Panasonic has announced two new compact cameras designed for rugged conditions.
“The baby of the two is the Lumix TS20, a slimline 16.1-megapixel camera that also offers 720p video recording, is waterproof to 5 meters, shockproof to 1.5 meters, dustproof and even freeze-proof to temperatures as low as 14 degrees F/-10 degrees C,” reports Digital Trends.
The Lumix TS4 is Panasonic’s “top-of-the-line” rugged digital camera, priced at $399 (available in March).
“For this you get a 12.1-megapixel Leica DC Vario-Elmar lens with a 4.6x optical zoom, plus the advanced LSI Venus image processing engine,” explains the post. “The TS4 offers 1080p video recording, a panorama mode and a cool time-lapse setting for recording something changing over a longer period of time.”
Digital Trends asks if this is the direction camera manufacturers should take in order to differentiate their compact cameras from the new crop of smartphones that feature improved camera capabilities. “While there are several rugged smartphones — the Motorola Defy for example — they don’t offer the same degree of camera performance as the TS20 or TS4. [Last week] Sony also announced several new compact cameras, choosing to upgrade the sensors and software without increasing the prices.”
As promised during January’s CES, Vizio is getting ready to launch its new line of ultrawide LCDs.
Vizio’s XVT 3D CinemaWide LCD TV will start at $3,499 for the 58-inch HDTV model (50-inch and 71-inch models are also scheduled).
The new set will feature “its trademark 21:9 aspect ratio (compared to a traditional HDTV’s 16:9) and 2560×1080 resolution,” says Engadget. “It also has an array of specs, measuring the 120Hz Edge LED lit screen at 56.7-inches wide by 29-inches high and 1.8-inches deep.”
Good news for college basketball fans: Vizio says the first set will launch prior to March Madness.
The post includes a 1-minute video promo for Vizio CinemaWide HDTV.
Reuters has launched a new social media dashboard called Social Pulse for following its reporters and providing readers with social data.
“The new tools…connect readers directly with journalists, rank CEOs in social media based on their ‘influence,’ track online discussion of top public companies and pull together the outside content being shared with Reuters’ staff,” reports Advertising Age.
“We really wanted to highlight the great work our journalists are doing on Twitter, so we built a directory that lets users find our reporters, bloggers and editors by category and location so you can drill down to business journalists in India or tech writers in the UK,” explained Alex Leo, director of new products at Reuters.
Sharing content and following reporters on Twitter have become must-have features for news outlets, but Reuters hopes its new Social Pulse tools will provide more than that by powering editorial products.
“Our audience is made up of sophisticated news users, who are not just interested in what’s trending on Twitter but how social can inform their business lives. We set out with the goal of using social media in a way they would find both innovative and addictive,” Ms. Leo said.
Wildfire Interactive surveyed 700 marketers and found that 97 percent say social media marketing delivers positive results for their brands.
According to the survey, 88 percent said social media helps boost brand awareness, 85 percent cited an increase in customer engagement, and 58 percent said social tools generate sales and partnerships.
“It has opened up this whole public communications channel, where we can get great feedback,” said Lindsay Tiles, director of corporate public relations at Charles Schwab. “We’re trying to get people out of the mindset that social media is just for pushing your messages out. It is about communicating, but it’s also about listening.”
“While marketers look at the overall benefits of social media, they are also drilling deeper to determine the value of Facebook fans in particular,” suggests eMarketer. “Among respondents to Wildfire’s survey, 44 percent said Facebook fans are valuable because they help with new customer recruitment. Additionally, 18 percent said Facebook fans have higher conversion rates and another 18 percent noted that they make more frequent purchases.”
“Of those surveyed, 24 percent said they measure the ROI of social media by looking at increases in revenue,” adds the article. “Additionally, 38 percent said they count increased ‘likes,’ comments and interactions on Facebook.”
CNET provides a helpful overview of 4K resolution technology and what we should expect for future TVs. “As if LED and 3D TV weren’t confusing enough, 2012 and beyond will bring an HDTV technology called 4K. It’s being heralded as the next high-def, and manufacturers are already lining up to bring you products.”
The article is quick to point out consumer 4K content is not yet available, but that doesn’t stop the industry from describing the technology as “the last resolution you’ll ever need.”
“Though there are several different standards, ‘4K’ in general refers to a resolution of roughly 4,000 pixels wide and about 2,000 pixels high,” reports CNET. “That makes it the equivalent of four 1080p screens in height and length.”
The article addresses Digital Cinema, 4K standards in theaters and the home, the potential for an improved 3D experience, and expectations for the future of 4K.
