And now it appears the e-commerce giant has even more plans in the works.

A Wells Fargo Equity Research note distributed this week writes: “A key discovery this month is that Amazon has plans to expand the Prime membership benefits beyond the Amazon.com platform.”

The note points to a number of job descriptions, disclosing that Amazon is creating a “Prime Expansion” team, tasked with driving awareness of the Prime program and expanding the scope of its benefits, geographically and on and off Amazon.

So what areas or new benefits might Amazon be expanding into?

It’s not clear, and an Amazon spokesperson did not return emails seeking comment.

But first, let’s throw out the areas where Amazon won’t be expanding to — other online retailers. Today, Amazon sells pretty much everything under the sun, so it would be very hard for it to find a retailer that would be comfortable with letting Amazon run its loyalty program, even if it does mean offering perks like free shipping.

“I think any retailer would have to have their head examined if they allowed themselves to be a customer-acquisition tool for Amazon Prime,” said Mike Golden, president of ShopRunner. “Especially if it’s under the assumption that Amazon won’t compete with them. Because people have been proven false every single time.”

Of course, Golden has his biases.

ShopRunner, which includes eBay as an investor, operates a service — much like Prime — that offers shoppers free two-day shipping across a variety of retailers, including Toys “R” Us and PetSmart, for $79 a year.

But even if other retailers are out of the question, there are still some opportunities Amazon could be pursuing. For instance, it could work with other delivery services that don’t compete with Amazon.

ShopRunner has already demonstrated this through a partnership with Domino’s Pizza, which provides free delivery to ShopRunner members. Other scenarios with national scale could include Ticketmaster or Fandango, which have service fees at checkout.

Another internal program that Amazon is working on that could be a candidate for Prime is free access to Amazon Locker, which allows consumers to pick up packages from secure mailboxes at 7-Eleven. The lockers address a segment of the market that can’t receive packages at their homes because people work during the day and there’s nowhere for a delivery to be dropped off, or because it’s likely to get stolen.

So far, Amazon Prime is considered a very successful program that increases loyalty to Amazon.com — for an annual fee. As is typical with Amazon, it does not disclose how many Prime members it has, but Baird Equity Research estimates that there’s somewhere between seven million and 11 million members.

With even more benefits, it will make Prime — and Amazon overall — even harder for consumers to walk away from.

(Image courtesy of www.cicadamania.com)

The Mountain View, Calif.-based company tries to boost online companies’ revenue by placing targeted promotions and offering incentives at the point of checkout.

It’s a bit similar to how grocery stores try to boost sales by strategically placing tabloid magazines, gum and candy bars at the register to spur last-minute impulse buys.

Instead, TrialPay makes last-minute offers to give people incentive to make a purchase when they are on the fence.

As an example, TrialPay’s CEO Alex Rampell said that when people visit Fandango’s site, they may get an offer for a free movie ticket if they sign up for Netflix. Or, in a Zynga game, you might be offered a virtual bouquet for free, in return for purchasing real flowers on Valentine’s Day.

Visa’s participation in the investment, which is being announced later this morning, is rare. Over the years, the payments company has made a few acquisitions, including PlaySpan, CyberSource and Fundamo, but Visa’s only investment in recent memory was in payments darling Square, which allows anyone to accept payments using a cellphone.

Rampell said that with Visa’s help, TrialPay will be able to expand to offline merchants from working exclusively with online retailers, by giving it a way to track if a person visited a store and made a purchase.

“The question is, how do we send traffic to Starbucks or McDonald’s or any other offline merchant?” Rampell said. “We already have access to people online who are buying or thinking about buying something. It would be great if we could could give you 20 virtual coins if you shopped at McDonald’s. But how do we close that redemption loop?”

Today, TrialPay, which has 130 employees, reaches more than 70 million monthly active users worldwide. In 2011, Rampell said, revenues more than doubled; he declined to offer specifics.

Rampell also declined to provide details about potential partnerships with Visa. Visa also declined to comment.

Investors in the company’s fourth round included new investors Greylock Partners, Visa Inc., T. Rowe Price, DAG Ventures, DFJ Growth and QuestMark Partners. Existing investors also participated. To date, it has raised roughly $70 million.

For more of Rampell’s opinions on how the payments space will evolve, check out his Web 2.0 speech from October:

Helping to achieve these records were nearly magical online and mobile presales that took place in the 45-days leading up to its debut.

Comcast-owned Fandango, which sells tickets online and through mobile applications to more than 16,000 screens, reports it sold more midnight and early morning show tickets for “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2”’ than it did for the late night openings of any other movie (including “The Dark Knight” and “Twilight”‘s “New Moon”).

It said many of the sales were for screenings starting at midnight, and that in total, more than 6,000 showtimes sold out on Fandango between midnight and the wee hours of the morning.

In all, the movie represented 93 percent of the day’s total ticket sales from its site.

Fandango charges a service fee of $1.25 for each ticket sold, but it’s difficult to say how much it would have grossed from the movie since a spokesperson declined to say how many individual tickets the 6,000 showtimes represented.

Fandango’s closest competitor MovieTickets.com also reported strong sales, reports MovieCityNews.com. As of Wednesday, it had sold more tickets for “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2″ than any other movie released in 2011 — and that sales exceeded all ticket sales for “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.”

Variety is reporting that as of 1 pm Pacific time on Friday, the movie had already collected $24 million in domestic day-time sales, putting it on pace to break the record currently being held by “The Dark Knight.” That’s in addition to the $43.5 million in midnight sales.

If the pace continues, it may garner $80 million, which would far exceed Dark Knight’s $$67.2 million in opening day receipts.

What makes Dragon Go a bit different is the fact that the new iPhone app often knows what to do with a specific query. Say “Play R.E.M.” and it opens Pandora. Say “buy tickets for Bridesmaids” and it will open Fandango. But say “Reviews for Bridesmaids” and it will open IMDB instead. Meanwhile, asking for a review of a restaurant should bring up Yelp while a query for reservations for that same restaurant polls OpenTable.

Nuance, which created the free app, has built an open architecture aimed at including all manner of vertical queries. At launch it supports more than 180 options from the aforementioned sites to services such as Yelp, Wikipedia and Google. And Nuance expects that number will continue to grow.

“We’ll see what kinds of things that people are interested in that maybe we didn’t anticipate,” Chief Creative Officer Gary Clayton said in a recent interview.

It’s the latest iPhone app from Nuance, which also offers the Dragon Dictation transcription program and Dragon Search, a more generic voice search application.

I played with Dragon Go some this week. It’s pretty easy and works much of the time, but the promotional video below overstates things a bit. The app can be amazingly adept at searching what one wants much of the time, but there are certainly times where it simply does a Google search for something close to — but not exactly — what one is searching for.

What exactly is m-commerce? To find out, we recently interviewed consumers at America’s top retail centers and malls, from New York’s Soho and Fifth Avenue districts to The Grove and Santa Monica Place in Los Angeles. What we discovered is that consumers limit their definition of m-commerce to the actual act of making purchases via mobile phones. We also learned something unexpected. Consumers are surprisingly self-conscious about their phones’ capabilities and perceived limitations when it comes to m-commerce–specifically around purchasing. Two factors are driving this phenomenon.

First, some smartphone users have a bad case of device envy–you could call it the “if I had an iPhone” syndrome. Most often Blackberry owners, these shoppers simply do not believe their smartphone is up to snuff when it comes to surfing the mobile Web or using shopping-enabled apps.

Second, users of traditional mobile phones generally–and incorrectly–believe their phone is not m-com enabled. Even if they are aware of their device’s capabilities, they do not believe they can afford the necessary data plan.

With AT&T launching the first tiered data plans last year and T-Mobile introducing $10 per month data plans last month, this is one problem that will take care of itself, and another important reason the tipping point is now.

Despite consumers’ self-consciousness about their smartphones’ supposedly limited capabilities and their very literal view of m-commerce as purely purchase-driven, many are already incorporating these always-at-their-sides devices into their shopping routines-even if they don’t know it! They use their smartphones to scout out store locations, look up competitors’ prices and snap photos of potential purchases to share with friends and family.

Smartphone users are, of course, making certain purchases on their devices. They tend to be inexpensive, commoditized and time-sensitive items, such as movie tickets or exclusive, act-now deals. What works is what’s easy and immediate.

Right now, apps, more than anything else, are enabling these transactions. User-friendly, intuitive and efficient, with pre-populated credit card and shipping fields, apps let consumers buy seamlessly, rather than struggle with entering account numbers on an iPhone, something few want to do in the heat of the shopping moment. Amazon, eBay, Gilt Groupe, Fandango and Flixster are putting apps to work successfully today.

