Chinese telecom giant ZTE plans to release a line of HTML5 set-top boxes that will support 3D TV and video calling over Google’s Android platform, which powers 90 percent of the company’s smartphones.
“The announcement comes after ZTE reached agreement allowing the company access to the digital TV systems of Kudelski SA’s Nagra division,” reports Bloomberg.
“The agreement enables the Chinese company to sell intelligent set-top boxes to customers of Nagra, which has a 70 percent share of Europe’s market for cable TV devices, and 18 percent globally, ZTE said.”
The company also plans to launch a new mobile operating system with Mozilla, developer of the Firefox browser, to lessen its dependence on Android.
“ZTE’s shares traded in Hong Kong fell 6 percent, the most since August 27, to close at HK$12.60, while the Shenzhen-traded stock gained 2.6 percent to 11.45 yuan,” notes the post.
“A U.S. House intelligence committee report to be released [October 8] says the company poses a security threat,” notes Bloomberg, “and ‘cannot be trusted to be free of foreign state influence,’ according to a draft provided by the panel.”
Yahoo announced on Friday it will not support Microsoft’s “Do Not Track” feature on Internet Explorer 10 since the anti-monitoring signal is activated by default.
“All other browsers require users to turn DNT on themselves — which is just how the advertising industry likes it,” reports Digital Trends. “Do Not Track is currently an option in all major Web browsers. When turned on, DNT tells websites’ third-party advertisers that the user does not what his or her Web activity monitored for the purpose of receiving targeted advertisements.”
However, only a fraction of users take advantage of DNT. Since IE10 automatically turns the DNT signal on, Yahoo is “calling foul.”
“Recently, Microsoft unilaterally decided to turn on DNT in Internet Explorer 10 by default, rather than at users’ direction,” wrote Yahoo in a blog post. “In our view, this degrades the experience for the majority of users and makes it hard to deliver on our value proposition to them. It basically means that the DNT signal from IE10 doesn’t express user intent.”
Therefore, Yahoo will ignore any DNT signal from IE10 “in order to preserve that coveted personalized user experience,” explains the post.
“Our users have come to expect a personalized Yahoo! experience tailor-made for their lives — whether they’re checking local weather, sports scores, stock quotes, daily news, or viewing ads on our site,” wrote Yahoo. “We fundamentally believe that the online experience is better when it is personalized.”
“Just because the signal is turned on doesn’t mean that a consumer wants no services that involve tracking,” countered Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith.
Instead, Digital Trends recommends installing third-party tracker blockers such as Privacy Fix, Ghostery or Do Not Track Plus.
After a year of producing concert videos, episodic content and documentaries, BAMM.tv is releasing an iPad app for its content, which was previously only available on the company’s website.
BAMM.tv offers over 70 hours of music videos from 175 artists and a “rundown of all the artists and different genres,” reports TechCrunch. Consumers can watch the videos for free, but the iPad app is ad-supported. BAMM.tv may also expand to include in-app purchases of merchandise or exclusive content.
“The app is designed to look like a virtual music venue, allowing users to watch videos, learn more about different bands, engage with musicians via social media, check out tour schedules, and even purchase tickets to upcoming shows,” the article explains.
“The app allows users to navigate through various playlists curated by the BAMM.tv staff, and there’s a gamification aspect that lets users unlock content like exclusive audio tracks or videos by engaging more with the content. They can also create their own playlists — or playmixes, as the app calls them — of their favorite songs or videos.”
BAMM.tv has deals with both advertising companies and global distributors to offer content overseas.
“While most video sites today pay upfront for licensing rights to video content, BAMM.tv is trying to establish a new model for partnering with and paying artists,” the post states. “It works like this: BAMM.tv has negotiated global rights to the performances and other content from performers. In exchange, BAMM.tv will share all profits that it makes, dividing those proceeds based upon the number of views that various performers get on the app and on its website.”
While the app does have a lot of interesting content, the user experience is convoluted, making interacting with the music and videos difficult, TechCrunch comments.
The Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) in northern Chile has compiled the most comprehensive, detailed catalog of stars to-date by creating a nine billion pixel image of 84 million stars.
If the image were printed on paper, it would be something like 30 feet wide and 23 feet tall, reports The Atlantic. For this reason, most researchers will need to use computers to access all 108,500 by 81,500 pixels.
“The image contains both visible and infrared light, which allows astronomers to document stars normally obstructed by gas clouds,” notes the article.
