The closures will result in the layoffs of 3,000 employees, or about 40 percent of Blockbuster’s workforce of 7,300, a spokesman for Dish said Tuesday.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

But while lots of pay-TV operators are happy to keep things the way they are, Ergen keeps trying to blow them up: The Dish Network co-founder and chairman is constantly fighting with the rest of the TV Industrial Complex, in disputes that often end up in court.

His most recent and prominent battle is also the most important one: Dish’s new “Auto Hop” technology lets satellite TV subscribers automatically skip commercials, and that has both advertisers and TV networks in fits, for obvious reasons.

But that’s just one of Ergen’s recent adventures. He has also bought Blockbuster out of bankruptcy in an attempt to take on Netflix, engaged in bruising battles with Cablevision and its AMC Networks spinoff, and rattled his saber against ESPN and its ever-increasing sports fees.

Oh. He’s also talking to Google, and everyone else, about getting into the wireless business.

All of which means the former blackjack and poker player is someone everyone in the media world watches very, very closely, even though he doesn’t say much in public. Which means we’re very excited to interview him at our D: Dive Into Media conference in February.

Ergen will be joining an all-star cast on Feb. 11 and 12 at the Ritz-Carlton in Laguna Niguel, Calif. Here’s who we’ve told you about so far: Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton, Hearst Magazines president David Carey, Google chief business officer Nikesh Arora, Facebook partnership vice president Dan Rose, HBO co-president Eric Kessler, Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino, CollegeHumor co-founder Ricky Van Veen, Vice Media co-founder Shane Smith, Intel media head Erik Huggers and Samsung media head David Eun, Netflix content chief Ted Sarandos (and guest), New Republic owner Chris Hughes, and USA Today publisher Larry Kramer.

And there’s more to come! Stay tuned. Meanwhile, we’re getting close to showtime, so make your reservations now.

But if Comcast wants to, it can change that overnight, as The Wall Street Journal’s Sam Schechner reported yesterday. The cable giant’s new content deals allow it to sell its stuff nationally, to anyone with an Internet connection, if it wants to.

Comcast insists publicly that it has no interest in doing that. Privately, its executives say the same thing. They say they can’t figure out how to market and support a $5-a-month digital subscription service to noncustomers and still make money.

What if they added more content and sold it for $8 a month, like Netflix does? “That still wouldn’t work for us,” one of them told me yesterday. “We can’t figure out how it works for Netflix, either.”

So if things don’t change, then Streampix will work primarily as an anti-churn tool for Comcast — a carrot they’ll dangle to keep current subscribers happy. And it may also keep a few of them from signing up for Netflix, or renewing the subscription they already have.

Which means it will join the growing number of Netflix killers that aren’t really Netflix killers, because they don’t have the same breadth of content, or are only available to a certain number of customers.

Over the last couple of years, Amazon, Hulu and Dish/Blockbuster have all launched Web video subscription services that offer Netflix-like services. But, so far, none of them have really gone head to head with Reed Hastings.

Later this year, though, Verizon and Redbox will begin selling their own Web video service, and the companies have been very clear that that one won’t be limited to Verizon customers.

And it will definitely feel like a competitive service. There’s a good chance, for instance, that movies from the Viacom-backed Epix pay-TV channel, which currently run on Netflix, will appear on the Verizon service, too.

So that’s one full-fledged (potential) Netflix killer launching this year. And another one that might turn into one, with a flip of the switch. That ought to keep the Netflix executives, and investors, occupied for a bit.

The two companies put out a press release without a whole lot of detail (below) but are holding a press conference shortly where we may be able to tease some more out of them. (Update: Well, that was a waste of 10 minutes. Verizon is also promising to make executives available for interviews this morning, but my expectations are now very, very, very low. Subterranean.)

Right now, all they’re really saying is that they’ll have video content, delivered over the Web and via mobile devices, and that consumers will be able to stream some of it and download some of it.

Roping Redbox into the JV — Verizon will own 65 percent of the company, and the movie rental service will have the remainder — makes sense, because it will give the unnamed service a digital-plus-physical option. Just like Netflix and Dish Network’s Blockbuster already have.

But while the big media companies are very happy to license some of their content to Verizon or any other player that wants to pay for digital rights, they are much less comfortable with Coinstar’s Redbox, and have tangled with that service in court.