But apps have drawbacks. Who wants to download a separate one for every store where you might shop? This is where the mobile web can and should come into play.

Unfortunately, many mobile sites tend to fall short right now. They are often oversimplified and lack the full functionality of traditional e-commerce sites. Worse yet, they are not optimized for phone browsers–slow to load, with broken links and menus that don’t fit small screens.

So, where does this all leave us? Well, with smartphone users already making time-sensitive purchases, data-plan prices coming down and more sophisticated devices on the way, it’s clear the m-commerce tipping point is upon us. Smart marketers need to concentrate on making it easier for smartphone users to find what they want, where and when they want it. The key will be mixing and matching the best of the mobile web and apps, from easy-and-fast downloads to geolocation and store locator features to social media integration, multiple platform compatibility and more.

For those that can get it right, the mobile commerce possibilities are boundless–with transactions literally taking place anytime, everywhere.

Jane Randel is Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications & Brand Services for Liz Claiborne Inc.

It’s not all departures!

Yahoo is hiring former News Corp. and Disney online exec Mickie Rosen (pictured here) to run its Audience unit, which includes the Silicon Valley Internet giant’s powerful content sites, sources said.

Starting next week, Rosen will report to Americas head Ross Levinsohn, who has worked with her before, at both News Corp. and Fuse Capital.

Her new title is SVP of the Yahoo Media Network, which is apparently a rebranding of Audience.

Previous to this job, Rosen was CEO of Tecca, a price-checking service Fuse created in partnership with Best Buy.

It’s likely she will remain based in the Los Angeles area, where Yahoo has a large office in Santa Monica, Calif.

The move is Levinsohn’s first management rejiggering since he took over last year, and there is likely to be more to come.

Rosen, who has also worked at the Fandango online movie ticketing site, will replace interim audience head Raymond Stern, who will be–as before–running partnerships and business development, as well as Yahoo’s listings business.

Rosen’s new job had actually been that of former Audience head David Ko, as well as former Media VP Jimmy Pitaro.

Ko left Yahoo and is now heading mobile games at Zynga, while Pitaro is a top digital exec at Disney.

More to come from Levinsohn, but here is Rosen’s bio from the Fuse Web site:

Mickie has over 20 years of operating, strategy and investing experience. For the past dozen years, she has been at the intersection of media and technology, in both large companies such as News Corporation and The Walt Disney Company and in small, early stage start-ups.

Prior to joining the firm, she was the head of entertainment for Fox Interactive Media where she was responsible for properties such as AmericanIdol.com, Rotten Tomatoes and the entertainment channels of MySpace. Mickie also led content acquisition across the Company, and was a lead in envisioning, structuring and negotiating Hulu, the premier video joint venture between News Corp. and NBC Universal.

Prior to Fox Interactive Media, Mickie was the head of product development, marketing and public relations for Fandango, where she helped lead the company from an early-stage start-up to profitability as it became a leader in its space (acquired by Comcast). Mickie was also a senior executive with an e-learning start-up, an Idealab! consumer robotics company and Disney’s Corporate Alliances group, where she negotiated deals and managed Disney’s top global partners such as Coca-Cola, American Express and AT&T.

Mickie built the foundation of her career with McKinsey & Company, where she spent seven years consulting with senior management on strategy, operational and organizational issues across a number of industries, including media and technology.
Mickie has an MBA from Harvard Business School, and a B.A. in Economics from UC San Diego, and is based in Los Angeles.

Amy Banse, currently the president of Comcast Interactive Media, is shifting into a job as head of a new Silicon Valley-based equity fund aimed at making digital investments for the television cable giant, as well as its new NBC Universal unit, according to sources with knowledge of the plans.

While most of the attention related to the soon-to-be-completed merger of Comcast with NBC U has been on the musical chairs of its high-profile news and entertainment divisions, this move is potentially significant for the companies by putting a stake in the ground–and a presence–for it on the West Coast.

As part of the shift, sources said, Banse will be charged with combining two existing corporate investment funds: NBC U’s Peacock Equity and Comcast Interactive Capital.

The New York-based Peacock Equity is a $250 million fund that was founded as a joint venture in 2007 by GE Capital and NBC U.

Its investments have ranged from $3 million to $25 million each, including a lot of online advertising start-ups such as Adify and the Rubicon Project.

Comcast Interactive Capital–founded in 1999 and based in Philadelphia, where Comcast’s HQ is–has $500 million under management.

It has focused on broadband, interactive and enterprise businesses.

According to its Web site, “early successful investments” include About.com, CitySearch, Half.com, TiVo, and VeriSign.”

Current investments include SB Nation, BlackArrow and JiWire.

It is not clear how much more money the new still-unnamed equity fund will raise, but it will be aimed at early-stage companies, said sources.

The combined fund will debut by the end of the year or early next year.

Banse’s shift to become a VC comes after many years of leading Comcast’s online strategy, which has included the acquisition of the Fandango movie ticketing site and Daily Candy, an email newsletter.

She has also been in charge of the development and management of Comcast’s many Web sites, including Comcast.net, Xfinity.com and Fancast.

MediaMemo’s Peter Kafka recently reported that the high-profile Banse was moving out of her post, which was being split up into two jobs.

Many thought she would likely depart the company, but it appears she will stay for a while longer at least.

As it happens, Banse will be in San Francisco this week for the Web 2.0 conference, so please be sure to give her a warm welcome and explain “Fear the Beard” to a likely Phillies fan-atic.

And just to get acquainted in advance, here is her bio from the Comcast Web site:

Amy Banse serves as President of Comcast Interactive Media (CIM), a division of Comcast Corporation that is responsible for developing and operating online tools and businesses focused on entertainment, information and communication.

Since founding CIM in December of 2005, Ms. Banse has led Comcast’s online strategy, overseeing the acquisition of Fandango (the movie ticketing site), Daily Candy (the popular email newsletter), Plaxo (the smart contacts site), and thePlatform (the industry-leading provider of digital media publishing solutions) as well as the in-house development and management of, Comcast.net and xFinity.com(Comcast’s portals), Fancast, (a leading tv entertainment site), xFinitytv (Comcast ‘s online video portal), and Swirl (Daily Candy’s sample sales site). In this role, she has grown CIM into an 800 person team with significant digital capabilities and has played a key part in the industry’s development of its TV Everywhere strategy and in Comcast’s execution of that strategy, Fancast/xFinitytv.

Ms. Banse joined Comcast in 1991 as an in-house attorney responsible for programming acquisition. Most recently she served as Executive Vice President of Content Development where she oversaw the development of Comcast’s cable network portfolio including the company’s investments in E! Entertainment Television, The Golf Channel, and VERSUS and the development and launch of G4, PBS KIDS Sprout, TV One and Comcast’s sports networks.

Ms. Banse has represented CIM and Comcast as a featured speaker in venues around the country discussing the rapid evolution of content consumption in a digital world and the opportunities and challenges facing the cable and entertainment industries. She has been named among the “Most Powerful Women in Cable” and the “Top Programmers to Watch” by CableWorld magazine. She has also been named among the Cable 100 by Multichannel News and the Digital Power list, by The Hollywood Reporter. She was honored as a “Wonder Woman” by Multichannel News and Women in Cable Telecommunications (WICT) in 2004, received WICT’s Geraldine B. Laybourne Fearless Award in 2009 and ProMax’s Brand Builder Award in 2010 Ms. Banse sits on the Board of The Morris Arboretum and Springside School for Girls. In 2007 she received “The Distinguished Alumni Award” from Springside School, and in 2006 she was honored by Girls, Inc. as an outstanding role model for girls during their annual Celebration Luncheon. Ms. Banse is also a member of The Forum of Executive Women, the Philadelphia region’s premier women’s organization.

Ms. Banse received a BA from Harvard University and a JD from Temple University Law School. She and her husband and their four children live in Philadelphia.

These come from mobile ad start-up Medialets, which put together a highlight reel at my request. The video doesn’t quite do these things justice, because you really have to see them on Apple’s tablet to appreciate them. But take a look, anyway–it’s probably best if you view these in full-screen mode–and I’ll try to tease them out for you afterward:

Here’s what you just saw:

• FedEx ad, designed for Newsweek app.
• Visa ad, designed for NPR app with help from AKQA, Visa’s regular digital agency. Features e-commerce possibilities, without leaving the app, via Fandango.com and Broadway.com
• Toyota Prius ad, designed for Weather Channel Max app; allows users to “draw” images incorporated into video.

Again, the market for this stuff is so new that shops like Medialets are essentially starting from scratch each time they put together a tablet ad. And that means there’s no reason for these things not to be interesting–you’ve never seen them before.

