Samsung launched new computers this week based on Google’s Chrome operating system, including a lightweight laptop and versatile new desktop machine.
Additionally, Google has announced “enhancements to Chrome OS and Google Apps, including tight integration with Google Drive and the ability to edit Google Docs documents offline,” reports PCWorld.
The $449-549 Chromebook Series 5 550 laptop has an Intel Celeron 867 dual-core processor, 4GB of RAM and 12.1-inch display (1280×800). The Samsung Chromebox Series 3 desktop features an Intel Celeron B840 dual-core processor, 4GB of RAM and built-in Wi-Fi.
“Coming later will be a tight integration with the Google Drive cloud storage service, as well as the ability to edit Google Docs documents when the machine is offline,” notes the article. “When available, this Google Docs offline editing feature will be available to all Google Docs users, not just people who buy these new Samsung machines.”
The computers feature an apps-centric user interface with simplified app launcher, a more sophisticated media player, native photo editor and enhanced video streaming options for services such as Netflix and YouTube.
The new version of Google’s Chrome operating system features improved support for online video and word processing services, intended to drive sales of Chromebook computers.
The new release comes a few months ahead of Microsoft’s Windows 8 touch-based OS.
“The system is impressive, and designed to work seamlessly with Google products like Android phones and the (still-underwhelming) Google Plus social network,” reports The New York Times. “It is also clearly pointed at Microsoft, just as Microsoft is preparing to introduce Windows 8, one of the biggest changes to its operating system ever.”
“People participate in ecosystems,” says Sundar Pichai, head of the Chrome project at Google. “If you are a Chrome browser user, an Android user and a Gmail user, a Chromebook is a more natural experience than a Windows 8.”
Chromebooks require an Internet connection for access to most applications. “By default you will be able to get the last 100 documents you were working on,” adds Pichai. “When you go back online, it will resynch with your files and update everything.”
Samsung is introducing Chrome-based laptops and desktop computers this week.
MIT’s Technology Review offers a provocative analysis of Facebook’s future and its potential influence on the industry.
“For all its valuation, the social network is just another ad-supported site. Without an earth-changing idea, it will collapse and take down the Web,” suggests the article.
Online ads are increasingly ineffective. Offline ad rates of $10 have now become $1 online and sites are trying to make up the difference by rapidly acquiring more viewers.
Facebook, which gets 82 percent of its revenue from advertising, has convinced everyone that it will be able to use social data and invent a new kind of advertising. Yet its social advertising is something that General Motors, for example, has said is just not effective. And the more users migrate to mobile, the more difficult advertising becomes on such small screens.
Google has become a facilitator between users searching for things and companies trying to sell those things. Facebook — which has the scale, platform and brand — also wants to become a facilitator. But it lacks the big idea to do so. It claims to know what people are thinking even before they do, but it does not have a way to take advantage of that fact.
“Absent an earth-shaking idea, Facebook will look forward to slowing or declining growth in a tapped-out market, and ever-falling ad rates, both on the Web and (especially) in mobile,” suggests Technology Review. “Facebook isn’t Google; it’s Yahoo or AOL.”
Eventually, Facebook will lower its per-user revenues — thus forcing others to do the same, putting all ad-supported sites into a downward spiral.
A new study from Tremor Video and Frank N. Magid Associates shows that customers watch 52 percent of smartphone videos from their homes, suggesting that smartphones are no longer used only to view short-form video on-the-go.
“In essence, we’ve discovered that the device doesn’t matter,” says Mike Vorhaus, president of Magid Advisors.
“According to the study, long-form video now accounts for nearly 40 percent of smartphone video viewing every week,” reports The Next Web. “Peak viewing hours between 5 and 11 pm also indicate that users are now using their mobile as they would use a TV.”
This trend suggests users may be using their smartphones in the same way many people use tablets — for second screen viewing while watching television.
According to the report, second screen viewing may actually go down in the future. This is not because tablet or smartphone use will decline, but because “8 percent of current mobile/connected TV viewers plan to cancel their pay TV service in the next year, and another 23 percent are seriously considering cancelling,” notes TNW.