Right now, for instance, Redbox has announced that it won’t work with Warner Bros.’ new 56-day “window” for new movies on DVD, and will buy discs from third-party sources instead of getting them directly from the studio. So it will be interesting to see how Warner Bros. and parent company Time Warner treat the new venture, and whether that dynamic plays out with other content guys.

VERIZON AND COINSTAR’S REDBOX FORM JOINT VENTURE TO CREATE NEW CONSUMER CHOICE FOR VIDEO ENTERTAINMENT
Joint Venture Will Offer the Best of Both Worlds – Physical and Digital – to All Consumers Nationwide

NEW YORK – Verizon and Coinstar, Inc. today announced the formation of a joint venture that will create a new choice for quality- and value-conscious consumers seeking a simple and affordable way to access the video entertainment they crave. The venture’s services will offer all of the convenience, simplicity and value of Redbox® new release DVD and Blu-ray Disc® rentals combined with a new content-rich video on-demand streaming and download service from Verizon.

The joint venture plans to introduce the product portfolio in the second half of 2012. It will offer subscription services and more in an easy-to-use, flexible and affordable service that will allow all consumers across the U.S. to enjoy the new and popular entertainment they want, whenever they choose, using the media and devices they prefer. Additional brand and product information will be revealed in the coming months.

“When you consider the core elements the parties bring to this venture – our powerful brands; our national rental kiosk footprint; our anytime, anywhere network presence; and our mutual commitment to customer-focused innovation – it’s clear that Verizon and Redbox are a powerful entertainment team,” said Bob Mudge, president of Verizon consumer and mass business markets.

“Consumers rely on Redbox for the latest new release movies at a great value, and our joint venture with Verizon will enable us to bring them even more value by offering expanded content offerings and greater flexibility for how and when they enjoy entertainment,” said Paul Davis, chief executive officer of Coinstar, Inc. “This alliance is the result of a deliberate and strategic process to identify a partner who shares our commitment to delivering innovative solutions to consumers. We look forward to rolling out the shared benefits this venture will bring to consumers, retailers, and shareholders.”

This venture between Verizon and Redbox will create the kind of national multi-platform product that customers are demanding from video entertainment service providers. It will leverage Verizon’s industry-wide relationships with entertainment content providers, its advanced cloud computing technologies and state-of-the-art IP network infrastructure to distribute video on-demand content to its customers.

“The joint venture will combine the accessibility and value of Redbox with Verizon’s vision for a borderless lifestyle – where consumers easily accomplish what they want or need to do, on their terms, through the power of the network,” said Mudge. “Together, we are erasing old technology boundaries, freeing people to spontaneously enjoy the entertainment they want, whenever they choose, using the devices and media they prefer, at home or away.”

By offering instantly available online and mobile content with immediate access to physical media through rental kiosks, Verizon and Redbox will be uniquely positioned to deliver the best of both worlds – digital and physical – to consumers across the country.
The joint venture is a limited liability company with Verizon holding a 65 percent ownership share and Redbox holding a 35 percent ownership share at the outset.

Which means we’re in for an interesting game of chicken between Time Warner’s movie studio and the two rental services. And the result will be meaningful for Netflix, too.

Here’s where things stand: Warner Bros wants to double the “window” that keeps new DVDs away from rental services from 28 days to 56 days, a strategy that’s supposed to encourage would-be renters to buy DVDs instead. Netflix intends on going along with the plan and will be able to buy discs directly from the studio at wholesale rates.

Warner plans on announcing the new terms next week at the Consumer Electronics Show. But though I reported yesterday that Dish Network’s Blockbuster and Coinstar’s Redbox had signed on, the two companies — directly and indirectly —  say that’s not the case. Earlier today a Coinstar rep told me the company won’t agree to a longer window, and a person familiar with Blockbuster’s thinking now says the same thing.

If neither side backs down, then Blockbuster and Redbox would have a marketing advantage over Netflix, since the companies could boast about getting new movies before their rival.

But that assumes they can get their hands on the movies. That will be costly, and perhaps quite difficult.

In the past, Redbox has bought movies directly from retailers (Netflix also used to do the same thing in the service’s early days. But chains like Wal-Mart and Target have instituted buying caps on their discs  that are supposed to thwart that strategy. (Thanks, Janko Roettgers.)

Grab your popcorn!

