AllThingsD » Harry Potter

Still Looking for Gift Ideas? Wal-Mart Recommends a Box for Men.

Tricia Duryee — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 19:27:18 +0000

Still don’t know what to get your loved one for the holidays?

Well, you better decide fast. For many sites, today is the final day that orders can be placed to get guaranteed delivery by Christmas.

If you are having a hard time coming up with ideas, there are plenty of Facebook applications that will offer recommendations based on a gift recipient’s interests.

Late last month, Wal-Mart launched an application called Shopycat, which does just that.

To be helpful, I got a list of Shopycat’s 20 most-recommended gifts. At the very top of the list was an unexpected item called a “personalized keepsake box” for men. The box, which costs $24.76, is designed to hold a man’s watch, jewelry, money clip and/or other items.

It’s not clear what a person’s interests would have been for this to surface at the top of so many lists (maybe the popularity of the holiday-themed Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg music video “Dick in a Box” had something to do with it?) After all, many of the other items on the list are clearly based on someone’s favorite TV shows, movies or videogames. For instance, other fun items that made the list were action figures for “The Big Lebowski,” an Angry Birds beanie and “Star Wars” bathrobes.

As for the man box, it is sold out, so clearly some people agreed with Wal-Mart that it made for a good gift.

Not all of the items are recommendations for items sold on the Wal-Mart site. It also refers shoppers to other sites, such as ThinkGeek.com, Barnes & Noble, CBSstore.com and RedEnvelope.

Wal-Mart did not say how many people have used the app since it went live last month, but given that Wal-Mart has 11 million Facebook fans, it could represent big numbers.

Here is the entire list of most-recommended gifts for 2011:

Call of Duty Grosses More Than $775 Million in Five Days to Destroy All Records

Tricia Duryee — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 19:52:44 +0000

Activision’s latest Call of Duty title has shattered all previous entertainment records, grossing more than $775 million in its first five days of sales.

The gory first-person shooter has managed to outsell all movies, books and videogames during its initial debut.

It even surpassed last year’s release of Call of Duty: Black Ops, which grossed $650 million, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which sold $550 million.

In an interview, Activision Blizzard’s CEO Bobby Kotick told AllThingsD that the game’s entertainment value compares well against other more accessible media options.

“I don’t think we have empirical evidence to support this, but the cost per hour is a lot lower than any form of entertainment,” he said. “In this difficult economy, you are getting a great value.”

The latest installment, called Modern Warfare 3, retails for about $60 and is available on the Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and for the PC.

He said for that price, you get a social experience because of the multiplayer capabilities; a cinematic experience with good imagery and a story line; and an interactive experience. “It touches on all of the compelling areas of entertainment,” he said.

Activision is claiming that the Call of Duty franchise is one of the most valuable entertainment properties worldwide, having exceeded $6 billion in revenue over its lifetime. At that level, Kotick says, it is up there with “Star Wars,” the Harry Potter franchise, and maybe “Lord of the Rings.”

In its first day on the market, Activision sold more than 6.5 million units in North America and the United Kingdom at an estimated sell-through rate of more than $400 million.

It’s competing against a number of blockbuster first-person shooters that are being released this winter, like Electronic Arts’ Battlefield 3, which came out late last month. That title sold five million units during its first week of sales.

Not only is Call of Duty a big revenue hit, but it’s also likely sucking away time spent on other media.

According to Microsoft, more than 3.3 million unique gamers logged seven million multiplayer hours with the game by the end of Nov. 8, the first day it was available. At one point, more than 3.3 million concurrent users played the game on Xbox Live.

A companion social network for the game, called Call of Duty Elite, is being sold separately for $50 for premium access.

Kotick said Activision will release more information about sales on that soon, but “the response has been much higher than we anticipated.”

Here Comes Another Cloud: Hollywood Hopes "UltraViolet" Will Save DVDs

Peter Kafka — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 10:30:25 +0000

Say this for UltraViolet: It actually launched.

