Monthly Archives: August 2011
Miramax Facebooks Streaming Movies with Miramax eXperience App
Today Facebook’s partnership with Miramax goes live: the Miramax eXperience, a video streaming service that allows users to rent films with Facebook credits. The rentals cost 30 Facebook credits, equivalent to $3, and currently offers 20 titles to US viewers. Reuters reports that Facebookers in the UK and Turkey get 10 titles, and that France and Germany will get access to the app soon.
Categories Facebook, Miramax, Miramax eXperience
1 Comment
Google+ Unleashes Verified Profiles
The Google+ team has announced that the social network now has verification badges, to be used for public figures and celebrities, but also by power users who have been added to a large amount of circles. TechCrunch reports that the badges are rolling out to users right now. The badge is just a grey ? tag that expands on rollover to “? verified name” on users’ profiles.
Categories Google, Google Plus
Leave a comment
Fox’s Eight-Day Delays Lead to Huge Spike in Torrenting
Fox has been sticking to its eight-day delay guns for a week now, and the company’s future already looks grim. As anyone with half a brain predicted, when faced with an eight-day delay to popular programming, consumers respond by getting their tv illegally. TorrentFreak reports a 114% increase in downloads for Hell’s Kitchen and a 189% increase in downloads for MasterChef, which had its season finale this week. The episodes used to be available next-day on Hulu, but Fox is now only giving Hulu Plus and Dish Network the next-day privileges.
Ford and Toyota Unite to Create Hybrid SUVs and Trucks
Ford and Toyota have announced a “memorandum of understanding” that partners the two companies in creating a hybrid platform for rear-wheel drive SUVs and light trucks. The collaboration also includes a partnership to further the future of telematics standards. Ford and Toyota will be “equal partners” in creating the hybrid system, Engadget reports.
Categories Akio Toyoda, Alan Mulally, Ford Motor Company, Toyota
Leave a comment
Missouri Teachers Sue for Right to Contact Students Online
Missouri teachers have filed a lawsuit against the state’s new law that prevents teachers and students from maintaining a “non work-related website that allows exclusive access with a current or former student.” The law, which Gizmodo reports goes into effect next week, is clearly intended to prevent inappropriate sexual relations between teachers and students, but prevents all interactions. The teachers suing say the law infringes on their First Amendment rights.
iOS 5 has Earthquake Notifications Baked In for Japan
Japanese iOS 5 users will find one very important new feature in the OS: earthquake notifications have been baked in, available at the flick of a switch in the iOS 5 Notification Center. 9to5Mac reports that the feature may drain battery life because it is always connected to the warning system, but that Japan’s system is the world’s most advanced. Japan’s earthquake warning system can give warnings from a few seconds to up to two minutes in advance of a quake. [image via @gregharbin]
Categories Apple iOS 5, Japan
Leave a comment
Skype Acquires GroupMe for Rumored $85 Million
Skype has acquired mobile messaging service GroupMe. The companies have declined to reveal the terms of the acquisition, but AllThingsD reports that Skype is rumored to have paid $85 million for the company. Meanwhile, Skype is in the process of being acquired by Microsoft, and Skype also acquired video service Qik earlier this year. The GroupMe blog reports that the team will stay in New York and work on their standalone app for now.
Categories GroupMe, Microsoft Corporation, Skype
Leave a comment
Hopper Raises $8 Million for Travel Search Service
Travel search startup Hopper has raised $8 million in new funding. The investors in this round include Atlas Venture and Brightspark Ventures. TechCrunch reports that Hopper was founded by two former Expedia employees, Frederic Lalonde and Joost Ouwerkerk, and Sebastien Rainville.
Windows Phone Team Scouts Former WebOS Developers
What will happen to all the webOS developers now that HP has shown them the door? Microsoft’s Brandon Watson offered them a deal to switch to Windows Phones and they jumped at the chance. He initially tweeted, “To Any Published WebOS Devs: We’ll give you what you need to be successful on #WindowsPhone, incl.free phones, dev tools, and training, etc.” The response? As The Next Web reports, more than 500 emails in less than 24 hours.
HP Market Cap Drops $16 Billion On Friday
After agreeing to acquire Autonomy and indicating that they will be shutting down the WebOS brand and spinning off their hardware business earlier this month, Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ) has been on a downward spiral. This past Friday, the company stock price dropped to the point where HP’s market cap as a whole lost $16 billion. Analysts blame the drop entirely on poor upper management decisions, specifically around Leo Apotheker’s visions. This is HP’s worst single-day stock price fall since the Black Monday stock market crash in October 1987.
(more…)
Categories Hewlett Packard, HP, Léo Apotheker, Pat Becker Jr., Toni Sacconaghi
1 Comment