A new deal between Time Warner’s movie studio and Netflix, Redbox and Blockbuster will double the “window” for new releases. That means the services will now have to wait 56 days after the discs first go on sale to offer them to their customers, instead of 28 days. [UPDATE: Redbox parent Coinstar now says they haven't agreed to a new deal; see below]

The move is part of Hollywood’s ongoing campaign to bolster flagging DVD sales, and sources tell me the new deal is supposed to be announced at next week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Warner Brothers executives have already talked publicly about extending the current window.

This is the second time that Warner has been able to get the rental services to wait before distributing its movies.

In 2010, it struck deals with Netflix, and later Coinstar’s Redbox, to wait 28 days before renting its new discs. Coinstar and Netflix later landed similar pacts with most of the other big studios. (Coinstar did up end up in legal battles with Universal Studios and 20th Century Fox, which like this Web site is owned by News Corp.)

Two years ago, Netflix was able to argue that by delaying access to DVDs, it was able to get its hands on more streaming content, and lower prices for the discs it did buy. This time around, though, Warner won’t be granting any additional digital rights to the studios. It will simply be offering them the ability to buy discs in bulk, at a significant discount to retail pricing, like they already do.

Earlier today, news broke that HBO, another Time Warner unit, would stop selling its DVDs to Netflix altogether, but sources tell me the two moves aren’t directly related. Next week’s planned announcement is supposed to be tied to Warner Brothers’ continuing push for Ultraviolet, an industry consortium that’s supposed to allow home video buyers to watch their purchases on multiple machines, in multiple formats.

Reps for Time Warner, Coinstar, Netflix and Blockbuster parent company Dish Network declined to comment.

UPDATE: Coinstar is now commenting, via email. “The current agreement Coinstar has with Warner Bros. is to receive movie titles 28 days after their release. No revised agreements are in place.” The company’s current deal with Warner Bros. expires at the end of January; PR chief Marci Maule referred me to comments CEO Paul Davis made last fall about pursuing “workarounds” if studios try to extend their windows.

According to the expected year-end box-office data figures compiled by Hollywood.com, the industry raked in $10.1 billion for 2011 in North America.

While that seems like a nice haul, it’s 4.5 percent less than in 2010. While not enough to result a major downturn in limo-riding and Botox, the results are likely to cause entertainment moguls some worry, since they are accompanied by continuing trends, including another year of lower attendance.

And given that the revenue was unusually bolstered by more higher-priced 3-D movie-ticket prices — Hollywood released several dozen 3-D films in 2011, double the previous year’s amount — the latest numbers are even more disappointing.

While some holiday movies did well — namely “Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol,” which has taken in about $70 million domestically since its opening less than two weeks ago — it pales in comparison to such digital hits as Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 videogame, which pulled in $400 million in one day from the much-desired youth market.

It surpassed $1 billion in sales in 16 days, eclipsing the box office of the blockbuster movie “Avatar,” which took 17 days to gross seven figures.

Does that mean that the continued competition for the leisure time of pretty much everyone between digital and analog has gotten worse — an epic battle of the movie industry versus game players, tablets and smartphones?

Or is it because so many movies made in 2011 turned out to be just awful? (If you saw “New Year’s Eve,” you’ll know exactly what I mean.)

One thing is clear: No one is going to pay for poor-quality content, no matter the screen size.

More number-crunching to come, as the industry debates the issue into 2012 (coincidentally, the title of a movie I happened to like, as you can see below!), and at the upcoming D: Dive Into Media at the end of the month, down near Los Angeles, in the belly of the Web-smacked beast.

Until then, let’s hope it does not come to this next year:

Way back in September, Facebook told the world it was launching two major changes to its service: A revision of user profiles, called Timeline, that would make them more substantive and beautiful records of people’s lives; and “Open Graph” tools for developers to automatically share activity by logged-in Facebook users to their Timelines and friends.

Facebook didn’t give a firm date for the new launches, though it indicated they would be ready soon. “We’re going to roll [Timeline] out widely over the next few weeks as we polish all the edges,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told developers and press attendees in his keynote at f8 on Sept. 22.

But we’re already in December, and those tools have yet to arrive. Why the delay?

“We wanted to let developers build on the platform and to give users more time to get used to the idea of change coming,” a Facebook spokeswoman told AllThingsD, noting that Facebook has been criticized in the past for rolling out products in a hurry. Would she offer a launch date, or even an estimate? Nope.

