberg, the Huffington Post, Pluto, TED, Vevo, the Weather Network, and European live streamer Zattoo. Continue reading Android TV Blends Online Video and Broadcast Programming

Insiders suggest that Apple is not expected to announce its much-anticipated subscription TV service at next week’s Worldwide Developer Conference, according to Re/code. Apple has told network execs that the release will be postponed until licensing deals are finalized. Apple had planned to launch its service in early fall, but now it seems more likely to debut later this year or sometime next year due to negotiations regarding financial terms and the tech required to deliver local programming. Featuring local broadcasts would distinguish Apple’s offering from rival services from Sony and Dish.

Microsoft announced yesterday that Windows 10 would launch in 190 countries by the end of July. The upgrade will be free for PC and tablet users running Windows 7 and Windows 8.1, while the $119 Home version and $199 Pro version will be available for all others. (The company has yet to announce when Windows 10 will be available for phones.) New features include the personal assistant Cortana, the new Microsoft Edge browser, integration with Microsoft’s Xbox platform, and the return of the iconic Start Menu. Continue reading Microsoft Scheduled to Release its Windows 10 OS on July 29