The data is offered to the public domain via the observatory’s archive, “so that in the months ahead astronomers can pore over them, searching for clues as the formation, evolution, and structure of our galaxy, and looking for stars that might be good candidates for more exoplanet discoveries,” writes The Atlantic.
The post includes a short video that illustrates the gigapixel view of the Milky Way.
The Windows Phone 8 hopes to reverse the current trend in the smartphone market whereby Windows Phones have received critical acclaim, but not market share. Currently, Windows Phone has only a 3.5 percent global market share, while iOs and Android have 17 percent and 68 percent respectively, reports Wired.
The Windows 8 phone features the tile-interface that is now featured in Windows 8. The phone has a customized experience and features tiles that fill the entire screen, whereas older versions had a black rail along the right side of the screen.
The Wired review prefers the Windows interface to Android’s, and says it can see people switching to Windows Phones.
Non-Nokia Windows phones do not have public transportation compatibility on the maps application, but do have turn-by-turn directions. The phone also features multitasking, and apps run smoothly in the background, according to Wired.
But while the Windows Phone has a plethora of good features, it is still limited by the small number of apps for its platform. The lack of Instagram and other “killer apps” will limit the number of users who switch from other smartphones.
Wired summarizes that the Windows Phone has a “slick, intuitive interface with nice animations that just works,” along with “customizable live tiles and lock screen.”
The negatives: “Key apps are missing. Windows Store is cluttered, with reviews appearing in different languages. Rooms is useless unless you know a lot of Microsoft employees. Multitasking has some strange behaviors.”
A new iPhone app called Threadlife wants to be the Instagram of video sharing, enabling users to create three-second clips and thread them together in private or public streams to create social video reels.
The service was created by Zappos founder and former CEO Nick Swimrun along with Ken Martin, co-founder and CEO of design company BLITZ Agency. It launches today as invite only.
“What sets Threadlife apart from other video apps, its creators say, is that its three-second limit eliminates any need for editing, a major obstacle for the success of video-sharing,” CNET writes. “It’s much easier to apply filters on photos to make them look better than it is to edit a long video clip. The three-second clips are more like photos that can be strung together, Martin said.”
Public threads can be shared through Facebook, Twitter or the Threadlife network. There’s no limit on the number of clips or “stitches” that can be threaded together; users can sort clips by date or creator. Clips can also be moved to different threads.
The app also allows private threads for personal conversations between friends.
“Eventually, the Threadlife team hopes to incorporate tagging and location-specific information, and adding ways to make money off the service, like inserting video ads into threads or charging for extra storage space,” CNET writes. “Martin said there’s also plans to expand to other devices to desktop.”
In the last 12 months, Apple has sold 5.3 million Apple TV devices while Roku sold 1.4 million set-top boxes. Boxee has lagged behind both its competitors, selling only 120,000 of its devices last year. However, a new deal with Walmart could dramatically boost Boxee’s sales.
“Starting tomorrow, the world’s biggest retailer will exclusively sell the new $98 product, called Boxee TV, in more than 3,000 U.S. locations during the holiday season,” Bloomberg reports. “Walmart will set up displays and send out marketing materials for the device, a small black box with a remote control that can access free TV broadcast channels as well as Internet content.”
Boxee CEO Avner Ronen says the retail partnership is a “big launch” for the company and its products. “There’s a big difference between having your product being carried by retailers, where it sits on the shelf, and getting real marketing behind it,” he says.
Boxee provides access to Internet content like Pandora and Netflix while also capturing over-the-air TV signals.
“You turn on the TV, and it’s a familiar ground,” Ronen says. “We don’t believe the future of the TV is going to be a future filled with apps. When you turn on the TV, you don’t want 60 icons. You just want to watch something.”
“Included in Boxee TV is a service called No Limits DVR,” Bloomberg explains, “which lets customers record unlimited broadcast TV shows to the cloud and access them from the set-top box or from a computer, smartphone or tablet. It will be available in about eight of the largest U.S. cities to start, Ronen said.”
Google signs a deal with Warner Music Group which will bring artists such as Green Day, Madonna, Neil Young, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and hundreds of other acts to its Play store.
“We’re now working with all of the major record labels globally, and all the major U.S. magazine publishers, as well as many independent labels, artists and publishers,” – Andy Rubin, Google’s SVP for mobile and digital content.
Google’s music store will open in Western Europe on Nov. 13 and will introduce a “scan and match” capability which matches songs on a customer’s computer to a master database on Google’s servers eliminating the need to upload every single song. This feature will later come to the U.S.
Warner, which comprises 15 percent of the world’s recorded music market, is the last big music label to be added to Google.