But eventually some of this stuff will become more standardized, just as most Web ads are. And that will make it harder to stand out.

Or, as one exec told me, “enough.”

Obviously, that’s tough to quantify. That said, the list of apps announced today is a good start, even if it does seem pretty short. On the mobile A/V front, there are Netflix (NFLX), IMDB, Slacker, I Heart Radio and MusixMatch. T-Mobile users will get T-Mobile TV, while AT&T (T) users will get U-verse. For the moment, WP7′s big social media app will be Twitter, though I imagine there’s a Facebook app on the way. For e-commerce, there’s eBay (EBAY), Fandango and Travelocity. And finally, there’s a growing list of games (60+ at last count) that includes Monopoly, Need for Speed Undercover, Tetris, The Sims 3, Star Wars, Bejeweled, Assassin’s Creed, Fast & Furious 7, Guitar Hero 5 and Halo Waypoint.

Add to that Microsoft’s (MSFT) Bing search engine and an Office Hub that provides mobile versions of Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, as well as SharePoint integration, and you’ve got the beginnings of a decent ecosystem. Remember, when Apple’s (AAPL) iTunes App Store first launched it had about 500 third-party applications. Today it boasts more than 250,000.

Which is not to say that the development of the WP7 app ecosystem will be as quick or tremendous. Clearly, there’s much ramping-up yet to be done. But there will be enough marquee apps available at launch that the device certainly won’t seem lacking, as some other mobile operating systems did when they debuted. Netflix, Twitter, eBay, a groaning board of games and a mobile office productivity suite is enough to get anyone started, particularly if they’ve only just decided to trade up from a feature phone to a smartphone.

FURTHER COVERAGE:

• “Delightful” Windows Phone 7 Coming November 8
• Windows Phone 7: It’s Now or Never

Sources familiar with the company say that current digital head Amy Banse is moving out of her post, which is being split up into two jobs. One of them has already gone to her former lieutenant Matt Strauss, who will head up the properties directly connected to Comcast’s core cable business, most notably its Fancast/Xfinity TV portal. The other job will be overseeing NBC U’s digital businesses–everything from NBC.com to iVillage to its stake in Hulu–as well as Comcast properties like Daily Candy and Fandango.

Banse might have been an obvious candidate for that gig, but it’s not panning out that way. Instead, she will continue to run Comcast’s sites until Washington signs off on the pending deal between Comcast and NBC U’s owner GE (GE).

Then she’s supposed to end up in a new, yet-to-be determined role at the cable giant. She’s a lawyer who has held multiple positions at Comcast since joining in 1991, so in theory she could end up in a variety of places within the company. Comcast (CMCSA) declined to comment.

Also left unresolved: Who will run the NBC U digital/Comcast portfolio once the two companies merge? NBC U doesn’t have a single digital czar but instead has a cadre of people with digital duties. It’s unclear whether Comcast will want to keep that structure or put in a single person to run the whole thing.

This week, I tested Springpad (SpringpadIt.com), a free service that saves and synchronizes Web content across all major browsers on Macs and PCs. It also works on the iPad, iPhone and Android using their apps. Services like this aren’t new: Evernote, for instance, does a fine job of saving Web content and synchronizing it across multiple devices. But Springpad is unique in that it automatically generates links and alerts you to online offers related to the content a user has already saved.

The free Springpad service works on Macs and PCs, as well as the iPad, iPhone and Verizon Android.

If I saved a recipe for banana bread, Springpad might send me a link from Coupons.com so I can save money on bananas. If I save the Web page for a new iPod I want to buy and its price drops on Amazon.com, I might see a Springpad alert about it. Or if I save a photo of a bottle of wine to my Springpad account, an alert may appear to tell me about an offer on free shipping from Wine.com.

Starting Sept. 22, these Springpad Alerts will work in mobile apps on the iPhone, Android devices and iPad. (Springpad currently works as a website and as a mobile app, but the alerts only appear on the website version.) Spring Partners, which owns Springpad, plans to also release a Google Chrome browser extension Sept. 22.

Springpad doesn’t work as a BlackBerry app and the company has no immediate plans to make such an app. A Springpad spokesman says the company is working on a version for Microsoft Windows tablets.

Springpad uses a handsome interface to display saved content. Users can look at their saved content in list, detail or gallery view, where you see colorful images of products the service pulls from the specific page you saved. A Web clipper tool can be dragged from SpringpadIt.com to a browser’s bookmark toolbar, which creates a quick shortcut that saves a website in a Springpad account.

There’s also a My Tasks section, which let you jot down personal lists like checklists, packing lists, alarms, events and milestones.

I’ve been testing Springpad and its Alerts on a Mac and on a PC with various browsers, as well as on the iPhone, Verizon Droid and iPad. Spring Partners gave me a way to preview mobile alerts, which would be helpful to read if you’re out shopping for an item and a price-saving alert appears.

The mobile alerts will eventually have smarter capabilities such as using GPS to tell you about a discount at a nearby restaurant that you saved in your My Stuff or if a product you saved is on sale in the Best Buy where you’re shopping. Alerts don’t pop up as text messages or immediate emails; rather, you must open the SpringpadIt.com site or a section in the mobile app to look in Alerts for new offers (a weekly email Alerts summary is also sent).

While not everything saved in Springpad will generate an alert, I found myself more motivated to use this service. I liked the service’s way of saving images with almost every item in My Stuff. I also enjoyed searching through publicly shared things people saved in Springpad to see what others thought was worth saving.

But how exactly do the alerts work? For each saved piece of content, Springpad recognizes the content’s metadata (like the ingredients in a saved recipe) and sends an alert based on that metadata.

A spokesman claims Springpad doesn’t pass any personally identifiable information to retailers. So the fact that I saved a Prince tennis racket to my Springpad account isn’t shared with a retailer. Springpad may, however, pass along statistics to retailers, like 500 users saved Prince rackets to their accounts. If someone uses a link they received in Springpad Alerts to buy something, Spring Partners gets a commission from the company or service.

Springpad Alerts come from the partnerships that Spring Partners has with over 250 companies and services. Among the partners are Price Grabber, Best Buy, Wine.com, Groupon and Fandango, and the company continues to add partnerships.

These alerts are product-specific, so I didn’t have to worry about receiving alerts for a Panasonic HDTV if I saved a Sony HDTV in my Springpad account. There’s no way to opt out of alerts, which appear in special sections on the SpringpadIt.com site and in the mobile app.

If you’d like to display your saved content in Springpad with all other Springpad users, you can opt to make that content public. Someone who visits a new restaurant and wants to tell the world about it, or sees a movie that they think deserves high praise, Springpad will let them do that.

Springpad works like Twitter in that people using the service can follow one another. Unlike Twitter, no one can set an account to require permission to follow it, though marking all settings as private hides everything from others.

And accounts like Facebook and Gmail can be linked to the service creating contacts in Springpad and Flickr and Twitter to share images or saved data.

I don’t always say this about the products I review, but I think I’ll continue to use Springpad—especially for saving important shopping items and recipes that I find online. Its built-in Alerts add an element of relevancy to certain saved items, and I like that it gives me the option to share with Springpad friends or with friends in other social networks.

Email Katherine Boehret at mossbergsolution@wsj.com

On the call: Comcast (CMCSA) CEO Brian Roberts, COO Steve Burke, CFO Michael Angelakis

CEO Brian Roberts: The deal will make us “strategically complete.” [Translation: We promise not buy anything else!]

Obligatory praise for Jeff Zucker for “completely transforming NBC into one of the premier cable operators in the business,” which is the same way Zucker likes to describe himself.

This deal is so incredibly easy for us to finance that we’re increasing our dividend by 40 percent. [Also, we're doing this with both hands tied behind our back!]

CFO Michael Angelakis: If you get confused, there’s an appendix at the end of our presentation.

Did you know that Fandango is a “female-oriented” site? Me either.

Comcast has a “clear path to control” the joint venture by buying out GE’s (GE) interest, but future payouts are capped at $5.75 billion.

Debt ratings agencies have signed off on this, so don’t worry. They never get this wrong.

Roberts: Can’t stress this enough: We’re not buying a faltering film company and a flailing broadcaster; we’re buying a bunch of profitable cable channels. Cable channels. Cable channels.

Also, we’re buying at the bottom of the cycle, so some of the duds that we’re buying may end up having upside.

[Roberts is right about this, by the way: Networks really do rise and fall over time, almost independently of what management does. Remember ABC's peril in the pre-“Lost" era?]

Oh yeah. There are some theme parks, too.

Okay. Back to the deal: Cable channels, cable channels, cable channels. They are great. We love them. Affiliate fees are growing 12 percent a year, ad sales are up seven percent a year. Check out the awesome slide on page 19. “I think this is a wow slide” (see below).