CNET concludes: “Even with reference-quality native 4K material, however, a 4K-resolution TV or projector won’t provide nearly the visible improvement over a standard 1080p model that going from standard-def to high-def did. To appreciate it you’ll have to sit quite close to a large screen — sort of like being in the front few rows of a movie theater. But whether it’s 4K or 8K, you can bet that manufacturers haven’t run out of cards when it comes to trying out the next ‘must-have’ feature in the coming crops of televisions.”
The post also includes a video report from CES: “TV technologies that you’ll want next.”
Steve Appleton (51), chairman and CEO of memory chip maker Micron Technology (which makes products under the Lexar and Crucial brands), passed away Friday after his plane crashed at the Boise Airport in Idaho.
“According to the Idaho Press, Appleton was flying alone in ‘an experimental fixed wing single engine Lancair’ aircraft. Just after takeoff from Boise Airport, Appleton told air traffic controllers that he needed to return,” reports Digital Trends.
He announced he was turning back to land, just before losing control of the aircraft and crashing.
Appleton began at Micron in 1983 and was named CEO in 1994. At 34, he was the third youngest CEO in the Fortune 500.
“He lived life to the fullest, and while he enjoyed great success in business and in life, he never lost his intensity or his drive,” said Idaho governor Clement Otter.
Mark Durcan, Micron’s president and chief operating officer, will take on Appleton’s responsibilities until the company’s board of directors appoints a successor.
Google has requested permission from the FCC to test a new “entertainment device” in the homes of some of its employees in four cities over the next six months.
According to an FCC application Google submitted in December, the device would be Wi-Fi and Bluetooth-enabled.
Google asked to test 252 devices between mid-January and July in Mountain View, CA; Cambridge, MA; New York and Los Angeles.
“While details of what the actual device is aren’t included in the application, it almost certainly has something to do with Google TV,” reports VentureBeat. “Using the data transfer process described in the application, the device could be a way for people to grab video content from the Internet and distribute it to all the other mobile devices.”
The posts includes the full description from the FCC application.
Just three days before the Super Bowl, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement shut down more than 300 websites that illegally live stream sports telecasts and allegedly sell counterfeit sports merchandise.
Sixteen of the sites reportedly provided links to pirated versions of live and PPV events for the NFL, NBA, NHL and World Wrestling Entertainment.
“Sports fans may be tempted by illegal streaming websites, but in the end, it is they who pay the price,” explained Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. “These websites and their operators deprive sports leagues and networks of legitimate revenue, forcing spectators and viewers to bear the cost of this piracy down the line.”
“The sweeping crackdown, part of an effort dubbed ‘Operation Fake Sweep’ that launched in October, was coordinated with the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations team,” reports POLITICO Pro.
A similar operation shut down the domains of 10 sites prior to last year’s Super Bowl, but some of the sites reappeared using new Web addresses.
Based on Internet interviews with 7,000 participants, Centris Research suggests that 21 percent of pay TV subscribers plan to make changes in their current services.
About 10 percent say they want to reduce their monthly bills, 8 percent plan to switch providers and 3 percent plan to cancel their service.
The availability of Internet-based video streaming services is steering the decisions of only 10 percent of those who plan changes.
“It is Centris’ view that defending market share will become increasingly difficult for pay TV providers with increased levels of competition and new over-the-top viewing options,” said Centris president Bill Beaumont. “Enhanced pricing and bundling strategies, as well as effective use of elasticity programs, will need to be deployed to successfully compete.”
Asus plans to unveil a redesigned PadFone tablet and phone combo later this month at Mobile World Congress in Spain.
The new device “is essentially a 10.1-inch tablet that has a slot for a 4.3-inch Asus smartphone to plug into it,” explains Digital Trends. “The processor, which is rumored to be a new Qualcomm Snapdragon S4, and other components all come from the phone.”
It will run Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and will have the option of connecting to the Asus Transformer Prime keyboard dock.
“The real question here is how cheap it’s all going to be,” suggests the post. “The PadFone is already somewhat expensive since you have to buy the phone and the tablet to really make use of it. If the phone costs $200-$300 (and hopefully it has LTE), then we can’t imagine people wanting to pay more than $100-$150 for the dock.”
We may soon see a 7-inch Linux-based slate built around open-source software, possibly making it a viable alternative for developers and users who want something different than proprietary software.
“Announced by leading KDE hacker Aaron Seigo on his blog, it’s called the Spark, and it uses the community-driven spin-off of MeeGo called Mer as its OS, with KDE’s cool Plasma Active user interface over the top,” reports Digital Trends.