David Carr of the New York Times has written a fascinating piece in which he discusses how he used Twitter during Hurricane Sandy to “see” what was happening around him as it was happening.
“Because my Internet connection was poor, so much of the rich media — amazing videos and pictures documenting the devastation — was lost to me. In true media throwback fashion, Hurricane Sandy was something I experienced as a text event, but I don’t feel as if I missed much. The Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel inundation, the swamping of the Lower East Side, the huge problems at New York hospitals, the stranding of the holdouts in Atlantic City, all became apparent on Twitter in vivid detail.”
There were tweets from Reuters, NPR, the New York Times and many others, as well as, those from friends distant and down the street. There was also misinformation and rumors spread and discounted at Internet speed.
“Margaret Sullivan, the public editor of The New York Times, said in a message on Twitter that whatever the quality of the feed at any given moment, it was riveting: ‘Impossible to tear one’s eyes from, with occasional nuggets of helpfulness amid constant stream of flotsam and jetsam.’”
“It was hard to resist. Twitter not only keeps you in the data stream, but because you can contribute and re-tweet, you feel as if you are adding something even though Mother Nature clearly has the upper hand. The activity of it, the sharing aspect, the feeling that everyone is in the boat and rowing, is far different from consuming mass media.”
Twitter became “a great place to laugh, cry, argue, sympathize together.”
U.S. military and intelligence officials have expressed concerns that certain Chinese tech companies could be used for cyber espionage, claims that have mostly stayed under wraps in an effort to maintain foreign relations. A congressional investigation has concluded that telecommunications firm Huawei Technologies Inc. and ZTE are dangerous to the U.S.
“In a report to be released [October 8], the [House intelligence] committee recommends that the U.S. block acquisitions or mergers involving the two companies through the Committee on Foreign Investments in the U.S.,” reports the Wall Street Journal. “It also recommends that the U.S. government avoid using equipment from the firms, and that U.S. companies seek alternative vendors for telecommunications equipment.”
Both companies have worked to allay U.S. concerns with transparency, responding to information requests. The report rebuts these efforts.
“Neither company was willing to provide sufficient evidence to ameliorate the committee’s concerns,” said a draft of the committee’s report. “The risks associated with Huawei’s and ZTE’s provisions of equipment to U.S. critical infrastructure could undermine core U.S. national security interests.”
ZTE is a publicly traded company, with 15.68 percent of the company owned by state enterprises. ZTE denies that it would allow the Chinese government to use its equipment for surveillance, “saying it wouldn’t be in [its] business interests to do so,” notes WSJ.
The article also notes that company spokesman William Plummer claims Huawei is “independent of the Chinese government and that security of its systems remains a top priority.”
Plummer says the U.S. claim “ignores technical and commercial realities, recklessly threatens American jobs and innovation, does nothing to protect national security.”
Entertainment industry reps gathered at the second annual DOE Network Association (DNA) Conference earlier this month at USC.
The DOE industry includes business interests involving theme parks, education and edutainment, retail and mall advertising and enhancement, exergaming and more.
“Many of the attendees are involved in pressing the limits of digital technology and physical design to greatly expand the storytelling and engagement possibilities of out-of-home venues,” reports Phil Lelyveld for ETC@USC (the event was covered as part of the ETC’s service to its membership).
Consultant Randy White of White Hutchinson Leisure explained that 60 percent of arcade dollars have shifted to home entertainment in the last five years.
“Americans go to the movies on average four times per year. But they eat out approximately 167 times per year,” Phil writes. “Dining is a highly social experience. The top 20 percent of income households account for 48 percent of out-of-home spending.”
White suggests that arcades retool facilities to “attract this upscale market with restaurants, Wi-Fi-equipped lounges, and games that allow for more group social and competitive activities.”
Kevin Williams, organizer of the DNA conference, discussed the industry’s need to better embrace technology.
“There is no reason, he argued, why devices could not recognize players when they return to a facility, coordinate communications as they interact with devices throughout the facility, and — if they opt-in — connect them with people who have similar interests and skill levels anywhere on the planet,” notes the post.
“The DOE industry can compete with rapidly improving home and personal entertainment options by offering attractive, safe locations to socialize, access high-end specialized devices, and have location-specific blended physical and virtual experiences.”
Enliken, a new startup with a staff of eight and $200,000 in seed funding, encourages consumers to control how they’re tracked online and then sell that data to advertisers.
“Enliken enables people to control and use their own data. We capture the value created by its use,” says co-founder Marc Guldimann. “We think that letting individuals offer a competing product in the marketplace for consumer data is the most efficient and least destructive way to move the Internet to a privacy-friendly space.”
