Pulse2 Technology and Social Media News » Wal-Mart

Walmart Wants To Take Your Movies To The Cloud!

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 15:28:13 +0000

On April 16, Walmart is launching a new service called Disc-to-Digital. Customers will be able to bring their DVDs or Blu-ray discs into Walmart stores and walk out with the physical disc and a digital copy accessible through the Vudu streaming service. Walmart has partnered with five major film studios on this new program. Disney is the only major film studio that is not on board with Walmart.

The five studios working with Walmart include Paramount, Sony, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal Studios and Warner Bros. These five studios are working together on a digital rights and cloud-based licensing system called UltraViolet. The point of Ultraviolet is to allow customers to access digital copies of movies that they have purchased.

Barnes & Noble Releasing 8GB Nook Tablet On February 22

Amit Chowdhry — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 16:42:34 +0000

Barnes & Noble is getting ready to launch an 8GB tablet on February 22nd. The current Nook tablet costs $50 more than the Kindle Fire. According to documentation leaked to The Verge, the upcoming 8GB Nook tablet appears to be the same as the current $249 tablet, but with less storage space. The less storage space indicates that Barnes & Noble will match the $200 price point that the Amazon.com Kindle Fire uses. The documentation revealed that Walmart will be selling the device starting at 12:01AM on Wednesday Feb. 22nd.

Former Wal-Mart CFO Thomas Schoewe Joins General Motors Board

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 01:19:24 +0000

General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) has added former Wal-Mart chief financial officer Thomas Schoewe to their board of directors. Now GM has 12 board members and 10 of them are not company employees. GM Chairman and CEO Dan Akerson said that Schoewe has business planning and financial expertise along with over 35 years of experience in leading consumer-oriented companies. Schoewe was responsible for Wal-Mart’s accounting and finance departments between 2000 and 2010. Before that he was the CFO for Black & Decker. Schoewe also serves on the board of directors at KKR Management, Northrop Grumman Corp. and PulteGroup Inc.

T-Mobile Launches New Unlimited 4G Data Plans

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 16:48:21 +0000

T-Mobile has announced a no-contract 4G data plan through Wal-Mart exclusively. The new Monthly4G data plan is available for $60 per month and gives unlimited talk and text. You will also get 2GB of data at 4G speeds. For $3 per day, you will also get access to unlimited talk, text, and data. The first 200MB of data will also be at 4G speeds. At $1 per day, you can get unlimited text and 10 cents per minute for talk.

Walmart Acquires Social Media Tracking Company OneRiot

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 18:45:30 +0000

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) has acquired mobile and social ad targeting company OneRiot. OneRiot will be integrated into Walmart Labs. OneRiot recently shifted their business model from a search portal to monetizing its real-time ad network. Now OneRiot provides its social targeting service for mobile ads within apps.

In 2009, OneRiot launched a service called RiotWise, an ad format that places content based on their position in a real-time feed. RiotWise Trending Ads is a stream of ads that are related to trending topics in the social web.

Interest profiles, demographics, and social influence are some of the characteristics for brands that OneRiot tracks. Walmart has a major interest in this data-mining technology. OneRiot tracks social media conversations from Twitter and Facebook.

Walmart also recently acquired social media startup company Kosmix earlier this year. Kosmix also was been integrated with Walmart Labs.

[TechCrunch]

Intellectual Ventures Suing 13 Companies for Patent Infringement

Riley Kennysmith — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 17:15:01 +0000

Intellectual Ventures is suing a group of companies for patent infringement. Companies being sued include Acer, Adata Technology, Asustek Computer, Best Buy, Dell, Elpida Memory, Hewlett Packard, Hynix Semiconductor, Kingston Technology, Logitech International, Pantech and Wal-Mart. According to TechCrunch, the patents deal with memory technology and methods.

Intellectual Ventues brought another patent suit against nine other companies last year. Intellectual Ventures is headed by Nathan Myhrvold, former CTO at Microsoft.

Wal-Mart To Sell 32GB HP TouchPad For $599

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 20 May 2011 20:17:53 +0000

Hewlett Packard will be selling the 32GB HP TouchPad at Wal-Mart for $599 according to a tipster with PreCentral. This is comparable to Apple’s 32GB WiFi iPad 2. Wal-Mart will also carry the TouchPad-compatible Touchstone Dock/Stand. The Touchstone price is expected to be about $79.88. Wal-Mart will also likely carry the webOS Bluetooth keyboard for $69.88 and the TouchPad case for $49.888. The AC charger of the TouchPad is priced at $29.88. All of these devices and peripherals could be in stores as early as June 1st. [preCentral]

Wal-Mart Starts Testing Out Online Grocery Delivery

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 05:09:00 +0000

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) has started testing out an online grocery delivery service in San Jose, California over the weekend. The new service is called “Walmart To Go.” The Walmart To Go service allows customers to order groceries and other goods through Walmart.com and have them delivered to their house. If Walmart decides to stay in the grocery delivery business, they will compete directly with Amazon Fresh and Peapod. [Reuters]

Wal-Mart Acquires Kosmix For Over $300 Million

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 04:10:27 +0000

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) has acquired Kosmix for over $300 million according to a source with AllThingsD. Kosmix is a social media platform company that has raised $55 million in funding from Time Warner Investments, Accel Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, DAG Ventures, Bezos Expeditions, Jonathan Miller, and Ed Zander.

Kosmix is best known for developing TweetBeat, a website that monitors live events being talked about the most on Twitter. Kosmix will be rolled into a division called @WalmartLabs. Kosmix was founded by Venky Harinarayan and Anand Rajaraman. These two built and sold an e-commerce company called Junglee to Amazon.com in 1998.

Wal-Mart To Start Selling Verizon iPhone 4 On Feb. 10th

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 19:36:42 +0000

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) has announced that they will start selling the Verizon iPhone 4 at 600 of their retail store locations tomorrow February 10th. “We’re excited to bring iPhone 4 on the Verizon Wireless network, one the most anticipated mobile phone launches in recent history, to Walmart customers,” stated Wal-Mart SVP of Home Entertainment Gary Severson. “As customers continue to embrace smart phone technology, we’ve added nearly 20 smart phone models to our assortment, including the new Verizon Wireless iPhone 4.”