It has been about two years since Apple last released a major firmware update for its Apple TV platform, so the release of Apple TV 3.0 today will come as welcome news to those who own the device. 3.0 is largely as rumored: Adding support for both iTunes LP and iTunes Extras.
Evidently, Netflix is as recession-proof as Hollywood. Reporting third-quarter earnings after market close Thursday, the DVD-by-mail pioneer posted net income of $30.1 million, up 48 percent from a year earlier, on revenue of $423.1 million. That’s 52 cents a share. Analysts had been expecting 46 cents a share on $419.9 million in sales. Why, then, are investors punishing the company in after-hours trading?
There’s not much of a business yet in Apple TV, as Apple’s leadership often notes. But there may be soon, with the market for connected TVs evolving as it has been. In a research note issued this morning, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster says the time is right for Apple to release the next iteration of Apple TV and to begin work on a full-fledged Internet-connected television set.
At the Democratic National Convention, we were like rock stars. At the Republican National Convention, I sat in my hotel room by myself for three days. No one would meet with us. I was begging people to meet with us.
–Facebook Marketing Director Randi Zuckerberg
With all due respect, Randi Zuckerberg is totally full of sh*t [...]
Will [insert company name here] find a viable revenue strategy any time soon? Everyone’s hustling, that’s for sure. It’s this week’s theme.
The legal broadside Hollywood lobbed at RealNetworks last week has upset the company’s carefully prepared plans to offer a mainstream means of legally copying DVDs. A judge has issued a temporary ban on sales of Real’s RealDVD software in the wake of a lawsuit brought against it by the Motion Picture Association of America.
Turns out RealNetworks Inc.’s new DVD ripper RealDVD is as legal as its creator is litigious. Real debuted RealDVD this morning and along with it a preemptive lawsuit against the Hollywood interests that will inevitably attempt to litigate it into oblivion. Brought against the DVD Copy Control Association and a who’s-who of major studios, the suit asks the court to rule that RealDVD complies with the DVD Copy Control Association’s license agreement.
Since John Paczkowski is still out of range, Beth Callaghan will post Digital Daily today.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter reports that Microsoft execs have been talking to talent agencies all over Hollywood with the intent of building an exclusive body of original content for the company’s Zune player. Not just standard sitcom fare, either–Zune’s recent update of firmware for the device provides better social functionality, and Microsoft sees this as a move toward the kind of communal functionality pioneered by the XBox multiplayer experience.
“Because they’re the super-small-market share guy, they get all these statements about them.” Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said that of Apple back in 2005. And while it’s essentially still true today, it’s less so than it has been in years past. In separate reports today, research houses Gartner and IDC both note that Apple has climbed to third place in the desktop market in the states.
Lest there be any doubt that DVR functionality was purposefully left out of Apple TV, consider this patent recently unearthed by AppleInsider. Filed in October of 2006, the patent describes not just a version of Apple TV capable of browsing and recording live TV programming, but a touch-based remote that could be preloaded with [...]
Promises, promises, promises … When Apple debuted iTunes Movie Rentals this past January, the company pledged to offer “over 1,000 titles by the end of February, including over 100 titles in stunning high-definition video with 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound.” Well, today’s March 4 and, as best I can tell, Apple hasn’t kept its promise.
Odd to think that a 64-minute foray into excrement and emesis might be a defining moment in Hollywood’s transition to digital distribution. But it could.
Paramount Pictures plans to debut “Jackass 2.5,” the third installment of the “Jackass” movies, online, skipping the multiplexes entirely. “2.5” will launch Dec. 19 on Blockbuster’s new online property, Movielink, where [...]
John Paczkowski has been poking fun at the tech industry and the personalities that drive it since 1997. From 1999 to 2007, he wrote the award-winning tech news Web log Good Morning Silicon Valley for the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper.
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
Best video mashup ever.
A Facebook Memorial
Wow.
Worth it for the Rickrolling photo alone.
Excellent.
Flughumor!
… you vacuous, toffee-nosed, malodorous perverts
Stephen Fry and zoologist Mark Carwardine meet the kakapo — a fat, flightless and very randy rare parrot.
Spectacular in the bellowing Russian sailor sense of the word …
“If you spell something wrong on your insurance claim, do you really deserve surgery? I don’t think so …”
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