Developers told AllThingsD that they are eager and ready to launch their Open Graph tools, but that Facebook keeps pushing its dates back. In recent developer communications, Facebook’s promises to launch “before the end of the year” have segued to January, the developers said.

Developers also said they’re worried that Facebook has told them it will likely run a staged rollout, where all users might not receive access at the same time, and where users would have seven days to review their Timeline before publishing it.

Those various states of deployment could be a chafe for app makers to support simultaneously, and could potentially confuse users.

At f8 in September, Zuckerberg had promised that Facebook would soon be filled with a cornucopia of verbs — like “watch,” “listen,” “read,” “cook,” “run,” “throw sheep,” etc. — building on the more static “people,” “places,” “things” and other nouns the site had supported in the past.

He said users could look forward to automatically sharing and collecting records of their culinary and athletic adventures through social cooking and social running apps, for example. Facebook also named a list of developers who had already agreed to create Open Graph applications, including Blockbuster, Flipboard and Mashable.

But only a chosen few — including Spotify, Rdio, the Guardian, the Washington Post and Netflix (though the social version of Netflix is not available in the U.S. yet) — got to launch in September; to my knowledge, no other partners or any other developers have since been allowed to release their “frictionless sharing” apps to the masses.

Meanwhile, more than a million Facebook users are already trying Timeline through a preview version for developers.

Months later, it seems rather odd that some users have an entirely different Facebook aesthetic. Personally, as a user with many connections in the tech industry who have activated their Timelines, when I happen on an older-style profile, with no glossy cover photo, the layout feels dated.

Here are some of the reasons Facebook, developers and conspiracy theorists gave for the delays:

• From the Facebook camp, we hear of efforts to rewrite Timeline to make it faster, to sync up mobile versions, and to fully ensure the product is ready. There’s also some chatter of internal conflict over the Timeline concept.
• Based on my own observations, early response to beta versions of the new features has been mixed. The new real-time Ticker, built to show Open Graph activity and every other action taken on Facebook as a sidebar on the site’s main page, was initially unpopular with many users. Anecdotally, I’ve seen very few Timeline beta users scan in their baby photos to tell the backstory of their lives. And new automated sharing features — like Spotify and especially the social news reader apps — can be annoying.
• There are also some external factors. A small company called Timelines, with trademarks on its brand, sued Facebook right after f8. A judge denied Timelines a temporary restraining order against Facebook, but said he would reconsider if Facebook opens Timeline to a larger audience. As of Oct. 8, 1.3 million people were using the Timeline beta, and tens of thousands were signing up per day, according to court documents. Also, Facebook recently agreed to settle with the FTC over privacy complaints. While the settlement specifically prohibits Facebook from retroactively changing any user privacy settings, it’s not as explicit about how Facebook must introduce privacy features for new products. Given that Facebook is likely to go public soon, people at the company are probably especially interested in surviving a major launch with as little privacy backlash as possible.

Please see the disclosure about Facebook in my ethics statement.

The company held a 40-minute press conference in San Francisco to unveil its new Blockbuster branded service, and by the end, many folks, including myself, were left scratching their heads.

But best as I can tell, this is a service that might appeal to some Dish satellite TV customers who are paying for Netflix and want to save some money — they can get more or less what Netflix offers, at the price Netflix used to charge before its 60 percent price hike.

That’s not a terrible thing for Dish to offer. And if it does cost Reed Hastings and company some subscribers, then that’s certainly not a good thing for Netflix.

But Netflix — and its investors — have known for a long time that they’d be fighting new entrants in the streaming video game. If this is as tough as the competition gets, they’ll be quite happy.

Though Dish is trying mightily to differentiate between the two, they seem quite comparable, except that:

1) The service is only available to Dish customers, and only to a subset of the satellite service’s 14 million subscribers, those who have the correct boxes/tech connecting their sets.
2) The Dish service will give people the ability to pick up movies directly from a Blockbuster store instead of waiting to get it in the mail box.
3) Dish will offer a much smaller selection of titles for on-demand streaming than Netflix: 3,000 movies available for streaming to TVs, and 4,000 for streaming to PCs; Netflix has roughly 20,000 movie and TV titles.
4) The service will include videogame rentals via mail, which Netflix doesn’t offer yet but plans to roll out via its new/old Qwikster spin-off.
5) It costs $10 a month. That’s $6 less than a comparable Netflix disc + DVD combo, but $2 more than the Netflix streaming-only package. (Like DirecTV and its Sunday ticket package, Dish will also use the service as a promotional freebie for new sign-ups.)

