Mountain Lion, Apple’s latest OS for desktops and laptops, may challenge Android as it brings more of the iOS experience into OS X.
The new software creates a “grand unified user experience” (GUUX), enabling seamless interaction among all Apple devices. It brought many features over from iOS and its notifications are synched between devices.
“Reading an email on my iPhone, for example, removes the notification for that message on my desktop,” reports Kevin Tofel for GigaOM.
This “GUUX” could threaten Android’s share as people look to move easily from one device to another. “Simply put, Android doesn’t have native integration with a true desktop platform. Instead, it is cloud-focused from a data perspective while leaning heavily on third-party apps, browser extensions and its own Chrome browser to offer a ‘use anywhere’ experience. It works, but based on what I have seen from Mountain Lion so far, it is looking more disjointed,” writes Tofel.
Google may catch on to this trend later on with its Chrome OS. Its new Chrome browser for Android is an example of this synchronization, showing tabs open in Chrome on a desktop — something Safari doesn’t do yet.
“How much could this interaction between Mountain Lion and iOS hurt Android sales?” asks Tofel. “That is hard to say. Those who prefer a greater range of control over their mobile devices will still likely choose an Android device in the near term. But people looking for a ‘grand user interface unification’ may give up some control in order to gain a seamless experience across devices and choose iOS, especially if they are current or new Mac OS X users when Mountain Lion arrives this summer.”
On Thursday, Comcast will launch Xfinity Streampix, “its own streaming-video service that will give existing Comcast video customers a similar selection [to Netflix] of old TV shows and movies over the Web,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Comcast’s new service will include such shows as ’30 Rock,’ from its own NBCUniversal unit and ‘Lost’ from Walt Disney Co.’s ABC, as well as movies like ‘Ocean’s Eleven,’ from Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros. The programs, typically of prior seasons of shows, will be available on the Web and on mobile devices to subscribers in and out of the home, similarly to Netflix’s offering,” according to WSJ.
Compared to Netflix’s $7.99/month cost, the service will only cost Comcast customers $4.99/month. Streampix will also be made available for no additional charge to more than two million customers who subscribe for premium tiers of video service.
With Comcast’s 23 million subscriber base, Netflix subscriptions might be challenged.
Facebook accounts for more than 90 percent of Zynga’s sales, but the online-game company is trying to change that.
According to inside sources, the company is creating a new publishing program for other game developers to promote wares in Zynga titles and on a separate portal. Zynga would get a portion of the sales, thereby diversifying their revenue, branching away from Facebook.
“Promoting apps made by other developers is likely to carry fewer risks than Zynga’s main business of developing games itself. The company’s profitability has been crimped by the cost of creating new blockbuster titles,” Bloomberg reports.
The project relies on partnerships but could make millions if Zynga can control a good part of the market.
Facebook takes 30 percent of the sales of virtual goods sold in Zynga games and this most likely won’t change in the new network. “Because Facebook Credits are used by all developers selling virtual goods on the social network and games promoted by Zynga, participating developers will still pay Facebook a cut of sales,” says Bloomberg.
The technological possibilities of the Internet are challenging our traditional approach to TV, according to Eric Spiegelman writing for AllThingsD.
“When it comes to delivering audio-visual content to a wide audience, the Internet has lowered the barriers to entry so far that anyone with even the dinkiest camera can become a major broadcaster,” he writes. “The television industry may face a crisis of overhead when a large number of scrappy upstarts deliver comparable value with almost no fixed costs. Also, there are some aspects of the television business that the Internet simply does better, specifically when it comes to reaching an audience.”
The concepts of “channels” and “shows” are dramatically changing, especially as a result of YouTube.
Use of the iPhone as a TV remote is no longer a novel concept for Apple TV owners. Via AirPlay and a growing number of apps, viewers can “throw” videos wirelessly from the phone to the TV.