When word first got out that most of Hollywood and the tech industry was working on a “Giant Media DRM Cloud Coalition Featuring Everyone Except Apple and Disney” (and Amazon ), the safe bet was to assume the thing would never see the light of day.

But here it is. Today you can buy “Horrible Bosses,” the first UltraViolet-blessed movie, on DVD or Blu-ray, and it will come with a code that will let you stream and/or download the film on other devices, like iPads, Android phones and laptops.

At least in theory. Time Warner’s Warner Bros. showed me some slides yesterday that spelled out how it’s supposed to work — digital access to the movie is tethered to the Flixster app/site the studio bought in May, using Facebook as a login (Mark Zuckerberg = Big Media’s new buddy). But I can’t vouch for it in any way, because I have no idea if it really works.

The idea, though, makes perfect sense: Of course a DVD purchase should entitle you to watch the same movie on multiple machines.

And if Warner Bros. doesn’t charge a premium for UltraViolet movies — which they don’t appear to be doing with “Horrible Bosses” — then it makes a whole lot more sense.

No one is going to get too excited about the prospect of watching “Horrible Bosses” on your laptop and your TV. But Warner Bros., which has been banging the drum hard on this cloud/locker idea, will be rolling out big movies for UltraViolet later this year, including the newest “Harry Potter” and the “Hangover” sequel. Sony will chip in some movies soon, too.

And later on, the UltraViolet folks promise that they’ll have more movies, and more compatible devices, too, like connected TVs and game players like Xbox 360, etc.

A couple of things to think about as this stuff rolls out:

The UltraViolet people say they can make this work without buy-in from Apple and Amazon, both of whom are launching their own not-that-compatible cloud media services. I’m not so sure about that. For now, UltraViolet is leaning on Flixster, which is already well-distributed on both iOS and Android — which means this should work on Amazon’s Kindle Fire, too. But there will be plenty of places for Apple or Amazon to flex their muscles and make it more difficult for UltraViolet down the line. On the other hand, the studios pushing UltraViolet have stuff that both Apple and Amazon want — digital rights for their movies and TV shows — so there could also be some horse trading.
All of this only matters if people still want to own movies. The movie guys are quite clear about their motivation for UltraViolet — they think it will sustain a huge revenue stream by encouraging DVD sales. But the technology that makes UltraViolet’s locker work (in theory) also means there’s no reason to own a film at all — if you can pull down whatever you want from the cloud, wherever you are, who cares whether you “own” it or not? This concept used to be hard for people to grasp, but not anymore — which is why Netflix, despite its months of missteps, still has some 24 million subscribers.

Zuckerberg Tops Vanity Fair's "New Establishment" List Again (And Look Who's No. 40)

Kara Swisher — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 04:00:13 +0000

Vanity Fair magazine put out its high-profile “New Establishment” list of the top 50 people, who are “an innovative new breed of buccaneering visionaries, engineering prodigies, and entrepreneurs, who quite often sport hoodies, floppy hair, and backpacks.”

The hoodie part would be referring to Facebook CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, who topped the list — which is in the just-released October issue — for the second year in a row.

The Vanity Fair list was packed with Silicon Valley luminaries.

The No. 2 spot went to the hopelessly conjoined twins at Google, CEO Larry Page and his co-founder Sergey Brin. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos was No. 3, followed by newly born CEO Tim Cook and top product guy Jonathan Ive of Apple at No. 4, with Twitter creator and Square founder Jack Dorsey at No. 5.

Interestingly, super-VCs Mark Andreessen and Ben Horowitz clocked in this year at No. 6.

The digitally fast-forward Lady Gaga was the top woman on the list at No. 9, in front of “Harry Potter” author J. K. Rowling at No. 16.

And, clocking in at No. 40? Why, me and my partner-in-crime at AllThingsD, Walt Mossberg. He is apparently a “kingmaker” of tech and I do “juicy exclusives.”