I think as we have a little more time to delve into this, we’ll get a better sense of how the services really stack up: Does Dish/Blockbuster have access to the same kind of “long tail” content that Netflix says its customers value? What about Apple and Android apps? Etc.

But so far, at least, investors have taken a look at what Dish has to offer and shrugged: NFLX shares up 1.73 percent for the day.

[Image via rick seeney / Shutterstock.com]

You don’t have to be terribly perceptive to see this one coming.

For instance: The company’s invitations for today’s event (you can watch a livestream here) tease that Dish and Blockbuster will be offering a “stream come true.”

Meanwhile, everyone — including Netflix CEO Reed Hastings — assumed a new streaming service was the reason Dish paid $320 million to buy Blockbuster out of bankruptcy back in April.

And then there’s the fact that Dish itself has said, on the record, that it wants to launch a Netflix-streaming competitor.

So that mystery is just about solved. Real question: What will it mean for Netflix?

We’ll have to wait until we see crucial details about pricing and catalog. [UPDATE: Here we go. Verdict: A not-bad but not-exciting service that's only available to Dish customers, for now. Most definitely not a Netflix-killer.]

The obvious play would be to offer more titles for the same $8 a month that Netflix charges, or less. But that isn’t a given.

For one thing, while lots of folks like to gripe about the relatively limited selection that the Netflix streaming service offers to its customers, it’s still a whole lot more extensive than anything else out there.

Netflix has some 20,000 titles; Amazon, its next-biggest subscription rival, has a mere 9,000. It would be quite tough for Dish to acquire anything close to Netflix from the very start.

And the Hollywood studios that Dish is counting on to help it battle Netflix aren’t going to be that psyched about another $8 all-you-can-eat plan. They feel that kind of pricing undervalues their movies and discourages customers from buying or renting their films as one-offs.

Recall that many people believe the reason Netflix hasn’t been able to renew its Starz deal is because the cable network insisted that Netflix create a new, more expensive tier for its stuff.

If the Blockbuster service includes Starz movies, as Bloomberg reports, then it’s hard to imagine it working without a premium tier.

So we’ll see. The good news — if there is any — for Hastings and Netflix is that Dish/Blockbuster isn’t creeping up on anyone, so that should (theoretically) cushion any blow. We’ll come back this afternoon once we hear the full details.

Bids for the movie-rental chain were due Thursday evening, and a handful of potential suitors have been considering whether to square off against a group of hedge funds that already offered to buy Blockbuster for about $290 million, the people said.

The hedge funds, led by Monarch Alternative Capital, hold a big chunk of Blockbuster’s senior bonds and made a so-called “stalking horse” bid in February, setting a floor that other suitors must top to win the video-store chain.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

The official declined to say why SK Telecom, South Korea’s largest mobile carrier by revenue, might bid for Blockbuster, but the company has been seeking ways to broaden its business portfolio and tap new sources of growth overseas to overcome the limited opportunities to expand in one of the world’s most saturated and fiercely competitive telecom markets.

Market watchers were uncertain whether a successful bid would benefit SK Telecom, although some said that acquiring Blockbuster could provide a source of visual content for its mobile-service business.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Alan Sklar feels it. The 61-year-old has stood behind the counter of Alan’s Alley Video in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood for 22 years. Revenue is down, and his staff, which reached 10 a few years ago, is now about five. “If we pay the bills we’re happy,” he said.

Many nights, like last Thursday, are very quiet.

He lists the culprits. “Netflix (NFLX), Redbox and on demand,” he said, over Audrey Hepburn’s voice emanating from a television in the corner playing “Funny Face.”

“People like things being given to them. We don’t see as many warm bodies.”

Since the first video-rental shops emerged in the late 1970s, they have served as shrines to films and created new social spaces for neighborhoods, often reflecting their personalities. They drew cinephiles, rebellious teens seeking movies of which their parents might not approve, and budding young actors and directors who canonized them in their work.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

That may well have been the case, but they don’t seem to have done much good, because Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy today, beaten into submission by nearly $1 billion in debt, growing competition from Netflix, Amazon and Apple, and consumers’ developing affinity for streaming and on-demand video services.

Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes said the move will allow Blockbuster to “continue to transform our business model to meet the evolving preferences of our customers.”