TV and publishing are becoming similar. “Reuters, Slate and The Wall Street Journal all have news and documentary programming on the new YouTube channel lineup. The New York Times and New York Magazine have been doing their own video programming for years. It’s only a matter of time before some of these compete with the cable news channels.”
While 55 percent of consumers consider point-and-shoot cameras as their primary photo devices, 18 percent now turn mainly to their smartphones for taking pics, according to a new study from the Consumer Electronics Association.
The number using smartphones as a primary means of taking photos has tripled in the past two years.
Although smartphone photography is on the rise, many rely on digital SLRs for higher-quality photos, reports the CEA.
“With 61 percent of photos taken as spur-of-the-moment shots, consumers liked the portability of smartphones. The study also found that consumers who used smartphones (and to a lesser extent, tablets) were more likely to use sharing applications, such as sending images via SMS services, email, or posting on social networks,” adds MediaPost.
Samsung is offering a new line of memory cards for digital cameras, camcorders, smartphones and tablets. Styled with a brushed metal design, the rugged cards are built to take on severe conditions.
“This new line of cards is guaranteed to survive being submerged in water for up to 24 hours, being run over by a 3,200 pound vehicle, or resist a magnetic current nearly as strong as medical magnets,” reports The Verge.
The new SD and microSD cards are available in “high speed” (reading 15-24MB/s, writing 7-13MB/s) and “plus extreme speed” (24MB/s reading, 21MB/s writing) as well as slower models. Capacities range from 2GB to 32GB.
Prices range from $9.99 to $89.99 based on the speed and capacity.
UK-based startup Speech Graphics has developed new software that predicts how facial muscles move to produce sounds.
“The new lip synching technology uses just audio input to automatically make a 3D character speak,” explains VentureBeat. “Since it uses a universal physics model, the company says it will work across all languages, saving game development time and resources.”
The team from the University of Edinburgh’s School of Informatics and the Centre for Speech Technology Research created the software in response to the growing quantity and cost of dialogue that appears in story-driven video games.
“With our technology, we’re aiming for robust high quality, even better than what you can achieve with motion capture. And because it’s audio-driven, it’s at a price point that makes it scalable to huge amounts of speech,” said co-founder Michael Berger.
London-based social TV company Zeebox is launching clickable TV ads that enable UK users to “purchase products advertised on TV through their tablet or smartphone in real time,” the press release explains.
“Zeebox seems to be one of the only major players in the UK giving them the opportunity to really build a great product in their market and then come to the U.S. with a fine-tuned model and case studies,” comments Lost Remote, noting that U.S. social TV start-ups are also working to make ads useful.
The clickable ads utilize a video fingerprinting technology to recognize ads. A few seconds into the ad, a click-to-buy button appears in Zeebox’s real-time tag stream, with icons to identify the type of product (such as a song or travel service).
The company doesn’t have any deals in place with advertisers yet but is already providing click-through for tagged ads.
According to Zeebox co-founder and CTO Anthony Rose: “For now we’re using click-to-buy zeetags, with our systems and operators selecting the destination — for example, we send music purchases to iTunes, DVDs to Amazon, food to Tesco, cosmetics to Boots.”
Digital Connections (from digital marketing agency 360i) offers an interesting overview of emerging trends in second-screen apps and social TV, including tips for creating effective second-screen experiences for consumers.
1) Design the right space: “Create a space that makes sense for your show and community — find a balance between providing value for your network and value for your fans.”
2) Understand what you’ve created: “Make sure you understand all aspects of the app — if you want to prove value, make sure the app you’ve created has the ability to do so.”
3) Make the app available where fans are: “Be available — if you design an awesome app, your fans will want access to it all the time and from multiple devices; be sure to remain appealing to all ages and demographics.”
4) Try not to turn fans off: “Don’t irritate your fans — if you take the time to build the app, give your fans time to adjust before pushing ads in their face.”
5) Keep fans turned on: “Keep it fresh — your competition is fierce and your fans won’t make a commitment unless you give them a reason to.”