Some more praise for Zucker.

COO Steve Burke: Cable channels. Cable channels. Cable channels. We love the ones we own, but they’re “subscale” compared to what we’re buying from GE.

We’re going to cross-promote the heck out of these and figure out how to make G, Style and Versus more valuable, like NBCU does with Bravo, etc.

[We're about 40 minutes into the call, and this is the first discussion about the Web.] The JV will be a Top 10 company with 82 million uniques.

At least for now, Comcast is still talking about “On Demand Online,” not XTREME ONLINE RAWKS or whatever the company is supposedly going to call it.

Q&A:

Can you give us more color on new businesses you may create once you combine? Also, what are you going to sell off?

Burke: There are “literally dozens of innovative ideas that come out of this combination.” Like interactive advertising. Targeting, etc. (via cable, not Web). We can launch new channels, new video-on-demand packages, more windows. A lot of opportunities.

Roberts: We don’t plan on selling anything. But “we have a long time between signing and closing” to learn about the assets we’re buying.

A lot of people have tried vertical integrations like this and they haven’t worked. What’s going on here? Also, how are you going to work with businesses like Hulu, which threaten your business?

Roberts: Some of these have worked. Think of [Liberty Media Chairman] John Malone’s deals. Or Time Warner (TWX) buying Turner. Or even News Corp. (NWS) and DirecTV. Anyway, that’s the past. Let’s look to the future. More important is that we believe this deal works with zero synergy benefits. [That's for you, Jeff Bewkes.]

[Um, anyone else get bumped off the call? Nope, just me. Apologies, will go get the Hulu the rest of Roberts's answer later, but I'm guess it was something along the lines of "we love Hulu and have no intent to crush it like a bug, and besides, we're one of three networks that will own it."]

Please explain how you’ll negotiate for, say, the Olympics and other assets when you don’t actually own NBC yet.

Roberts: [GE CEO] Jeff [Immelt] and Jeff [Zucker] will have to run their business until the deal closes.

What about regulatory hassles?

Roberts: No worries. This is a “pro-consumer transaction.” And check out all the things we said to that effect earlier this morning.

Burke: Both local advertising and national advertising are recovering. An analyst notes that GE has never told us much about NBCU because it hasn’t had to. So we’re going to get a much better look at how the business works going forward.

Why are you sticking your regional sports deals into this joint venture? Also, why not just hand the money you’re spending on this deal back to investors, via share buybacks?

Burke (I think): When you think of sports, its hard not to think of NBC Sports and Dick Ebersol [ahem]. Also, we think there’s some synergy with some of NBC’s local broadcast stations.

Angelakis (I think): We’ve already bought back $14 billion worth of stock in six years, and we’ll keep buying back stock. Also, check out our dividend. But we need a balance. This deal gives us financial returns and long-term strategic returns.

Roberts (I think): The timing is good. Size is appropriate–we can handle it. “You gotta like the business….We think it’s a reasonable risk. That’s what we’ve always done at Comcast.”

As for regulatory risk, if Washington wants us to make a really really serious change that blows up the rationale for doing this, we have the ability to back out. But we don’t think that’s going to happen. “Is there a break-up fee?” the questioner asks. Answer: No.

What does this mean for TV Everywhere/On Demand Online? (and Hulu)?

Burke: NBC has been careful not to put too much cable content on the Internet. We think that’s a smart strategy, “not that they asked us.” We think that going forward, you’re going to continue to have free broadcast stuff on Hulu, and cable stuff on TV Everywhere.

Roberts: Windows in general, our focus has been on expanding offerings, putting them on multiple platforms. All of those things are more likely to occur in a way that benefits distributors, content owners and consumers. “What about Hulu premium?” the questioner asks. Answer: “That’s certainly not in the cards.”

Here’s Comcast’s pitch in chart form:

ComcastNewPDF_12.3.09 –

The $399 H-P Photosmart Premium All-in-One with Touch-Smart Web (hp.com/go/touchprinting) will print, copy, fax and scan like other all-in-ones. But it connects to the Internet using built-in Wi-Fi and displays customized Web applications on its 4.33-inch touch screen. These apps are designed to promote printing in any way possible, including photos from Snapfish, Sudoku puzzles, movie tickets from Fandango, coupons, maps from Google (GOOG) Maps, coloring-book pages and news articles—all without using a computer.

The print apps are part of the new H-P App Studio, H-P’s (HPQ) answer to the flurry of app stores—Apple’s (AAPL) App Store, RIM’s (RIMM) BlackBerry World, Android Marketplace, Palm’s (PALM) App Catalog and Microsoft’s (MSFT) Zune Marketplace—that ease the process of downloading onto mobile devices. A “Get More” icon on the printer’s touch screen presents descriptions of available apps. There are currently 15 available for download onto your printer, and more will be added in coming months.

The Photosmart All-in-One connects to Web apps that promote printing of everything from photos to tickets.

This printer is designed to work with more than just the H-P App Studio. A downloadable tool called the H-P Photo Print Gadget installs on computers running Windows 7 or Vista (not Windows XP) so people can drag and drop photos to it for printing. PlayStation 3 owners can capture and print screen shots as evidence of their game success. And a long-available free app in Apple’s App Store called H-P iPrint Photo lets iPhone and iPod Touch owners send photos to this and other H-P printers.

The goal of this product is obviously to get people to print more, and in my case, it worked. I used more paper in a week of testing the Photosmart Premium All-in-One than I normally print out in three weeks at my office. The printer quickly churned out dual-sided pages with photos in rich colors.

But the concept of adding apps to a printer while also asking people to become more paper-reliant seems like one step forward, two steps back. I could see this concept working on a thin, stylish printer that could fit neatly on an entryway table, making it a cinch for people to grab maps, movie tickets and coupons on their way out the door. But this is a large, all-in-one machine that takes up some serious space.

And if this all-in-one is truly meant to work without a PC, it should do a better job of letting you interact with pages, like zooming in on a document to preview before printing. In the current document preview screen, the text is too small to read. Likewise, the Google Calendar app printed a nice one-page calendar month view, but I couldn’t zoom in on the print preview to see specific appointments. This forced me to print the page to see its contents, using more ink and more paper.

Other apps are shamelessly begging users to press Print. A Toys and Crafts app made by H-P itself includes paper dolls with cut-out clothes that can be snipped and folded to stay on the doll’s form. For the doll’s face, kids are encouraged to use a photo of themselves that–surprise, surprise—they can print using their all-in-one.

Coupons.com supplies two apps—one for coupons and one for recipes. I browsed through 87 product coupons in my ZIP Code and marked those that I wanted to print using a small check-box on the touch screen. Pressing “Print” compiled three coupons on one piece of paper. Recipes from Coupons.com printed with brightly colored photos of the end result; I’m looking forward to following one for Curried Chicken Salad.

For now, the Google Maps app isn’t ready for prime time: It prints only maps, not directions. H-P says it’s planning to add directions but wouldn’t say when. And a Nickelodeon app couldn’t load on my printer. Some apps took from 10 to 30 seconds to load—precious time when you’re running out the door.

One of the smartest apps, Tabbloid, lets people assemble a personalized tabloid-style print-out of news from a variety of sources like Daily Kos for politics and FanHouse for sports. But this assembling must be done on a computer, thus negating this printer’s no-PC approach. I chose from a list of 10 topics including automotive, celebrity, politics and sports and created a printable Tabbloid that, with one click, was sent wirelessly to the corresponding app on my printer. I printed it out to read during my commute.

I liked using the Photosmart Premium All-in-One’s generous screen for touch gestures like flicking left-to-right through a carousel of icons that represent apps. An on-screen keyboard appeared when I had to type in passwords for things like my Snapfish account.

H-P says it will introduce other products with TouchSmart Web capability and access to the HP App Studio, and one hopes these products will include low-end printers rather than expensive all-in-ones. The apps on the H-P Photosmart Premium All-in-One with TouchSmart Web are user-friendly, but I’m not convinced they’ll incite people to print more things more often.

Edited by Walter S. Mossberg.

Write to Katherine Boehret at mossbergsolution@wsj.com

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090929/countertrend-h-p-says-please-print-often/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20090622/apple-1-million-3gs-handsets-sold/ http://allthingsd.com/20090622/apple-1-million-3gs-handsets-sold/#comments Mon, 22 Jun 2009 20:44:46 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=19969

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090622/apple-1-million-3gs-handsets-sold/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20090622/hp-announces-pc-free-printer/ http://allthingsd.com/20090622/hp-announces-pc-free-printer/#comments Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:00:04 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=19943 Hewlett-Packard ushered in a new paradigm for printing today, one absent the PC. This morning the company announced a wireless touchscreen printer that will allow users to print documents from the Web without ever using a PC or browser.

