The $8.5 billion Skype deal represents the largest acquisition in Microsoft’s history — one that “will ultimately be judged by whether Microsoft can weave the product deeply into its vast product portfolio, providing a superior experience on products as various as Windows PCs and Xboxes,” reports Nick Wingfield for The New York Times.
Although Wingfield suggests that Skype and Microsoft have yet to deliver, this could soon change as Skype is expected to release a version of its software specifically for the upcoming Windows 8 — intended to work well with touch-screen computers and devices.
“We always want Skype to be first and best on Windows, but certainly a strategic part of the value in communications software is working on all platforms,” explains Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive. “We’re committed to that cross-platform support.”
“Microsoft plans to integrate Skype into Lync, a Microsoft communications product aimed at businesses,” writes Wingfield. “Another priority is making Skype video conferencing work on Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console, though that product is not likely to be released this year.”
Skype still releases versions of its software to non-Microsoft devices like Android smartphones, Sony game consoles, Comcast set-top boxes and Apple mobile devices. During the first three months of 2012, Skype’s use jumped 40 percent to 100 billion minutes over the same period last year.
Sprint has set an official date of June 30, 2013 to shut down the Nextel portion of its business. The Nextel network uses iDEN technology, known for its push-to-talk capability.
“The date marks the end of troubled era in Sprint’s history, a period in which the company struggled to integrate the Nextel assets after an ill-fated merger between the two wireless giants,” suggests CNET. “The phasing out of iDEN is part of Sprint’s larger Network Vision plan, which is an overhaul of its existing network and move to 4G LTE technology.”
Sprint has been introducing Spring Direct Connect handsets to appease customers who prefer Nextel’s walkie-talkie-like functionality.
“Sprint said it would begin transitioning business and government customers off of Nextel and on to Sprint Direct Connect. The company added that it will provide favorable offers designed to drive migration to its Sprint network,” according to CNET.
Shares of Facebook stock fell 9.62 percent to $28.84 on Tuesday. That’s down from the $38/share initial offering from just two weeks ago. This begs the question: how low will it go?
“If Facebook traded at the same price-to-earnings ratio as its competitors for online advertising dollars — such as Google — the social network’s stock would be worth somewhere between $16-20,” reports The Verge.
The post notes that this lack of investor confidence comes from the realization that as more Facebook users migrate from online to mobile, the social network has no proven track record in profiting from mobile — and seemingly no solid plan for the future.
This falling share price raises another concern for Facebook. According to The Verge: “Brain drain is the most potent killer in Silicon Valley, where a company can go from cutting edge to over the hill in a decade or less (hello, Yahoo!). If share prices keep falling, staffers will have far less incentive to stick around after the six month lockup on employee stock expires — and that could be very bad for business indeed.”
A number of canceled television shows are getting a second life on alternative program outlets.
For example, Sony Pictures’ “Pan Am,” which aired on ABC last fall, may appear on pay TV and streaming services. Netflix ordered 10 new episodes of “Arrested Development” and is negotiating with CBS for the rights to “Jericho.”
“One of the reasons we were so excited about coming to Netflix is that’s where our fans are,” said Mitch Hurwitz, “Arrested Development” creator.
DirecTV has ordered 20 new episodes of “Damages.” Plus, it has run “Friday Night Lights” for three seasons.
“A potential buyer such as Hulu offers studios another incentive to keep their series alive. While Netflix and DirecTV run programs commercial-free, shows offered by Hulu are ad-supported,” notes Businessweek. “Industrywide, ad revenue for online video is up 22 percent, to $2.3 billion, this year in the U.S., according to a recent report from Pivotal Research Group.”
Companies such as Apple, Google and Yahoo may also be looking into “reanimating” TV shows.
According to a new Viacom study, live viewing is driving social TV as a growing number of consumers are leveraging new forms of interaction.
“The study found that viewers engage in an average of seven different types of social TV activities — online or offline — on at least a weekly basis,” notes Broadcasting & Cable. “The most common activities were watching TV with others, searching for extra content and viewing clips from shows on social networks.”
“Overall, when it comes to chatting, 56 percent of those involved in the study preferred communicating through a social TV app, 53 percent through Facebook, and 50 percent use individual or group texts,” explains the article.
Viewers want more content than what is available with an online search. The study suggests that full episodes and behind-the-scenes extras top the list.
The study also notes that fans are looking for rewards such as merchandise and prizes from games and trivia. Fans look for comments from people they know and especially from cast and crew members.
“Viacom also found that live viewing is a key to social TV activity,” adds B&C. “Communication, content and comments were twice more likely to be used during live viewing than delayed viewing. Social TV enthusiasts feel left out of the conversation if they missed an episode of a favorite show live, Viacom found.”
Yahoo has introduced an open source platform that allows users to interact with Yahoo’s Connected TV using apps.
The goal of the platform is to hopefully spark development of new second screen experiences.