6) Be patient while awaiting results: “Give your community time to adjust to the second-screen experience before attempting to change it; if you’ve done everything right, second-screen success will follow.”
Consumers are watching streaming video content for longer periods of time, according to analysis by tech provider Ooyala.
The study found that video plays on Internet-enabled TVs and mobile devices nearly doubled in Q4, with nearly half of all connected-TV viewers watching through to completion.
This stat is significantly higher than the average for all devices.
“Another interesting tidbit from Ooyala: Though this may not be particularly surprising, Facebook remains a much more active source of online video sharing than Twitter: For every video shared via Twitter in Q4, more than 10 were shared on Facebook,” reports TechCrunch.
In a related MediaPost story, nearly 1 in 3 homes with broadband are regularly screening TV content online, according to Parks Associates. Almost 13 percent use Apple TV, a Roku device or other OTT equipment.
Sales for OTT devices are projected to hit 14 million in 2012, suggests Parks.
Nintendo’s Wii gaming console will be adding TV programming and movies to its entertainment line-up. Hulu and Nintendo have reached an agreement that will allow Wii owners to stream video content from Hulu Plus.
“Subscribers to the service for $7.99 a month will be able to access a wide array of current TV shows, library content, kids fare and classic movies,” reports Multichannel News. “For the first month of launch, users who download Hulu Plus for Wii and do not already have an existing Hulu Plus account will get a two-week free trial.”
“Wii is not only one of the most important entertainment devices in the living room, but one of the most heavily anticipated and requested platforms by users and subscribers,” said Pete Distad, VP of marketing and distribution at Hulu, adding that the Wii launch is part of a larger strategy to expand service availability. “Teaming up with Nintendo gives millions of households across the U.S. an immediate way to access some of their favorite current season shows on-demand in their living room through Hulu Plus.”
The subscription VOD deal also plans to offer Hulu Plus on the handheld 3DS device by the end of the year.
In a move to bolster its long-term advertising business strategy, Twitter rolled out a new service for small businesses and advertisers using American Express cards to buy and place ads on the micro-blogging site.
“Since 2010, Twitter’s in-house sales staff has sold ‘promoted tweets’ to large businesses on a case-by-case basis,” explains Reuters. “The company spent last year developing a self-serve system that could handle a far greater volume of ad transactions and, in November, opened the system to a small number of clients for testing.”
Currently only available via American Express, Twitter plans to offer the service to additional cardholders in the coming months.
For investors and analysts, Twitter’s continual development of its business model is important to the potential upcoming IPO.
Google has disabled a computer code that it was previously using to bypass privacy settings on Apple’s Safari browser in order to track “the Web-browsing habits of people who intended for that kind of monitoring to be blocked,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Google placed the code within ads displayed on popular sites and once activated, the code enables Google tracking across most websites. The sites, however, had no knowledge of the code.
“We were not aware of this behavior,” said Michael Balmoris, AT&T spokesman. “We would never condone it.”
In response, Google said in a statement: “The Journal mischaracterizes what happened and why. We used known Safari functionality to provide features that signed-in Google users had enabled. It’s important to stress that these advertising cookies do not collect personal information.”
Google faces criticism on a number of fronts, especially in response to the recent changes to its privacy policy across all its services. Its search results that promote Google+ have also been highly controversial.
Steve Cronan, CEO and founder of 5th Kind (formerly OTC Productions), discusses his cloud-based and enterprise digital asset management workflow system.
The company started on the “Matrix” sequels in 2001 and is dedicated to solutions that manage “all the digital assets across the full production life cycle, all the way from script to screen, for everybody from the PA to the producer.”
Cronan emphasizes a secure centralized system that automates “all the digital workflows around the collaboration, the distribution and communication” by providing the “tools to keep everybody in synch.”
The 5th Kind system includes mobile interfaces for reviewing on-the-go and a series of modules for addressing different workflows (such as the footage module for managing camera reports).