The device, dubbed HP Photosmart Premium with TouchSmart Web–a grand mountain range of a name if there ever was one–features integrated touch access and a selection of print apps through which users can find news, maps, coupons, movie tickets and recipes from the likes of USA Today, Google (GOOG), Fandango and Coupons Inc. Price: $399.

“Twenty-five years ago we invented consumer printing and today we are taking advantage of the content explosion and reinventing the category by launching an entirely new printing platform–powered by touch and empowered by the Web,” said Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice president, HP Imaging and Printing Group. “By giving people access to the content they want at the touch of a finger, the ability to customize their printing experience and create their own apps, and enabling easy ‘one touch’ wireless set up, we are driving a significant shift in how people will be printing in the future.”

Not quite sure how significant a shift this represents. Is printing from the typical PC really so tiring and troublesome that it needs to be eliminated? In any case, here’s the HP (HPQ) press release:

HP Introduces World’s First Web-connected Home Printer
New applications platform revolutionizes printing in web-connected world

SAN FRANCISCO, June 22, 2009 – HP today unveiled the world’s first web-connected home printer: The HP Photosmart Premium with TouchSmart Web.

HP is bringing the power of the web directly to the printer and combining it with HP’s TouchSmart technology to give people quick, easy, touchscreen access to popular digital content.

Designed for the digital generation and connected households, the HP Photosmart Premium with TouchSmart Web features an entirely new web-based printing platform with HP applications (apps). Similar to other Internet-connected devices, these apps, which are viewable on an extra-large, intuitive-to-use TouchSmart panel, allow people to connect instantly with fun, informative and personal content.

In addition to receiving apps preloaded on the printer, people can download new ones as they become available at the HP Apps Studio to suit their interests and needs. With the sweep of a finger, users will be able to browse and view popular web destinations and simply touch the app of their choice to launch a web page where they can customize and print content on demand in an easy-to-read format.

As pioneers of this new content-on-demand delivery platform, the world’s first HP app partners will be USA TODAY, Google, Fandango, Coupons.com, DreamWorks Animation, Nickelodeon, Web Sudoku and Weathernews Inc. Through these apps, people will have free access to customized daily news, maps, coupons, coloring pages, movie tickets, recipes, personal calendars and more – all at the touch of a finger.

The new printers also will connect directly to a user’s Snapfish account to view, print and upload photos. People additionally can access projects from the HP Creative Studio.

People will be able to create and share their own apps to customize their printers through the HP Apps Studio starting in late 2009. “Twenty-five years ago HP invented consumer printing and today we are taking advantage of the digital content explosion to reinvent the category with an entirely new printing platform – powered by touch and empowered by the web,” said Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice president, Imaging and Printing Group, HP. “By giving people access to the content they want at the touch of a finger, the ability to customize their printing experience and create their own apps, and enabling easy ’one touch’ wireless setup, we are driving a significant shift in how people will be printing in the future.”

Free HP apps available at launch
Industry leaders from the worlds of news, entertainment and information are the first to offer free apps debuting on the HP Photosmart Premium with TouchSmart Web. Consumers will be able to print daily, weekly or monthly news from USA TODAY, updated in real time and customized according to their interests, such as sports, news and politics.

“Today marks another change in the way our readers can access news and information as we bring print-on-demand to consumers’ homes,” said Jeff Webber, publisher, USATODAY.com. “People can print the latest stories from USA TODAY at the touch of a finger to better fit their busy, on-the-go lives.”

From Google Maps, consumers will be able to enter their destination and print a map; from Google Calendar, they will be able to print their weekly schedule to place on their refrigerator or bulletin board.

With Coupons.com, users can save money by printing coupons for groceries, restaurants, entertainment and more. People also can browse and print recipes for quick, easy meal planning.

Consumers will be able to search movies in their local area from any one of Fandango’s 16,000 theater screens across the country. They can then buy tickets in advance and print their tickets at home or the office, helping ensure an easy and convenient movie-going experience.

To empower busy families, the printer provides one-touch access to fun coloring pages and templates from DreamWorks Animation and Nickelodeon. Through the DreamWorks Animation app users also will be able to view movie trailers to upcoming releases without having to log on to a computer. Nickelodeon printables will include color-ins, word finds, mazes and more from top properties, including “Dora the Explorer,” “The Wonder Pets!,” “SpongeBob SquarePants” and “iCarly.”

For commuters, Weathernews Inc. provides a weekly forecast to allow for informed travel planning. With Web Sudoku, people can quickly print brain teasers for light entertainment on the go.

World’s first web-connected printer
The HP Photosmart Premium with TouchSmart Web has an extra-large 4.33-inch touchscreen – the largest LCD touchscreen of any all-in-one inkjet printer on the market.

The versatile printer prints, faxes, copies and scans – producing laser-quality text documents and lab-quality photos – making it ideal for multitasking households. With a full range of wired and wireless connectivity options, the printer provides the flexibility to print directly from Wi-Fi-enabled PCs, Bluetooth®-enabled devices, the Apple iPhone and the Apple iPod touch using HP iPrint Photo.

ENERGY STAR® qualified, the all-in-one printer helps users save paper with automatic two-sided printing and reduces packaging waste by shipping in an innovative, reusable bag made from recycled plastics.

Pricing and availability
Expected to be available this fall, the HP Photosmart Premium with TouchSmart Web will retail in the United States for a target street price of $399.

HP Total Care
HP products are backed by HP Total Care, the company’s award-winning service, solutions and support, both in and out of warranty. The HP Photosmart Premium with TouchSmart Web comes with an exclusive toll-free telephone support number for quick access to trained experts who will help people get the most from their printers.

HP support professionals also are available 24/7 by phone, email and real-time chat. HP’s online support options include consumer support forums, online classes offered at no charge, a dedicated support video channel, the PC Tune-up Center and the newly designed HP Customer Care site, recently named one of the “Ten Best Web Support Sites of 2009” by the Association of Support Professionals.

Customers also can access printer diagnostics and software driver updates with HP Printer Check. More information is available at www.hp.com/go/totalcare.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090622/hp-announces-pc-free-printer/feed/ 4 http://allthingsd.com/20090528/d7-interview-jon-rubinstein-and-roger-mcnamee-and-the-palm-pre/ http://allthingsd.com/20090528/d7-interview-jon-rubinstein-and-roger-mcnamee-and-the-palm-pre/#comments Thu, 28 May 2009 19:14:42 +0000 John Paczkowski http://d7.allthingsd.com/?p=202

What a wonderful curative the Palm Pre has proven to be for Palm. Especially considering that the device has yet to ship. In early January of this year, the company’s shares were trading below $3, having been dragged deep into the mud by a string of nasty quarterly losses. Five months later, after the Pre’s announcement at the Consumer Electronics Show, they’re trading at over $10.

And Jon Rubinstein and Roger McNamee are largely responsible for that. Rubinstein is an Apple (AAPL) veteran who’s now Palm’s (PALM) executive chairman. And McNamee, managing director of Elevation Partners, is the guy who recruited him for that position. Together, they’re remaking Palm in a bet-the-company move to recover its long-lost glory. Should be an interesting session.

Session Highlights

Live Blog

• A couple pieces of Palm-related breaking news before we begin. Verizon Wireless (VZ) CEO Lowell McAdam this morning said the company intends to sell the Pre about six months from now. Also, the Pre will reportedly sync with iTunes.
• This session is prefaced by video of a faux-advertising shoot in which McNamee makes increasingly preposterous claims about the Palm Pre over Rubinstein’s protestations. It’s funny as hell, and not all that far off from reality if you know the company’s recent history. McNamee, as you may recall, made some silly claims about the Pre’s prowess in a March interview with Bloomberg–so silly that Palm was forced to file a Free Writing Prospectus with the SEC refuting them. So to hear McNamee boast that the Pre is the only handset based on alien technology–well, I wouldn’t be surprised to read that in Bloomberg tomorrow.
• While the audience is still chuckling, Walt and Kara welcome Rubinstein and McNamee to the stage.
• Walt kicks things off by noting Palm’s history of developing breakthrough devices and asking how the company’s doing now. “We hired a lot of new people into the company,” says Rubinstein. “Palm is a new company today….Palm had tremendous assets. The DNA is there. The way of thinking about great products is there.”
• Walt asks McNamee about his claim that all iPhone owners with expiring contracts will switch to the Pre. At what time will that happen? “4:25 p.m,” quips McNamee.
• What’s the depth of Elevation’s involvement in Palm? Pretty deep. McNamee says that because the opportunity at the company is so huge, he spends a lot of time on it. He notes that leaders in the smartphone market–Palm and RIM–each have very small market share. That means there’s a great opportunity for Palm to join them. “I wish I had the entire fund in Palm,” he said. “This is the thing that will define us.”
• Kara asks how Rubinstein came to Palm. He says it was a compelling idea to take something that needed to be turned around and rebuild it. “It’s so rare to be able to start with a blank sheet of paper and start over. And we were given a blank sheet of paper with the device and the OS. The old Palm OS lasted 15 years but had run its course. We set out to develop a platform that will last us another 10 or 15 years.”
• What lessons from Apple has Rubinstein brought to bear on his new work at Palm? “I worked with Steve for many years and learned a tremendous amount from him, the value of user experience and design–taste. I also learned the idea of great marketing…On the engineering side, I helped create the engineering culture at Apple, so obviously, the engineering culture at Palm bears some similarities to it.”