“To demonstrate the new platform, Yahoo launched a companion mobile app that lets you navigate Yahoo’s Connected TV apps from your Android phone using touch and gestures,” reports Lost Remote. “Much better than arrowing up/down/around with your remote control.”
Google TV also has second screen capabilities, and will be compatible with a new line of LG televisions to be released within the next month.
“All this adds up to the other challenge of connected TV apps: convincing developers that there’s enough scale to justify building them on these different platforms in the first place,” suggests Lost Remote. “Android may help even the field — and all eyes are on Apple — but in the meantime, we’ll look for innovative examples of second screen apps that tie to connected TVs.”
Amazon’s video store continues to expand to more platforms in an attempt to compete with giants like Hulu and Netflix.
On Tuesday, it launched on the Xbox 360. It also launched on the PS3 in April. Both platforms now include “access to Amazon’s video on-demand and Prime all-you-can-eat subscription based streaming,” reports Engadget.
“Unique to the Xbox 360 app is support for the console’s Kinect peripheral and its ability to recognize control by gesture or voice, plus a brand new feature for Amazon — a queue,” explains the post. “The Watchlist (for now only available on the Xbox 360, Kindle Fire and via the Web) lets customers preselect programming they’re interested in for easy access on the devices later, just like Netflix’s implementation, however Amazon’s VOD store means access to newer and higher profile content is just a click away.”
“Our integration with Kinect for Xbox 360 lets customers play and search for videos with the wave of a hand or the sound of their voice, and our Whispersync technology allows customers to seamlessly switch between watching on their Kindle Fire and their Xbox 360 console, without losing their place,” explains Anthony Bay, Amazon.com vice president for video.
According to the press release, Prime Instant Video customers have access to 17,000 movies and TV shows.
MMO developer Trion Worlds is developing a massively multiplayer game called “Defiance” whose plot and storyline will influence a TV show based on the game that will run concurrently on the Syfy network.
“We started the project in a more traditional ‘games-and-Hollywood’ way. They’re sending us scripts, asking ‘does this work’ — and it didn’t work,” Nick Beliaeff, head of development at Trion Worlds, told Ars Technica.
“They’re about characters and all that stuff, and for us… we care, but that’s not what we start with,” he said. “What’s the art, what’s the technology, what’s the gameplay style? Once we realized that, we took a step back and educated each other — here’s how you make a game, here’s how you make a show, this is what we need to do first, this is what they need to do first.”
The game (to be available on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360) will have been in development some five years when the show launches in April 2013.
“It remains to be seen whether Trion and Syfy can pull off this ambitious integration in a meaningful way,” notes the article. “Still, it’s nice to see someone trying to thread the cross-media licensing needle with something a little more substantial than characters and setting cribbed from an established film or TV universe.”
Isreal-based TV services provider NDS, which Cisco purchased for $5 billion in March, recently came to San Francisco to share its vision of television five years in the future, reports GigaOM.
According to a related Wired article: “NDS, a company that develops DRM security and DVR technology for pay-TV providers like Cox and DirecTV, has developed a proof-of-concept called Surfaces that shows how television could become the center of a much more compelling, immersive living room experience.”
“The prototype jettisons the single, static screen that’s been a hardware mainstay since the golden age of television. In its place is a slick, highly customized room-sized desktop that hosts not only a traditional widescreen TV image, but also windows for a plethora of digital accoutrements,” explains Wired. “It could be exactly what the TV industry needs to stay relevant.”
Rather than one large screen, NDS envisions a modular approach using smaller 6- to 8-inch squares that can be configured into a matrix to fit any size you desire. These squares would be designed to work together and could support multiple inputs simultaneously.
Besides video content, for example, the display might also be used to display art, calendars, clocks, a Twitter feed, home automation, and more. Using e-ink would allow you to use the display for long periods without consuming large amounts of power.
“NDS showed how Surfaces could be used to get the most from 4K video displays — displays with horizontal resolutions in excess of 4,000 pixels,” notes Wired. “Currently, 4K seems a bit ludicrous, even on a 90-inch display. But when you’re displaying full-screen video on an entire wall, those extra pixels definitely prove useful.”
Nuance Communications announced it has licensed Rovi’s extensive entertainment database with plans to incorporate it into Dragon TV.
“Dragon TV is Nuance’s voice and language understanding platform for set-top boxes and connected TV devices,” explains the press release.
The collaboration will enable cable TV and connected CE device users to access Rovi-indexed content using voice commands.
According to the release: “The result is the ability to simply speak to change the channel, and browse, bookmark and search for content on both live and On Demand TV programming.”
Examples include: “Find comedies with Adam Sandler,” “Show me information on ‘The Big Bang Theory,'” and “Who plays Chuck on ‘Gossip Girl?'”
“Consumers want easy to use and simple ways for discovering entertainment that doesn’t require a remote control with as many keys as a keyboard. Voice brings this capability,” said Corey Ferengul, EVP of product management and strategy at Rovi.