It’s expected to sell for about $260 and feature a 1Ghz ARM processor, 512MB of RAM and 4GB of internal memory.
“It’s obviously not for everyone, but if you want an open device loaded with free software, that’s yours to do whatever you like with, then it’s likely to be exactly what you’re after,” suggests the post. “The Spark’s bootloader isn’t locked, so you’re free to install any alternative operating system and any apps too.”
Harris Interactive reports that nearly 60 percent of mobile users will be looking to their phones while they watch the Super Bowl this weekend.
Second screen usage is expected to increase, as 80 percent of those surveyed said they would use their mobile devices more than or as much as they did during last year’s game.
“The results suggest that the two-screen viewing phenomenon could undercut the multimillion TV campaigns advertisers are rolling out for the big game,” reports MediaPost.
“Per the survey, people who plan to use their phones during the game are twice as likely to do so during commercial breaks as opposed to game play.”
Pepsi, Subway, GoDaddy.com and Chevrolet will offer apps tailored to the game, including related content, social sharing, contests and more.
“Shazam has said that nearly a third of Super Bowl spots will allow viewers to unlock special content and offers during commercials by using the Shazam app,” adds the article.
Ray William Johnson is YouTube’s biggest star. Five million viewers watch his show twice a week.
“Known as RayWJ, the 30-year-old has morphed into an idol of the teen set at home and abroad by ranting about others’ viral YouTube videos on subjects ranging from a hippopotamus defecating to people who staple the heads of co-workers,” explains the Wall Street Journal.
YouTube often attracts more viewers than traditional TV networks these days. According to comScore, the video site draws more than 780 million unique visitors every month. Of course, the audience is “fragmented among 30,000 channels and millions of videos,” points out WSJ.
“This is a microcosm of what’s going on in the overall media landscape. We’re moving from a scaled mass media to a more hyper-local, niche media,” explains David Cohen of media-buying agency Universal McCann.
RayWJ’s 1.5 billion views reportedly earn him an estimated $1 million a year from YouTube’s Partner Program. He also sells his own merchandise and mobile apps.
“A Google spokeswoman says that ‘several hundred’ of its partners made more than $100,000 in 2011, up 80 percent from the ‘couple of hundred’ partners who made more than that in 2010,” reports WSJ, suggesting this may be the start of a larger shift in media consumption.
Sony announced on Wednesday that video game exec Kazuo Hirai will become the company’s new president and CEO.
Hirai, credited with the turnaround of Sony’s PlayStation business, was selected in a rare unanimous vote by the Sony board “in a bid to regain some of [Sony’s] magic,” reports The New York Times.
Howard Stringer, chief exec of Sony since 2005, will become chairman of the board on April 1, the company explained in a statement.
“As challenging as times are for Sony now, were it not for the strong leadership of Sir Howard Stringer these past seven years, we would have been in a much more difficult position,” Hirai said in a statement. “The path we must take is clear: to drive the growth of our core electronics businesses.”
The article points out that Hirai is taking the helm at a difficult moment in history as the company faces the global economic crisis, a Japanese recession, disrupted production due to recent natural disasters and a rapidly evolving consumer electronics industry.
Recently appointed Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson has already pulled the plug on 10 of the company’s under-performing mobile apps.
According to a recent company blog post, Yahoo will stop developing and supporting the following apps: 1) Yahoo! Meme (iPad and iPhone); 2) Yahoo! Mim (iPad); 3) Yahoo! Answers (Android); 4) Yahoo! AppSpot (Android and iPhone); 5) Yahoo! Deals (iPhone); 6) Yahoo! Finance (BlackBerry); 7) Yahoo! Movies (Android); 8) Yahoo! News (Android); 9) Yahoo! Shopping (iPhone) and 10) Yahoo! Sketch-a-Search (iPad and iPhone).
“As you can see, the list is a mix of some of Yahoo’s more popular online brands and some services it created especially for mobile users, but all have one thing in common: they weren’t being used much by consumers,” reports paidContent. “In the words of Yahoo itself, it is removing the apps as part of its effort ‘to continuously measure and scrutinize what’s working and what isn’t’ as part of a new ‘mobile first’ strategy.”
Technology in the decommissioned apps will be repurposed in some of the more successful apps that remain available, as Thompson continues to focus on the company’s culture of innovation.
“Thompson still has a very big task ahead, though, to convince an increasingly more distracted consumer base that this slightly tired Internet brand is one worth watching for the future,” comments paidContent.
Panasonic has announced two new compact cameras designed for rugged conditions.