• On to the demo. Discussing the idea of synergy–managing information across applications and multitasking. Multiple apps can be run at the same time. Not an infinite number, Walt notes, but quite a few.
• On to media. MP3 player includes onboard support for Amazon’s (AMZN) MP3 Store. Files are downloaded directly over the air to the device. Very slick.
• Plug the Pre into a PC and you’re offered the option of using the device as a USB drive, charging it or beginning a “media sync.” Interesting, using media sync, the Pre does indeed sync with iTunes, though it’s hamstrung by Apple’s DRM-protected songs. Can’t imagine that Apple’s too happy about that. Presumably, Apple legal is already drafting a letter. Pre appears to make iTunes think it’s an iPod.

• How is Apple going to feel about that, asks Walt. Rubinstein dodges a bit, noting that there are a variety of ways of getting music out of iTunes. Walt pushes back, pointing out that this is the first non-Apple device that is recognized as an Apple device by a Mac. Rubinstein dodges again. Seems he’s pretty obviously using his Apple knowledge here. McNamee jumps in. “I don’t think so,” he says. “They are practically a monopolist and this is what consumers want. Consumers own all this media. I find it hard to believe that Apple will get bent out of shape.”
• The media sync feature also works with iPhoto and syncs photos to the Pre. That’s not likely to go over well at Apple either.
• Moving on now to WebOS, Palm’s new operating system. The key feature is the Web App Catalog, Palm’s analog to Apple’s App store. Palm will have just a dozen or so apps in the store when the Pre launches next week. Kara jokes that Palm should simply port all the apps in the Apple’s App Store over to its own store.
• Rubinestein and McNamee demo a download of Fandango. Tap to download. App is downloaded over the air. Apps do not sync with iTunes, they’re stored on the device.
• Fandango on the Pre looks and works pretty much as it does on the iPhone and the BlackBerry. It does have an interesting additional feature or two. A simple gesture adds a movie time to the calendar. Tap the screen and the Pre’s calendar ingests info from Fandango. Pretty elegant integration with the Pre’s core applications.
• Moving on to universal search. Very slick and something the iPhone lacks. Search for D7 on the Pre device yields no results, but the user is offered the option of searching Google (GOOG), Twitter, etc., for the same query. The Twitter search reveals the following Tweet about iTunes syncing: “Apple may not like this, but it’s damn cool.” Indeed.
• McNamee says the model here is “When in doubt just type.” Simple. Elegant.
• When the demo ends, Walt asks about Palm’s competitors. Clearly Apple and RIM (RIMM), says Rubinstein. He adds that the battle that’s going to be fought is not about hardware, but software. McNamee interrupts to say the opportunity here is to persuade people to move from the “feature phone” to the integrated device. Apparently, the iPhone is a feature phone and the Pre is the integrated device here. McNamee going on and on about the Pre’s design. Feels great in the hand. The Pre has a mirror. “Never before has a device like this been designed for a woman.” Nice, Roger. Perhaps someday it will include a blow dryer as well.

• Walt asks about the Pre’s keyboard, Rubinstein says that there are a lot of people who want keyboards. Applause from the audience. That said, the iPhone’s lack of a keyboard clearly hasn’t hurt it in the market.
• More talk about McNamee’s “women like mirrors” comment. McNamee says device makers typically do not target the female audience. They traditionally target a male, testosterone-driven audience. McNamee seems to think the Pre will appeal to a wider audience–one with a larger female contingent than the iPhone and BlackBerry. McNamee appealing to audience to confirm its love of mirrors…
• How do you woo developers away from the iPhone? Rubinstein says Palm doesn’t need to. It’s easy to develop for the Pre. “We have a great SDK.” Walt notes that the SDK hasn’t been widely distributed yet and the Pre is just days away from launch. Rubinstein says this was intended. “We’re doing this methodically.” There are hundreds of developers with the SDK right now, and thousands in the queue waiting for it. Why? McNamee jumps in again and says the company wants to get it right, but seems to suggest that the SDK may not be quite as polished as Palm would like.

• When the Pre debuts will there be a shortage? Walt cites varying rumors about how many handsets will be available initially. Rubinstein says the company is in full production now and shipping devices every day to Sprint (S). That said, he expects there may be shortages due to high demand.
• On to the Q&A: When will there be a GSM version? Palm expects to have one at some point in the future. What about the Verizon deal, asks Walt, noting this morning’s Verizon story. Rubinstein says he can’t comment. We do love Sprint and they are our exclusive launch partner,” Rubinstein said. “It sounds like AT&T (T) and Verizon both want it. I can’t comment on unannounced relationships.” He notes that BellMo will distribute the Pre in Canada.
• Questioner wants to know about overlapping features in Pre, iPhone ? Yes, says McNamee, refering to the Pre’s EAS. As a generalization, everything you’re used to in an iPhone will be in the Pre as well. And if it’s not there initially it will be there soon.
• Does Palm worry that Apple might break the Pre’s iTunes sync feature? McNamee doesn’t seem to think so. “We’re recognizing their market dominance…and they can’t tell people what to do with their music.
• McNamee on his investment in Palm and the Pre: If I could have put everything into it, I would have.
• End of Q&A

A note about our coverage: This liveblog is not an official transcript of the conversation that occurred onstage. Rather, it is a compilation of quotes, paraphrased statements and ad-lib observations written and posted to the Web as quickly as we were able. It was not intended as a transcript and should not be interpreted as one.

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090528/d7-interview-jon-rubinstein-and-roger-mcnamee-and-the-palm-pre/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20090506/dailycandy-ceo-pete-sheinbaum-steps-down/ http://allthingsd.com/20090506/dailycandy-ceo-pete-sheinbaum-steps-down/#comments Wed, 06 May 2009 10:44:33 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=6991 DailyCandy CEO Pete Sheinbaum is leaving the company, less than a year after Comcast bought the fashion and shopping newsletter from Bob Pittman’s Pilot Group Ventures for $125 million. His last day is Friday.

Sheinbaum, who started working for the company as a consultant in 2000 and took the top job in 2005, says he doesn’t have a new job lined up yet, though I’m told he has options. “I let them know after nine years it was time to look for the next thing,” he says via email.

I’m told that Comcast (CMCSA) is still pleased with the acquisition, which may have been the last Web 2.0 deal to close before last fall’s crash.

Here’s word from Comcast: “We wish Pete well, thank him for his work in growing Daily Candy. Catherine Levene, Chief Operating Officer and [founder] Dany Levy will continue to lead operations. For Comcast Interactive Media, IM, Daily Candy is overseen by Chuck Davis who is EVP at CIM and also runs Fandango. The transition under CIM has gone well and the company continues to grow–DC has added DailyCandy Video and DailyCandy Weddings.”

Here’s an interview with Sam Schwartz, the Comcast executive who engineered that deal and who says he’s still interested in other Web M&A:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090506/dailycandy-ceo-pete-sheinbaum-steps-down/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20090324/comcasts-digital-deal-guy-were-ready-for-pitches/ http://allthingsd.com/20090324/comcasts-digital-deal-guy-were-ready-for-pitches/#comments Tue, 24 Mar 2009 15:15:38 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=5608 Yesterday, I was talking to a digital media deal guy who was bemoaning the lack of capital, and deals, in his business. The flip side of that equation: Anyone who does have cash and does want to buy Web companies can get a lot of stuff for very little money. Per my anonymous deals guy: “$50 million today is like $300 million two years ago.”

Here’s someone who can take advantage of the new math: Sam Schwartz, who oversees strategy and M&A for Comcast’s (CMCSA) digital group. Schwartz has already guided the cable giant through a shopping spree during the past few years, and while he’s too cautious to say it with force, he’s clearly interested in bulking up some more. And unlike some of his peers, he could do it: “We’re ready for pitches,” he says.*

In the video below, Schwartz walks me through the logic of the deals he’s made to date, many of which–Fandango? Daily Candy? Plaxo–have been head-scratching to outsiders. Some of this makes a bit more sense now: Some of Plaxo’s technology, for instance, will be used to authenticate Comcast subs for its new Web video offering (see below).

