Nokia Brings N85, N79 to United States
via Digital Trends
Nokia has once again decided to go it alone with its high-end Internet-centric, multimedia-savvy smartphones, announcing the N85 and N79 devices are now on sale in the United States. Both phones are available unlocked and without partnerships with network operators, which means users will pay the full brunt of the unsubsidized phone's cost: $539 for the N85 and $439 for the N79. "We're excited to have these two multimedia devices available in the United States now—and in time for the holidays," said Nokia Americas VP of … Read
Hey CBS, Hulu Much?
via TechCrunch
CBS just pushed a completely new look and feel for it’s TV.com site. Think they have Hulu on their mind? you be the judge.
The overall look of the home page is very similar to Hulu, although the actual show pages remain different. Frankly, I think they should have gone all the way and copied Hulu completely.
Will Opening Up Keep Vudu From Closing Down?
via NewTeeVee
Download movie service provider Vudu announced today that it’s expanding its set-top box to deliver web video directly to TVs, as well as opening up to allow outside developers create applications for the device.
The new Vudu Rich Internet Applications (RIA) platform will broaden the company’s set-top box capabilities, enabling it to deliver web video from YouTube and network sites like those of NBC and ABC; display photos from Flickr and Picasa; as well as some casual games. Vudu owners can check out a sampling of new functionality today at the new Vudu Labs section of the Vudu home page.
Sounds a lot like Boxee, the open-source media center that enables much of the same functionality (plus Netflix streaming), and can run on Macs, PCs and even the Apple TV. Heck, the Boxee community might just port itself over to the Vudu box as well.
Opening up its box is a smart move, but will it be the gambit that pushes Vudu, which has never really caught on with consumers, into the mainstream?
You gotta give the company an “A” for effort. Over the course of this year it’s tried just about everything to get people to buy: price cuts on the box, porn, a 99-cent bargain rental bin, adding 1,000 HD titles, a new HDX high-def format, and a high-end XL2 box for home theaters.
In the meantime, however, the company laid off 15 percent of its staff at the end of August, followed by the departure of CEO Mark Jung in November. And Vudu won’t release stats, which always makes us suspicious.
Vudu’s bigger problem is that it’s always been expensive, unknown, and only did one thing. It costs $299 for the standard box, which, up until today, would only play Vudu movies. An Apple TV on the other hand, costs $229, and let you access your music, photos and YouTube video. Granted, the Vudu box has way more storage, but which brand are you going to trust to be around for awhile?
Vudu still has an uphill climb, especially in this econo-pocalypse we’re all suffering through right now, but leveraging the developer-sphere to create new uses for itself will make it more appealing.
Vid-Biz: Image Metrics, Aspera, Hulu
via NewTeeVee
IMDB Acquires Box Office Mojo; Amazon-owned movie database buys web site that tracks box office performance, terms of the deal not disclosed. (Variety)
Move Networks Partners with FuelTV; action sports lifestyle network launches new HD streaming player, created by Move. (Fuel.tv)
CBS to Pit TV.com vs. Hulu
via MediaBytes with Shelly Palmer
CBS will re-launch TV.com to compete with Hulu. Originally the domain, secured in its $1.85 billion acquisition of CNet, was more of a “water cooler site” rather than an online video or IPTV destination. CBS head Les Moonves is excited, noting “we think TV.com will become the destination, or certainly one of the leading destinations, for anybody who wants to watch TV shows or have a community around TV shows, see clips, play games, etc.”
Report: Mobile Content Explosion Makes Memory Cards A Big Money-Maker
via mocoNews.net
With more content being created and consumed on mobile phones, an interesting phenomenon has occurred: memory cards have quickly become the biggest money maker in accessory sales, research firm ABI Research reports. It isn't surprising that consumers are scrambling for more storage since many cellphones these days come with high-end cameras and the ability to play music, but often don't come with enough capacity to take advantage of those features. Sales typically occur on two levels. Often handset manufacturers ship phones with small capacity cards, such as a 1 gigabyte microSD, but then carriers push higher capacity ones at the register as a marked up accessory. Many phones today can support up to 8, 16, or 32 gigabytes. ABI predicts third-party suppliers like SanDisk (NSDQ: SNDK) will see a 17 percent compound annual growth rate in shipments over the next five years. But the real interesting thing to watch for is whether more storage capacity will lead to more content consumed. Release.
Mobile Content Bits: The Simpsons; Pandora On Windows; Yahoo Widgets; Go2 Music; Five Top Phones
via mocoNews.net
-- Fox Mobile releases content from The Simpsons: The Simpsons is getting another huge boost from Fox Mobile with more than 100 new and exclusive pieces of mobile content. The new suite of content includes: The Simpsons Itchy & Scratchy Land mobile game from EA and a range of holiday-themed content. Fox Mobile also released more wallpapers, voicetones, screensavers and videos from the long-running show under the company's subscription-based "Yellow Plan." Release.
-- Consumer Reports names top five smartphones and cellphones: In the latest issue of Consumer Reports, the publication ranks the top five smartphones and cellphones, and for once iPhone doesn't make the list, CNET reports. The top five smartphones in order are: Samsung Blackjack II, T-Mobile Wing, Motorola Q9C, T-Mobile Shadow and BlackBerry's Pearl Flip. The iPhone 3G and T-Mobile G1 ranked below all of those, according to Consumer Reports' ranking system, however the BlackBerry Bold and Storm, HTC Pro and Samsung Omnia appear to be left out of the running. The top five feature phones: Motorola ROKR E8, LG (SEO: 066570) Dare, Pantech Breeze, Sony (NYSE: SNE) Ericsson (NSDQ: ERIC) TM506 and Sony Ericsson's K850i.
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