That actually is pretty accurate. More importantly, we were ranked higher than Justin Timberlake and Ashton Kutcher. In other words: Mission accomplished!

We also beat the Angry Birds dudes at No. 49, whom my two kids would nonetheless have voted tops over their mom any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

In addition, Vanity Fair broke off a list of 25 “Powers That Be,” which is made up of a lot of longtime “New Establishment” folks, as well as another list called the “Hall of Fame.”

“These are the people who have shaped the world we live in today — and continue to wield enormous influence,” said Vanity Fair, which translates into dustier moguls.

Topping the powers-that-be, of course, is Apple’s co-founder and Chairman Steve Jobs. And outgone Google CEO and now Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt is now enshrined in the hall of fame.

As Walt and I head to a good table at the Minetta Tavern to meet the cool peeps for a celebratory drink, here is the official press releases from Vanity Fair:

FACEBOOK FOUNDER MARK ZUCKERBERG TOPS VANITY FAIR’S NEW ESTABLISHMENT LIST FOR THE SECOND YEAR IN A ROW

Sergey Brin and Larry Page Take No. 2 Spot, Lady Gaga Jumps to the Top 10 of Tech-Dominant List

NEW YORK, N.Y. — “The Age of Information gives way to a burgeoning Age of Technology,” announces Graydon Carter, remarking on the “seismic shift in interest and influence” that has occurred in the 17 years that Vanity Fair has been ranking America’s power players. The magazine’s 2011 New Establishment list identifies the top 50 of an innovative new breed of buccaneering visionaries, engineering prodigies, and entrepreneurs, who quite often sport hoodies, floppy hair, and backpacks.

Mark Zuckerberg, founder of the inescapable social-networking site Facebook, maintains his perch at the top of Vanity Fair’s 17th annual New Establishment List ranking for the second year in a row. With a possible I.P.O. on the horizon by 2012, which could value the company anywhere between $50 and $100 billion, Facebook has enough clout to worry even the unshakable Google. Zuckerberg is still the youngest person ever to top the list.

Sergey Brin and Larry Page, co-founders of Google, are in the No. 2 spot this year, closing in on Zuckerberg as they jump up one spot, from No. 3 in 2010. Eric Schmidt, who appeared on the list last year with the duo, has since been pushed out of the C.E.O’s office, replaced by Page. Despite reports of an anti-trust investigation, Google has been setting its sites on Facebook by concentrating on strategic initiatives, such as engineering social-networking features.

Rounding out the top five are Jeff Bezos, of Amazon, at No. 3, Tim Cook and Jonathan Ive, of Apple, at No. 4, and Twitter and Square founder Jack Dorsey, at No. 5.

Lady Gaga makes an appearance for the second year in a row. Coming in at No. 9, she is the highest-ranking woman on the list, in front of J. K. Rowling at No. 16, Sheryl Sandberg, of Facebook, at No. 26, Angela Ahrendts with Christopher Bailey, of Burberry, at No. 30, Natalie Massenet at No. 32, and Kara Swisher with Walt Mossberg at No. 40. At 25 years old, Gaga is also the youngest person on the list — not a surprise for someone whose fans managed to crash Amazon’s servers in their desperation to download her third album.

Youthful energy is spread throughout this year’s list with 15 members under the age of 40, including Zuckerberg, Brin and Page, Dorsey, Lady Gaga, Andrew Mason, Sean Parker, Ryan Kavanaugh, Jeremy Stoppelman, Ashton Kutcher, Dennis Crowley, Daniel Ek, Mikael Hed and Niklas Hed, and Justin Timberlake.

There are 14 billionaires on the list: Zuckerberg, Brin and Page, Bezos, Mark Pincus, Michael Moritz, J. K. Rowling, Jim Breyer, Reid Hoffman, Herbert Allen III, Yuri Milner, Robin Li, Parker, and Peter Thiel.