Which presumably means further retail store closures as the company reduces its nearly $1 billion debt to about $100 million.

Hardly a surprise–particularly since the company alerted the six major movie studios of its plans to enter a “pre-planned” bankruptcy in mid-September.

Incidentally, the companies that have been instrumental in landing Blockbuster in the dire straits in which it finds itself are all doing quite well on the stock market today. At $162.13, Netflix (NFLX) is up 3.31 percent; at $155.20 Amazon (AMZN) is up 2.19 percent; and at $291.80 Apple (AAPL) is up 1.39 percent.

Thank goodness for sparkly vampires and animated toys–otherwise, this summer has been pretty weak in the megahit movie department for Hollywood.

But both “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” and “Toy Story 3″ are sequels, so a lot of hopes for some entertainment innovation are riding on the success of a high-tech, big-brain film called “Inception.”

The story about people who slip into dreams and steal secrets is opening July 16 with the tag line: “Your mind is the scene of the crime.”

But that does not even come close to explaining this movie, which appears dense and difficult to comprehend.

Check out this trailer, which looks great and chock full of special effects, but is still pretty perplexing:

Today, it’s showtime for famed Hollywood director James Cameron (pictured here).

After making “Titanic” in 1997, which was the highest-grossing film ever made, Cameron beat his own record with this year’s innovative “Avatar.”

The 3-D blockbuster set a new standard for movie-making technology, and Cameron talked about it onstage at D8, along with his thoughts on the future of the entertainment business.

He also revealed that he is prepping a 3-D version of “Titanic” and discussed his efforts to use his deep-sea exploration experience to help bring some clarity to the BP oil spill.

Here’s the full video of the interview session:

Note: We’ll be posting full D8 videos on Mondays and Thursdays. Next up: NPR CEO Vivian Schiller.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100614/full-d8-video-hollywood-director-james-cameron/feed/ 3 http://allthingsd.com/20100513/viral-video-hot-summer-movie-trailers-in-one-place/ http://allthingsd.com/20100513/viral-video-hot-summer-movie-trailers-in-one-place/#comments Thu, 13 May 2010 07:14:45 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=28267

Who doesn’t love a good movie trailer–so, what about all of them?

Thus, as the summer blockbuster season kicks off, here’s a bunch of them in one place.

I am leaving out “Iron Man 2,” since it opened last week, but check out some preview videos of other much anticipated movies.

Robin Hood (May 14):

The A-Team (May 14):

MacGruber (May 21):

Sex and the City 2 (May 27):

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (May 28):

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (June 30):

The Last Airbender (July 2):

Inception (July 16):

Eat, Pray, Love (August 16):

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100513/viral-video-hot-summer-movie-trailers-in-one-place/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20100421/t-mobiles-hd2-review/ http://allthingsd.com/20100421/t-mobiles-hd2-review/#comments Thu, 22 Apr 2010 01:03:02 +0000 Walter S. Mossberg http://ptech.allthingsd.com/?p=1272 For all the buzz about tablet computers, the hottest category among small digital devices remains the super-smartphones, those pocket-size, touch-screen computers for running apps.

Apple this week reported strong sales of its iPhone. New phones running Google’s Android software platform seem to appear almost monthly and reportedly sell briskly. As these phones have added capabilities, some have gained larger screens. While Apple has stuck with a screen that’s 3.5 inches diagonally, some Android phones sport 3.7-inch screens. Now there is a competitor with a truly huge screen—4.3 inches. It’s the HD2 from Taiwan-based HTC, and it is being sold by T-Mobile in the U.S. for $199 with a two-year contract.

T-Mobile boasts that the HD2′s screen is the biggest on a U.S. smartphone. But how big is too big for a device that is meant to be toted in a pocket or purse? How valuable is a large screen compared with well-designed software?

To find out, I’ve been testing the HD2. My verdict is that, despite the larger dimensions required by its giant screen, the HD2′s hardware is attractive and unlikely to put off people who have already crossed over to bigger devices, like the BlackBerry or iPhone.

However, I found the HD2 to be significantly inferior overall to touch-screen rivals from Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG), mainly because of its software, based on the aging mobile Windows platform from Microsoft (MSFT). While HTC has added its own software overlay to dress up the design, I still found using the HD2 to be too often a chore. It looks cluttered, a patchwork of different interfaces. And, in my tests, it was prone to error messages and even freezing. Also, despite a fast processor, the software responded sluggishly too much of the time.