“It’s important for video producers — whether online or on traditional TV — to look at new devices not as competition, but as new opportunities to engage viewers beyond current content and advertising offerings,” suggests Doron Wesly, Tremor Video’s head of market strategy.
Backed by developing countries and “exemplars of democracy” such as China and Russia, the United Nations is looking into proposals to regulate and tax the Internet.
The International Telecommunication Union, the U.N. agency that traditionally coordinates radio spectrum and satellite orbits, is considering expanding its scope to include the Internet.
“While the ITU may not have the authority to impose controls over the Internet here or inside other resisting nations, those following the process fear the establishment of a separate, regulated Internet regime that would disrupt the global free flow of information and commerce, as well as the development of such cross border technologies as cloud computing,” reports Fortune.
In the U.S., the prospect of U.N. control over the Internet has united the political right, left and center in opposition. The White House Office of Science and Technology has argued that the U.N. plan would “put political dealmakers, rather than innovators and experts, in charge of the future of the Internet.”
However, the public and business community has not engaged with this threat and may need to do so.
Executives from major broadband and media companies such as Disney, Netflix and AT&T were given seats this week on the FCC’s new Open Internet Advisory Committee.
The newly-formed advisory panel is tasked with helping the FCC administer its Net neutrality plan.
The controversial order (adopted in 2010 and facing a court challenge by Verizon), requires service providers to offer equal access speeds to rival services and prohibit them from favoring their own content.
“While the committee does not include some of the most vocal opponents of Net neutrality, some of the companies represented are publicly ambivalent about the FCC’s order, including AT&T,” notes Hillicon Valley.
Harvard Law professor Jonathan Zittrain will chair the committee and MIT research specialist David Clark will serve as co-chair.
Additional companies and organizations with a panel presence include Comcast, Cisco, Alcatel-Lucent, the Writers Guild of America and the National Urban League.
According to multiple sources familiar with the matter, Facebook will acquire Face.com for $100 million.
TechCrunch suggests this is a logical acquisition for Facebook: “Photos are core to Facebook’s lock-in strategy and facial recognition allows tags to better reflect the social graph, which then feeds into making its advertising platform more efficient.”
“Face.com’s popular Facebook application Photo Tagger allows people to scan their (or their friends’) photo albums for known faces,” details the post. “It also has the iOS facial recognition app KLIK and a public API that could benefit Facebook.”
In a related article, Digital Trends agrees that the deal makes sense: “…add to the equation that Facebook is trying to do a better job with mobile (as partially evidenced by its Camera App), and the added incentive a mobile-only feature like this gives it seems perfectly logical.”
“One of the most convincing elements of the Camera App is that you can tag friends from it, and the ability to simply take, filter, and upload a picture without having to manually find the corresponding name would make it a fundamentally better user experience,” notes Digital Trends. “It’s also a fun novelty to hold up your phone and have an app simultaneously identify your friends.”
Apple has released scheduling details for its Worldwide Developers Conference to take place June 11-15 in San Francisco. It’s likely that Apple CEO Tim Cook will be leading the event’s festivities.
“The big question mark, however, revolves around the possibility of Cook unveiling the new iPhone. Over the last several months, the rumor mill hasn’t come to a consensus on whether the iPhone will be announced at WWDC or sometime later this year,” reports CNET.
“We have some incredible things coming out,” Cook hinted at last night’s D10 Conference, providing few details but noting that Apple TV remains “an area of intense interest for us.”
He added that Apple would be more forthcoming regarding its position on labor rights in China and promised to manufacture more components in the U.S. Cook also addressed Apple’s relationship with Facebook. “I think we can do more with them,” he said.
AllThingsD reports that during D10, Cook hinted at new plans for Siri: “…there’s more that it can do, and we have a lot of people working on this. And I think you will be really pleased with some of the things you’re going to see over the coming months. We have some cool ideas about what Siri can do… Sure, it can be broader, and so forth, but we see unbelievable potential here. We’re doubling down on it.”
Apple has launched a WWDC 2012 app intended to help attendees keep track of events and updates.
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.