The proceeds from the data sales goes to a charity of the user’s choice. Enliken takes a ten percent cut of the sales, which comes in around $1 per user per month.
Unlike other services, Enliken offers an all-encompassing view of online behavior and doesn’t require any input from users.
A personal dashboard allows users to customize what information gets captured and sold to advertisers. “The company’s founders hope that, someday, users will be able to earn a wide range of perks — from airline miles to online news subscriptions — in exchange for their information,” reports The New York Times.
Enliken has also unveiled a new feature to entice consumers. Called “Enliken for the People,” the feature shows users which elements of their personal data is harvested by other companies, but they must first install Enliken’s tracking software.
Some argue that people will still shy from tracking. “But as humans get educated about something, they move from a place of fear to a place where they want control over it. When you empower people to control something, you make them feel good,” says Guldimann.
Over the summer, Google applied its new artificial intelligence software to YouTube videos to recognize cats, faces and other objects just as the human brain does. The search giant is now leveraging this technology to improve its speech recognition to rival Apple’s Siri.
“Google’s learning software is based on simulating groups of connected brain cells that communicate and influence one another,” Technology Review explains.
“When such a neural network, as it’s called, is exposed to data, the relationships between different neurons can change. That causes the network to develop the ability to react in certain ways to incoming data of a particular kind — and the network is said to have learned something.”
This “learning” process allows the software to determine which features of data are relevant to the particular task at hand. In speech recognition, the neural networks allow Google’s Android OS and iOS search app to eliminate errors.
Currently, the software is only applied to U.S. English but will eventually be available for other languages.
“Other Google products will likely improve over time with help from the new learning software,” the article suggests. “The company’s image search tools, for example, could become better able to understand what’s in a photo without relying on surrounding text. And Google’s self-driving cars and mobile computer built into a pair of glasses could benefit from software better able to make sense of more real-world data.”
These neural networks are more flexible in that they can determine the context of data. They also mimic the visual cortex in mammals, which will help the technology to one day come close to human intelligence.
Users of SoundCloud can now offer their tracks for commercial licensing, thanks to a partnership with Getty Images Music.
The partnership “gives ‘media, advertisers, designers and creatives’ a new way to license fresh material — that’s because, in what is being described as ‘sync’ licensing, SoundCloud users can embed the license button immediately after they’ve hit publish, removing much of the friction traditionally associated with licensing music for visual projects,” details TechCrunch.
Commercial users can request a license by clicking the ‘license’ button, at which point the Getty Images Music licensing department takes control. “If the track has never been licensed before, the process is said to take between a few days or a few weeks, dependent on paperwork and the necessary clearance,” writes TechCrunch.
Getty Images Music will curate a SoundCloud collection, consisting of handpicked songs for commercial potential.
“Noteworthy is that Getty Images will be the commercial rights manager of the audio content selected for the SoundCloud collection, ensuring that all tracks are available for safe commercial use by customers — which is an important promise given SoundCloud’s ‘User-Generated’ nature,” notes the post.
At the New York Festival, representatives from AOL, College Humor, YouTube, Blip, MySpace, MSN and others converged in panels to discuss television in the digital age. GigaOM gives a brief overview of the four-hour event that was live-streamed and archived online.
“Research matters” according to folks at CW Digital who have received show pitches from people who have no understanding of the company or its audience.
“The great content creators, according to everyone on the Development panel, understand more than just making content — specifically, how to market that content on a social media level,” GigaOM writes.
To get more draw online, pick up celebrities with strong Twitter followings over celebrities who don’t; also, web celebs can create extra attention online.
Don’t just hire people who are in it for the money – find people who actually understand and care about digital.
At the beginning, avoid exclusivity. Then, as the show develops, look for companies offering good deals with an emphasis on strong promotion to get the necessary push in an increasingly crowded market.
Check out the YouTube Creator Handbook to get more views.
The homegrown web series Lizzie Bennet Diaries from Hank Green and Bernie Su is teaming up with DECA.
Facebook’s decision to remove email addresses from user profiles has made it harder for Mark Malkoff to book celebrities for his Celebrity Sleepovers series. Even with the show’s notable guest list, the iJustine episode has been by far the most viewed segment of the series.
Blip CEO says “YouTube can be a great way to build your audience, but it’s not the only way to build your audience.”
Creators should experiment with various platforms and determine which works best for their content.
MySpace Entertainment president defends keeping the brand name because of past artists’ success on the platform.