Another important downside for prospective HD2 buyers is that the Microsoft software version on which it is based can be viewed as a dead end. The software giant is producing an entirely new mobile-software platform, Windows Phone 7, due late this year.

The HD2 supersmartphone

HTC says the HD2 won’t be upgradable to the new Microsoft platform, nor will it run the new generation of third-party apps Microsoft hopes to attract. The HD2 has access to only about 1,200 third-party apps, versus 185,000 for iPhone and over 30,000 for Android.

The HD2 is both wider and taller than the iPhone and the flagship Android phone, Google’s Nexus One. But it is actually a tad thinner than either of those. The bigger difference is weight. While the iPhone and the Nexus One tip the scales at under 5 ounces, the HD2 weighs substantially more—5.54 ounces.

Despite the larger footprint and weight, I didn’t find the HD2 clumsy to carry in a pocket or odd to hold up to my ear. The screen isn’t only large, but vivid and pleasing. Videos and photos look beautiful on it.

T-Mobile has bundled some nice apps with the HD2 and placed them on the home screen. These include the Barnes & Noble e-book reader, the Blockbuster video download service, and a trial of the MobiTV live TV app. After some false tries and error messages, I was able to rent and watch a movie from Blockbuster (BBI), watch TV and buy a couple of books from Barnes & Noble (BKS). I also could sync photos, music and videos from my own PC and Mac.

The camera, which takes photos and videos, has a 5-megapixel resolution and a flash, and took better pictures than my iPhone does. Phone calls were crisp and clear, the 3G-cellular connectivity was fast, and the built-in Wi-Fi worked fine. Memory is generous for the price, at 16 gigabytes on a removable card, plus another gigabyte internally.

But my problem with the HD2 is mainly its software and user interface. Unlike on Android phones and the iPhone, there is only one home screen available for app icons, and much of it is taken up with a huge clock widget that can’t be removed. That leaves only nine icon slots to fill with your favorite apps or functions, compared with scores on competing phones.

To help make up for this, there is a band of smaller icons along the bottom of the screen, which offers limited customization. But the combination was a confusing jumble, to my eye. In addition, I found the touch functionality was often sluggish and halting. It frequently took hard presses to activate icons on the screen. And twice, while simply dialing a phone call, the device froze on me. I have occasionally had similar bad experiences on rival phones, and T-Mobile says these problems aren’t typical. But the glitches occurred too often for my taste on the HD2.

So, my bottom line is that the HD2 might be fine for folks who value the large screen above all. But, for everyone else, I’d look elsewhere.

Find Walt Mossberg’s columns and videos, free, at the All Things Digital Web site, walt.allthingsd.com. Email mossberg@wsj.com.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100421/t-mobiles-hd2-review/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100405/blockbuster-icahn-slashes-stake/ http://allthingsd.com/20100405/blockbuster-icahn-slashes-stake/#comments Mon, 05 Apr 2010 07:04:55 +0000 Eric Savitz http://voices.allthingsd.com/?p=23520 Investor Carl Icahn has sharply reduced his holdings in financially troubled video retailer Blockbuster (BBI).

In an SEC filing Friday, Icahn said he now controls 3.77 percent of the company’s Class A shares, and 5.65 percent of BBI’s Class B shares. That’s down from 5.14 percent of the A shares and 6.05 percent on March 31–which was down from 16.87 percent of the A shares and 7.73 percent of the B shares in late January, when Icahn announced his resignation from the BBI board.

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100405/blockbuster-icahn-slashes-stake/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100324/new-tivo-mixes-tv-and-internet-but-falls-short/ http://allthingsd.com/20100324/new-tivo-mixes-tv-and-internet-but-falls-short/#comments Thu, 25 Mar 2010 01:06:48 +0000 Walter S. Mossberg http://ptech.allthingsd.com/?p=1222 TiVo is the most famous third-party set-top box for your TV. The company popularized the idea of digital video recording and, in recent years, also has added to its devices the ability to deliver some Internet video content to the TV screen.

But TiVo is being squeezed. Cable and satellite companies now offer boxes with DVR capabilities. And other tech companies are rolling out competing set-top boxes to get Internet video to televisions.