Five member of the New Establishment are actively involved in space exploration, including Brin, Elon Musk, Bezos, Thiel, and Dennis Crowley. Eight of the New Establishment nominees can count themselves members of the ever growing Stanford Mafia; they include Brin, Page, Reed Hastings, Jim Breyer, Hoffman, Musk, Thiel, and John Hennessy.

The New Establishment, Vanity Fair’s annual ranking of the top leaders of our time, is made up of owners, creators, buyers, thinkers, and innovators — the movers and shakers in the worlds of technology, media, business, politics, entertainment, and fashion. These men and women are the taste-makers and trendsetters, opinion formers and agenda creators, not to mention empire builders. Entry into the ranks of Vanity Fair’s list is based on a number of factors: wealth, influence, and philanthropy, as well as such intangibles as vision and the x factor.

The October issue of Vanity Fair will be on newsstands in New York and L.A. on September 1, and nationally and on the iPad September 6.

THE VANITY FAIR NEW ESTABLISHMENT

1. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook
2. Sergey Brin and Larry Page, Google
3. Jeff Bezos, Amazon
4. Tim Cook and Jonathan Ive, Apple
5. Jack Dorsey, Square, Twitter
6. Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, Andreessen Horowitz
7. Reed Hastings, Netflix
8. John Lasseter, Pixar, Walt Disney Animation Studios
9. Lady Gaga, singer
10. Dan Doctoroff, Bloomberg L.P.
11. Dick Costolo, Twitter
12. Mark Pincus, Zynga
13. Jim Breyer, Accel Partners
14. Tim Burton, Johnny Depp, and Graham King, Movies
15. Michael Moritz, Sequoia Capital
16. J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter
17. Trey Parker and Matt Stone, South Park
18. Reid Hoffman, Greylock Partners, LinkedIn
19. Herb Allen III, Allen & Co.
20. Judd Apatow, Apatow Productions
21. Jay-Z, Roc Nation
22. Todd Phillips, Green Hat Films
23. Yuri Milner, DST Global
24. J. J. Abrams, writer, director, producer
25. Robin Li, Baidu
26. Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook
27. Andrew Mason, Groupon
28. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, television
29. Mark Wahlberg and Stephen Levinson, Leverage
30. Angela Ahrendts and Christopher Bailey, Burberry
31. Elon Musk, Tesla Motors, Space X
32. Natalie Massenet, Net-a-Porter Group
33. Paul Graham, Y Combinator
34. Sean Parker, entrepreneur
35. Fred Wilson, Union Square Ventures, Flatiron Partners
36. Peter Thiel, Founders Fund, Clarium Capital Management
37. Peter Jackson, Wingnut Films
38. Ryan Kavanaugh, Relativity Media
39. Mike Allen, Politico
40. Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, All Things D
41. John Hennessy, Stanford University
42. Jeremy Stoppelman, Yelp
43. Ashton Kutcher, actor, investor
44. Tyler Perry, director, producer, writer, actor
45. Dennis Crowley, Foursquare
46. Kevin Ryan, Gilt Groupe
47. Daniel Ek, Spotify
48. Henry Blodget, Business Insider
49. Mikael Hed, Niklas Hed, and Peter Vesterbacka, Rovio
50. Justin Timberlake, singer, actor

STEVE JOBS HOLDS THE TOP SPOT ON VANITY FAIR’S LIST OF THE POWERS THAT BE

Embattled News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch in the Top 5

NEW YORK, N.Y. — This year Vanity Fair inaugurates a list of the Powers That Be. These are the people who have shaped the world we live in today — and continue to wield enormous influence. Many are longtime New Establishment members, and their destinies are intertwined with the members of this year’s New Establishment.

Steve Jobs, of Apple, holds the top spot on the list of the Powers That Be. Since Jobs took control of the company 14 years ago, the stock’s share price has risen more than 6,500 percent. At the height of the debt crisis in late July, Apple had more cash on hand than the U.S. government.