And while he doesn’t spell this out specifically in our chat, I get the sense that future deals may be geared toward expanding Comcast’s overall Web audience, which means that sites that have lots of uniques but aren’t quite sure what to do with them may be logical targets. I’m just thinking outloud here, but sure seems like Yahoo (YHOO) and Time Warner’s (TWX) AOL have plenty of assets that fit that bill.

Schwartz also talked about Comcast’s approach to Web video and its plans to launch its “OnDemand Online” service this year. OnDemand Online is supposed to counter both Hulu and pirate Web sites by offering up a wealth of video you can’t already get–legally–on the Web, via Comcast’s Fancast site. The catch: You’ll have to be a Comcast subscriber to get it.

There are plenty of technology optimists who think these kinds of plans are the cable industry’s last gasp–an attempt to keep cable subscribers paying for a bundle of channels and shows they don’t want, instead of simply having them buy the stuff they do want à la carte. Schwartz, not surprisingly, disagrees, and he lays out his argument below.

*Note: An earlier version of this story and headline misquoted Schwartz. Apologies for my mistake.

[ See post to watch video ]

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090324/comcasts-digital-deal-guy-were-ready-for-pitches/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20080305/tapping-your-tivos-hidden-talents/ http://allthingsd.com/20080305/tapping-your-tivos-hidden-talents/#comments Wed, 05 Mar 2008 00:01:00 +0000 Katherine Boehret http://solution.allthingsd.com/20080305/tapping-your-tivos-hidden-talents/ TiVo is well-known as a high-end DVR with a great user interface. Its bubble-popping sound effects and grinning, animated mascot help users forget how much it costs to use. (TiVo boxes range from $100 to $600, and TiVo service costs $129 for one year when prepaid.)

A fondness for TiVo has encouraged users to refer to it with designated nicknames and/or genders. A teacher friend of mine was recently asked by a student if her husband’s name was TiVo after the child heard her say she would have to tell TiVo about a new TV show. But like any old friend — or spouse — who has been around for a while, TiVo has a few tricks up its sleeve that might surprise longtime users and new owners alike. This column includes just a handful of those tricks and highlights some features that may make TiVo more useful. These tips are for everyday users, not serious hackers, and many others exist.

Remote-Control Codes

Each of these codes is entered one time to enable an otherwise-hidden function, and three chimes signal the code is set. These functions can be disabled by entering the code a second time, or if TiVo is rebooted.

Clock: If you miss having a VCR nearby to tell you the time while you watch TV, TiVo can help. A digital clock can be programmed to show up in the lower right-hand corner of your television screen by pressing “SELECT-PLAY-SELECT-9-SELECT.”

While playing recorded shows, this clock displays the current time and the elapsed time of the program you’re watching. Personally, I check a show’s progress by pressing the remote’s Play button to see the progress bar, and the Info button shows the current time. But the on-screen clock might come in handy when you’re watching TV on a terrible date and you don’t want to get caught glancing at your watch.

30-second skip: One of the glorious functions of TiVo and other DVRs is their ability to fast-forward through commercials. But it takes practice to know when to press Play so as to completely miss commercials.

If you’re unsure about your fast-forwarding technique, TiVo can be permanently set to skip ahead in 30-second increments, by entering “SELECT-PLAY-SELECT-3-0-SELECT.” This code must be set while watching a recorded show. After that, the 30-second skipping works whenever you press the “Skip To Tick” button, which looks like an arrow pointing right to a straight line.

TiVo says this code won’t work for longer time increments, like 90 seconds, and I tried using various increments, to no avail. Still, pressing this button about five or seven times in a row (depending on the show) gets you through commercials with less guesswork.

Disappearing progress bar: TiVo’s progress bar, which shows how far along a program has progressed in terms of the entire show’s duration, appears at various moments, such as when you first play a recorded show or unpause. This indicator lingers on the screen for just about three seconds, but if this seems too long, you can enter “SELECT-PLAY-SELECT-PAUSE-SELECT” to set the progress bar to disappear after less than a second.

I tried this setting on my TiVo, but one second showed only a quick blink of the progress bar, not enough time to see anything.

Number Shortcuts

From the TiVo Central menu, pressing each number on the remote control’s numeric keypad skips directly to a different tool. Some of the more useful shortcuts include pressing “1″ to go to Season Pass Manager (a list of programs that are set to automatically record every episode), “4″ to go to Search Title and “8″ to go to TiVo Suggestions.

Viewing Tips

TiVo can display a programming guide in a TV-Guide-like grid, or as a two-columned TiVo Live Guide that can list future shows for hours or days out. The top of Live Guide gives a detailed description of each selected program, along with its duration and TV rating.

The Now Playing list shows content stored on a TiVo. By default, this list is organized in time sequential order with same-series TV shows grouped into folders. Remote-control shortcuts re-sort this list: pressing “1″ switches from sequential to alphabetical order and vice versa; pressing “2″ ungroups shows to display each title; shows are regrouped into folders when “2″ is pressed again.

Lesser-Known Features

Universal Swivel Search is a way of seeing how TiVo’s various shows and movies are related to one another. It lists details about each program, including actors, directors, tags associated with a show (like love, dating and addiction) and suggestions of similar content. Swivel Search is accessed through the Find Programs menu or More Options while looking at a recorded show.

By selecting a Swivel Search detail about a particular show, such as one of its actors, you can see what else he or she starred in and whether or not that show or movie is available through TiVo or Amazon.com‘s Unbox. Unbox downloads movies directly to your TiVo ranging from $2 to $15 each depending on whether you rent or buy a movie.

Plenty of free Internet content can be downloaded from the Web to your TiVo. But TiVo confusingly places this content in two menus: Find Programs and Music, Photos, Products & More. Under Find Programs, a Download TV & Movies section offers Amazon Unbox movies and free TiVoCast content. The latter can be set to automatically download with Season Pass settings, such as The Onion’s weekly video or ExerciseTV’s twice weekly videos.

The Music, Photos, Products & More menu holds content like photos and unprotected MP3s from a nearby computer, podcasts, Rhapsody music, Yahoo! Weather and Traffic and on-screen games. You can even buy movie tickets through Fandango.

TiVo takes up valuable space in a home entertainment center, so it’s important for the company to make sure its content is varied and useful. The codes and shortcuts mentioned can change the way you use this valuable device every day.

Edited by Walter S. Mossberg

Email mossbergsolution@wsj.com

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20080305/tapping-your-tivos-hidden-talents/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20071010/downloadable-movies-in-a-box-wheres-the-magic/ http://allthingsd.com/20071010/downloadable-movies-in-a-box-wheres-the-magic/#comments Wed, 10 Oct 2007 00:01:00 +0000 Katherine Boehret http://solution.allthingsd.com/20071010/downloadable-movies-in-a-box-wheres-the-magic/ With help from the Web and a little extra cash, almost everything becomes more convenient. Groceries are delivered directly to homes using services like Peapod, rental cars are available in easier-to-reach locations using Zipcar and movie tickets are bought in advance through Fandango.

But how much is too much when it comes to shelling out a little more for convenience, and are you really getting what you pay for? This week, I tested what could be thought of as the ultimate convenience: a box that plugs into your television and Internet connection, letting you download movies whenever you want to watch them. The box costs $399 and doesn’t include the price of movies, which must be rented or purchased for fees as high as $4 or $20 each, respectively.

This box, called Vudu, comes from a Silicon Valley company of the same name (www.vudu.com). Vudu’s biggest strengths are its easy setup, good picture quality and simple user interface, easily navigated using a scroll-wheel remote control.

Vudu costs $399 plus prices to rent or own each movie title.

If the director yelled “Cut!” right here, Vudu would be a box-office smash. But actually using this device is just one problem after another. For starters, though Vudu says it has relationships with the major Hollywood studios, many of the 5,000 titles it offers don’t seem to be popular by mainstream standards. Lots of them are old or obscure. For instance, you won’t find any of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies, but how about a 1984 sci-fi/fantasy movie called “The Ice Pirates,” instead?

If you do find a movie that you’d like to watch, you must have a bandwidth speed of at least two megabits per second to download it instantly; millions of broadband homes have slower connections than that. Vudu offers to measure your bandwidth on its home page before you buy it. I tested Vudu for a week on a typical home-type DSL line, and my connection only clocks about 1.5 Mbps, so it took me about 45 minutes to download each movie.