TiVo (TIVO) is responding with a new model, the TiVo Premiere, that aims to seamlessly blend programming from conventional TV and the Internet. It is slimmer, has a slicker user interface and holds more recorded programming than earlier models—45 hours of high-definition programs, up from 20 hours in the prior model, the TiVo HD. A more expensive version of the Premiere, the XL, has the same new software and holds 150 hours of HD shows.

I have been testing the new Premiere, and it worked as advertised, with conventional cable programming and with the available Internet sources TiVo (TIVO) supports. But, in my tests, it showed some flaws and, in my view, it doesn’t go nearly far enough in tapping the Internet.

Like prior TiVos, I’d rate the Premiere as better than the standard cable-company-supplied boxes I’ve seen. But, if you already own a recent-model TiVo, I don’t believe the Premiere justifies an upgrade, unless you need the greater built-in storage.

The TiVo Premiere goes on sale Sunday at Best Buy (BBY) stores for $300, plus a monthly fee of $13, or an annual or lifetime payment plan ranging from $129 for a year of service to $399 for the life of the device. The Premiere XL costs $500, plus the same fees. Both will be available Monday at tivo.com.

TiVo calls the Premiere “the One Box,” because it better integrates regular TV and Internet content. However, it actually has no additional Internet services compared with recent TiVo models. It allows you to get movies, TV shows and videos from YouTube, Amazon (AMZN), Netflix (NFLX) and Blockbuster (BBI), which are available on competing set-top boxes. It also includes a number of online music and photo services.

The company says a couple of added Internet services will be available later this year. These include the Pandora streaming music service and a widget system displaying things like news, stock prices and Twitter updates. However, the widgets won’t allow you to interact with Twitter and won’t be viewable while you’re watching TV or Internet video.

The biggest changes in the new Premiere involve the user interface. The TiVo Central screens, where you find and manage recorded shows and other content, are now presented in high definition and wide screen. This allows more menus on a single screen. The screen containing your recorded shows is now called My Shows instead of Now Playing.

You also can now watch TV in a small window while you’re on the menu screens, and there is a 30-second skip button on the remote.

The new TiVo Premiere

Also, a new Browse function lets you look for programming without typing search terms, by scrolling through colorful icons that include “collections” of related content, such as Oscar or Emmy winners.

Both Search and Browse now integrate regular TV shows with Internet content. If you start typing letters into the search box, TiVo will respond not only with TV shows that match, but with movies and TV shows that you can download from Web sources. You can also easily find YouTube clips related to a favorite show.

A new Discovery Bar of icons appears across the top of the Tivo Central screens. It’s filled with icons of TV shows and available Web content TiVo thinks you might like.

But there are some big downsides to the Premiere. You can’t watch videos on popular sites like Hulu (owed in part by News Corp., which owns The Wall Street Journal and its Web sites), CBS.com, blogs or news Web sites. This may be partly due to media-company restrictions, not TiVo’s shortcomings, but it means the Premiere omits vast sources of Internet video.

The new HD interface was slower than the old standard one in my tests, with frequent delays, even in scrolling through a list of recorded shows. TiVo says this is a bug being fixed.

In addition, I found the Discovery Bar a distraction, cluttering the menu screens, with no way to turn it off unless you revert to the old interface (a buried option.) This is partly because TiVo hopes to sell ads on the bar.

Finally, the new HD interface isn’t available when watching live TV. You have to constantly bounce between the new and old software designs.

All in all, TiVo Premiere looks incomplete. It seems more like a platform for a future set of offerings TiVo hopes one day to have, rather than a way to deliver new content right now.

Find all of Walt Mossberg’s columns and videos online, free of charge, at the All Things Digital Web site, walt.allthingsd.com. Email him at mossberg@wsj.com.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100324/new-tivo-mixes-tv-and-internet-but-falls-short/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100317/blockbuster-raises-possibility-of-bankruptcy-stock-swoons/ http://allthingsd.com/20100317/blockbuster-raises-possibility-of-bankruptcy-stock-swoons/#comments Wed, 17 Mar 2010 15:00:04 +0000 Eric Savitz http://voices.allthingsd.com/?p=22714 Blockbuster (BBI) shares are trading sharply lower after the company said in its new 10-K filing with the SEC that it may have to file for protection from creditors under Chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy code. The company is groaning under a heavy debt burden, and its operations have taken a big hit from new competitors, including the rapidly growing Redbox chain of video kiosks operated by Coinstar (CSTR).

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