Meredith purchased Time Inc. only eight months ago, but now has agreed to sell Time magazine to Salesforce co-founder/chair and co-chief executive Marc Benioff and his wife Lynne Benioff, for $190 million. The couple is buying the magazine as individuals, unrelated to Salesforce, and the deal is expected to close within 30 days. The Benioffs have said they will not play a role in the magazine’s day-to-day operations or its journalistic decisions. They also have no plans to purchase any other magazine titles from Meredith. Continue reading Salesforce Chair Marc Benioff Buys Time Magazine for $190M

Figure Digital’s Panopticam camera system was designed to bring film exhibition and virtual reality together, offering viewers a full 360-degree sphere of vision. The bumble ball-like device features 36 high definition cameras mounted into a 3D printed spherical case that stands on a tripod. A custom-built editing plugin for Adobe After Effects stitches together the captured video footage so it can be played back in the immersive environment of a VR headset such as Oculus Rift or Morpheus. Continue reading New Panopticam Camera to Make VR Movies for Oculus Rift

Amazon is making books unavailable for pre-ordering and extending shipping times due to its dispute with one of the country’s largest publishers, Hachette Book Group. These tactics put pressure on Hachette as the two companies negotiate new terms of a deal for Amazon to sell the publisher’s books online. Amazon wants to increase its cut of the sales from Hachette books and e-books. In a statement Tuesday night, the online retailer said it does not expect the dispute to be resolved any time soon. Continue reading Is the Amazon-Hachette Dispute About More Than Book Sales?

According to NPD Group’s latest “TV Everywhere Report,” cord cutters are not the only ones turning to OTT services. NPD indicates that 21 percent of today’s pay TV subscribers are using TV Everywhere services at least once a month. The report found that three out of four subscription video-on-demand households also have a pay TV subscription. And about 30 percent of SVOD users turn to TV Everywhere weekly, compared to 20 percent of TV Everywhere users who choose not to subscribe to SVOD. Continue reading NPD Report Says Pay TV Subscribers Turn to TV Everywhere

Power Japan Plus has developed an organic battery using cotton’s carbon fiber, which the startup claims will generate more power than a lithium-ion battery and can charge up to 20 times faster. The company also says that its battery can be charged thousands of times without losing energy capacity (unlike lithium-ion batteries). Power Japan Plus envisions the technology enabling more affordable, long-range electric vehicles that can be charged in minutes and travel hundreds of miles. Continue reading Organic Battery Could Lead to More Affordable Electric Cars

Adrian Pennington forwarded us news that British television producer Atlantic Productions is developing virtual reality narrative content, including documentary, CG and drama pilots for Facebook’s Oculus Rift and Sony’s Project Morpheus. Atlantic Productions is the company behind noted nature documentaries such as “Galapagos,” “Kingdom of Plants” and the BAFTA-winning “Flying Monsters 3D.” Atlantic hopes to bundle some of its VR content with the Oculus Rift when it becomes commercially available. Continue reading Atlantic Develops VR Content for Oculus Rift, Project Morpheus

Netflix has reached an agreement with cable companies RCN, Grande Communications and Atlantic Broadband that will allow subscribers to basically access the streaming video service as if it were a cable channel starting next week. Netflix will be added as an app to set-top boxes to provide subscribers with the option of viewing the Netflix content they would otherwise access via computers and mobile devices. The offer is only available for customers of the cable companies who also subscribe to Netflix. Continue reading Netflix to Be Available to 500,000 Cable Subscribers Next Week

RadioShack’s shares fell by 24 percent after holiday sales came in dramatically under expectations. The company has now announced that it will shutter 1,100 stores, leaving 4,000 brick-and-mortar locations in the U.S. Meanwhile, Staples announced that it would close 225 stores by next year, as the office supply superstore continues to move its business online, which already accounts for half of its total sales. Can physical retail stores survive in an Amazon-dominated world? Continue reading The Amazon Effect: RadioShack and Staples to Close Stores

Virgin Atlantic Upper Class passengers became the first air travelers to benefit from wearable technology while flying into London Heathrow airport this week. Concierge staff has begun using Google Glass and the Sony Smartwatch to give a more personal customer service experience by greeting travelers by name and keeping them updated on their flight status. Down the line, wearable tech may even be used to track travelers’ food and beverage preferences. Continue reading Virgin Atlantic Turns to Wearable Tech for Enhanced Service

Social media platform Facebook celebrated its 10th anniversary this week. Pew Research Center reports that 57 percent of American adults and 73 percent of teens 12-17 currently use Facebook, with adult use on the rise. According to Pew, 64 percent of adult users visit the site daily, up from 51 percent in 2010. And while teens’ relationship with Facebook may be complicated and evolving, Pew notes that younger users are not abandoning the site, as some reports have recently suggested. Continue reading Facebook Turns 10 This Week: Pew Releases Survey Results

Although many have thought that phones are largely used to consume short form content, stats recently released by BuzzFeed suggest otherwise. More than 50 percent of BuzzFeed’s traffic now comes from mobile devices. Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith believes this is partly due to the form factor of mobile devices. They feature a simple singular screen that allows the reader to infinitely scroll through an article without any disruptions, similar to a regular page of a book.  Continue reading BuzzFeed: Consumers Reading Longer Stories on Their Phones

Image-sharing site Imgur wants to create a more TV-like experience. Creator Alan Schaaf believes the site can step in where TV leaves off to provide mindless (in a good way), easy-to-consume entertainment. The site’s biggest appeal is its ease of image uploading, sharing and commenting. Consuming is just as easy to do, and Schaaf thinks it’s equally as enjoyable as TV. Imgur launched a chat feature last month and is shifting from image host to a social community and public destination. Continue reading Image-Sharing Imgur Wants to Provide a TV-Like Experience

News aggregator Upworthy is rapidly becoming a viral hit machine for progressive online content. Its staff searches for “stuff that matters,” composes multiple related headlines to test the waters, and selects the top performers, which it then promotes via social media. The simple model is reaping impressive results, surpassing 50 million unique visitors in October. Now the company is launching a global health and poverty section backed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Continue reading Upworthy.com Partners with Gates Foundation on Global Issues