LG announced it plans to launch a 5-inch LCD screen that will feature 1080p resolution and 440ppi pixel density.
The new screen, which LG claims will be the first to offer full HD on a smartphone, is slated for release later this year.
“Specifically designed for smart devices, LG’s screen uses AH-IPS technology — that’s Advanced High Performance In-Plane Switching — allowing a wide viewing angle, fast response times and a realistic color palette,” reports Digital Trends. “The resolution is 1920 x 1080, which is more commonly found on HDTVs and high definition monitors, and the 5-inch panel will have a 16:9 ratio.”
The 440ppi pixel density should be an attention-grabber as well. When Apple introduced its Retina Display for the iPhone 4, it touted 330ppi.
Although LG has yet to announce any devices to feature the new screen, the post suggests the potential of Samsung’s Galaxy Note and the next generation of LG’s Optimus Vu.
Sidecar is a new app that integrates messaging, real-time video, photo, location, and contact sharing to phone conversations.
“It achieves this through an intuitive and polished user interface plus a handful of standards such as SIP and XMPP,” reports Engadget. “Phone calls between Sidecar users are free anywhere in the world — the app even supports free Wi-Fi calling to any number in the U.S. or Canada.”
The free app has been in beta testing on Andoid devices for several weeks, but is now available for iOS on both the iPhone and iPod touch.
“We’ve been using the app on and off for a few days on several handsets, including a Galaxy Nexus HSPA+ and an iPhone 4S and it works exactly as described,” notes Engadget.
“There has been tremendous innovation in smartphones in every area except the basic phone call,” said Rob Glaser, chairman and co-founder of Sidecar. “Over 800 million people around the world have smartphones; the time is right to re-imagine what a phone call can be. That’s the mission of Sidecar.”
After only six months, Yahoo announced that it has officially shuttered Livestand, its news aggregating app for the iPad.
“While we received great feedback on Livestand’s design and it earned a 4-star rating in the App Store, we committed ourselves to continuously measure and scrutinize what’s working and what isn’t,” explains the Yahoo blog.
“What that basically means is that Livestand must not have been getting enough downloads, holding the interest of users, or competing with competitors like Flipboard well enough,” reports Digital Trends. “The company points to Yahoo Axis as an example of the new direction it’s headed in. Axis is a visual ‘search browser’ — a plug-in for desktop browsers like Chrome and a standalone iOS app.”
Yahoo expects future apps from Livestand, despite its cancellation. “The company claims it is ‘pivoting to a mobile-products-first development model,’ which will produce more mobile products like Axis,” explains the post. “Innovating in mobile is now one of, ‘if not THE biggest,’ priority for Yahoo.”
“This past week, Google completed its acquisition of the hardware maker Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion, which could lead to the search giant making its own smartphone,” reports The New York Times. “But another software titan might be getting into the hardware game as well: Facebook.”
The article cites anonymous Facebook employees, engineers and individuals briefed on the company’s plans in suggesting that Facebook hopes to launch a phone by next year. This would be Facebook’s third effort to manufacture its own phone.
According to NYT: “The company has already hired more than half a dozen former Apple software and hardware engineers who worked on the iPhone, and one who worked on the iPad, the employees and those briefed on the plans said.”
The article suggests Facebook is motivated by its recent decision to go public, and that “as a newly public company, it must find new sources of revenue.” However, critics note the difficulty in mixing software and hardware knowledge as one reason Facebook’s phone aspirations may fail.
If Facebook’s phone plans fall apart, it could consider using some of the $16 billion it raised during its recent IPO to acquire an established smartphone maker such as Research in Motion or HTC.
Facebook’s phone is speculated to challenge Google in the market of lower-priced smartphones rather than taking on Apple. Since both Google and Facebook specialize in acquiring advertising revenue, they can subsidize their phones’ costs by displaying ads on the smartphone screens.
Geek.com reports that Facebook may consider using some of its $16 billion IPO earnings to acquire companies, with Opera representing a potential target.
Opera is an attractive prospect because it already owns 4th Screen Advertising and Mobile Theory. Facebook could capitalize on these mobile advertising resources, as Mobile Theory brings in billions of ad impressions per month and 4th Screen counts sites including MTV and IMDb as clients.
Opera’s Turbo system, which compresses Web pages, could allow Facebook to “serve up a faster, more efficient mobile experience to users,” notes the post.
Additionally, Opera could be used by the social network to gather analytics about millions of Web users, even if they do not log on to Facebook.com. This would allow them to better tailor their advertising.
“Data and advertising income for Facebook and a potentially massive boost to Opera’s user base. Sounds like a win-win situation, at least from a business standpoint,” comments Geek.com.
The $8.5 billion Skype deal represents the largest acquisition in Microsoft’s history — one that “will ultimately be judged by whether Microsoft can weave the product deeply into its vast product portfolio, providing a superior experience on products as various as Windows PCs and Xboxes,” reports Nick Wingfield for The New York Times.