While Vudu’s $399 price tag might take some getting used to, its fees for buying or renting each movie could be harder to swallow after a month’s worth of use: as much as $80 if you bought one top-tier movie a week. Worse, you have to pay in advance. Rather than charging your credit card on a pay-as-you-go basis, Vudu customers must choose a $20, $50 or $100 amount at setup from which movie fees are deducted. When your account hits $0, the amount selected at setup is charged and the debit process begins again.

On top of all this, Vudu relies on a peer-to-peer network system for faster downloading. So, essentially, this company is using your bandwidth to help it save money it would have otherwise spent on its own servers and bandwidth.

I set up Vudu in a snap, plugging it into three things: a wall outlet, the back of a high-definition Sony Bravia television and an Ethernet cord. Wireless connections won’t work with Vudu without a special “bridge” or a power-line adapter. Once Vudu turned on, a friendly voice guided me through setting it up, and I got started in minutes.

Vudu’s home screen is broken down into five menus: Find Movies, New Releases, My Movies, My Wish List and Info & Settings. I used the tiny remote, which fits perfectly in a hand, and rolled through menus using its scroll wheel. This wheel can be pressed down to select something, saving me from glancing down at the buttons. Also, Vudu uses an RF (radio frequency) antenna so you don’t have to point the remote at it.

In Find Movies, I looked through 18 genres, including biography, romance, family and historical. A sorting feature can filter movies by release date, MPAA rating, critics’ rating, studio, availability to rent and availability to own. An on-screen alphabet can be used to type in names of actors, directors or movie titles; the scroll wheel speeds up this process.

Parental controls, which are only accessible with a special code, can be set to block a child from buying or renting movies with certain ratings.

Vudu likes to think of itself as the instant-gratification alternative to running to the video store. But not many people I know still go to Blockbuster for a DVD; instead, they use mail-delivery services like Netflix. Compared with the 85,000 titles offered by Netflix, the selection at Vudu is pretty slim. A more similar comparison might be Amazon’s Unbox for TiVo, which has slightly less than 5,000 movies.

Though I couldn’t find numerous titles, I did discover plenty of movies I’d never heard of. A search for last year’s “Casino Royale” returned Robert DeNiro’s “Casino” from 1995, as well as two Asian films, “Casino Tycoon” and “Casino Tycoon II.” Since I never saw Helen Mirren’s “The Queen,” I tried to find her Oscar-winning performance on Vudu. But the closest I came to royalty were “Barbarella: Queen of the Galaxy,” an alternative name for the cheesy 1968 Jane Fonda sci-fi flick, and “Prom Queen,” which fell under the Gay and Lesbian category. I tried to laugh this off by watching Steve Carell’s “Evan Almighty.” But typing “E-V-A…” into a title search only returned “Deliver Us From Eva,” an R-rated 2003 comedy starring LL Cool J.

I searched and found the same three titles on Netflix, though Amazon Unbox only had “Evan Almighty.”

I downloaded two romantic comedies: “Music and Lyrics,” starring Hugh Grant, a $4 rental, and a Diane Keaton movie called “Because I Said So,” which I bought for $20. I also rented “Zodiac,” a suspense movie starring Jake Gyllenhaal, for $4. Movies that you own never expire, but rented flicks must be watched within 30 days and expire 24 hours after you start watching.

In the case of each movie, the original estimates for time to download were daunting; two started out by estimating “Available in a few hours” and one movie’s estimate read “Available in a few days.” But all three finished downloading in about 45 to 50 minutes. Only one movie can download at a time.

While watching movies, the remote’s scroll wheel can be used to fast forward or rewind scenes. Scrolling faster moves you farther ahead or back (the fastest jump moves you 30 minutes); the slowest scroll moves you ahead or back five seconds.

Vudu might cast a spell on users who don’t mind its poor selection and high-bandwidth requirement to deliver instant downloads. But for me, the convenience of Vudu is no convenience at all. As is, its lackluster selection, high prices and slow downloads make it more of a letdown than anything else.

Edited by Walter S. Mossberg

Email mossbergsolution@wsj.com

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20071010/downloadable-movies-in-a-box-wheres-the-magic/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20070705/accessories-for-iphone-are-hitting-market-some-are-worthwhile/ http://allthingsd.com/20070705/accessories-for-iphone-are-hitting-market-some-are-worthwhile/#comments Thu, 05 Jul 2007 00:01:00 +0000 Walter S. Mossberg http://ptech.allthingsd.com/20070705/accessories-for-iphone-are-hitting-market-some-are-worthwhile/ The hundreds of thousands of people who have bought the Apple iPhone since its debut Friday may soon start looking for add-on hardware and software for their shiny new devices.

At first glance, this should be easy. The iPhone uses the same hardware ports as the iPod, which has attracted thousands of accessories. And the iPhone uses a modified version of Apple’s Macintosh operating system, which runs numerous small programs called “widgets” that would be perfect for the iPhone.

But, in fact, using add-on hardware for the iPhone will, in many cases, require buying new gear, or at least adapters to make the old iPod gear work, because of subtle differences in the way its hardware ports work. And there is no way to load Mac software onto an iPhone — even widgets. So you have to access iPhone-specific software through the phone’s built-in Web browser.

I have been testing some of the very first crop of iPhone add-on hardware and software. Some work well, others not so much. I expect to return to this topic when the add-on market is more mature, but here is an early look.

Most of the first hardware accessories are cases and headsets, for both music and phone calls. I didn’t test any cases, though I liked the look of one from Belkin, called simply the Acrylic Case, because it has a kickstand on the back that makes it easy to watch videos on the iPhone without having to hold it upright. It costs $30.

A good guide to third-party iPhone cases, headsets and other accessories can be found at ilounge.com. Apple’s own limited selection of accessories can be viewed at apple.com/iphone/accessories.

Many headphones for the iPod won’t work on the iPhone, because its headphone jack is deeply recessed and the connectors on even expensive headphones just can’t reach in deep enough. Belkin sells an $11 adapter to solve this problem. I tested it with my expensive Shure iPod headphones and it worked.

The bigger problem is that even the costliest iPod headphones lack a microphone and a call-answering button, so they can’t handle the dual functionality of the iPhone — listening to music and conducting phone calls.

Apple includes such a combo headset with the iPhone. It looks like the standard white iPod earbuds, but includes a tiny controller, embedded in the right earbud cord, that incorporates a microphone and also acts as a button. Push it once and it answers calls or ends them. When playing music, a single push pauses a song and a rapid double push skips to the next song. I found these Apple earbuds worked very well and were much more comfortable than Apple’s old iPod earbuds.

If you want to use your existing third-party earbuds or headphones, Shure will begin selling in August a $40 adapter called the MPA-3c. It not only fits the phone’s recessed jack, but also includes a microphone and control button that works just like Apple’s. I tested it with several iPod earbuds, from Apple and others, and it worked fine, though the mic is very low on the cord and must be clipped higher up on your clothing to work optimally.

Altec Lansing has several iPhone-compatible wired headsets in the works. I tested one, the $90 UHS306, due in August, and liked it a lot. It doesn’t require any adapter and it has a combination microphone/control button mounted high up on one cord, plus a second cord-mounted controller for volume adjustment and muting.

Plantronics also plans several wireless Bluetooth headsets to work with the iPhone. Most existing Bluetooth headsets should also work, but only for phone functions. The iPhone doesn’t currently support playing stereo music through Bluetooth. I tested a new Plantronics Bluetooth headset, the $130 Discovery 665, and it worked well. It is available now. Apple will also be bringing out its own Bluetooth headset for phone calls for $129.

Many accessories, such as car audio kits and home speakers, that worked with the iPod’s bottom connector, will require a simple plastic adapter for the iPhone to fit into them. Apple sells these for $9 for a pack of three.

Other accessories that use the iPod connector won’t work right on the iPhone because they don’t reroute the sound from its speaker, a feature the iPod lacks; or because they aren’t properly shielded against interference from the iPhone’s transmitters. New versions are likely to be rolling out. These will display an Apple-endorsed label that says “Works with iPhone.”

I also tested about a dozen add-on iPhone software programs. Most were either rudimentary, pointless, or worked poorly.

There were two that I liked a lot. One is a Sudoku game, at sudoku.myiphone.pl. The second, at showtimes.optimalconnection.net, lets you look up movie show times in any zip code, and links to the phone’s Google Maps program and to the Fandango ticket-buying site.

Still, the whole system of running programs through the browser is more cumbersome and less satisfying than if you could directly install them on the phone.

You can find a growing list of iPhone software at iphoneapplicationlist.com.

• Email me at mossberg@wsj.com. Find all my columns and videos online for free at the new All Things Digital Web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.

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