Bernard Arnault, of luxury-goods company LVMH, ranks in the No. 2 spot. As an overseer of countless enduring luxury brands, Arnault has left his mark on the industry. Last year he spent $2 billion to accumulate a 20 percent stake in family-controlled but publicly traded Hermès.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg is No.3 on this year’s list while News Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch comes in at No. 4. The tumultuous News of the World scandals this year have shaken the media baron, but also shown his staying power in the face of just about anything. Brian Roberts and Steve Burke, of Comcast, NBCUniversal, who recently acquired the U.S. media rights to the Olympic Games through 2020, are No. 5.

Jill Abramson is the highest-ranking woman out of six on the list, at No. 9. She is followed by Angelina Jolie with Brad Pitt at No. 11, Sue Naegle with Richard Plepler and Michael Lombardo at No. 15, Anne Sweeney with George Bodenheimer at No. 22, Bonnie Hammer at No. 24, and Arianna Huffington with Tim Armstrong at No. 25.

Because some power is permanent, Vanity Fair nominates a number of regulars to the Hall of Fame this year. Warren Buffett, of Berkshire Hathaway, joins Barry Diller and Diane von Furstenberg, Tom Ford, actor Tom Hanks, and designer Karl Lagerfeld. Network impresario Oprah Winfrey, Jeffrey Katzenberg, of DreamWorks Animation, and talk-show host Charlie Rose all make the ranks as well.

The October issue of Vanity Fair will be on newsstands in New York and L.A. on September 1, and nationally and on the iPad September 6.

THE POWERS THAT BE

1. Steve Jobs, Apple
2. Bernard Arnault, LVMH
3. Michael Bloomberg, mayor, New York City
4. Rupert Murdoch, News Corporation
5. Brian Roberts and Steve Burke, Comcast, NBCUniversal
6. François-Henri Pinault, PPR
7. Bob Iger, Walt Disney Company
8. Jeffrey Bewkes, Time Warner
9. Jill Abramson, The New York Times
10. Steve Ballmer, Microsoft
11. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, movies, philanthropy
12. Diego Della Valle, Tod’s
13. Roman Abramovich, investments
14. Mickey Drexler, J. Crew
15. Richard Plepler, Sue Naegle, and Michael Lombardo, HBO
16. Larry Gagosian, Gagosian Gallery
17. Harvey and Bob Weinstein, the Weinstein Company
18. Marc Jacobs, designer
19. Lorne Michaels, Saturday Night Live
20. David Zaslav, Discovery Communications
21. Jean Pigozzi, investments, art
22. George Bodenheimer and Anne Sweeney, Disney Media Networks
23. Vivi Nevo, NV Investments
24. Bonnie Hammer, NBCU Cable Entertainment and Cable Studios
25. Tim Armstrong and Arianna Huffington, AOL Huffington Post Media Group

HALL OF FAME

Edgar Bronfman Jr., Warner Music Group
Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway
Ron Conway, angel investor
Philippe Dauman, Viacom
Barry Diller and Diane von Furstenberg, IAC, DVF
John Doerr, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
Larry Ellison, Oracle Corporation
Tom Ford, designer/filmmaker
Ted Forstmann, IMG Worldwide
Tom Freston, Firefly3
Brian Grazer and Ron Howard, Imagine Entertainment
Tom Hanks, actor
Jeffrey Katzenberg, DreamWorks Animation
Vinod Khosla, Khosla Ventures
Karl Lagerfeld, Chanel
Ralph Lauren, Polo Ralph Lauren
John Malone, Liberty Media
Ron Meyer, Universal Studios
Leslie Moonves, CBS
Ronald Perelman, MacAndrews and Forbes
Miuccia Prada, Prada
Charlie Rose, talk-show host
Eric Schmidt, Google
Terry Semel, investor
Oprah Winfrey, OWN

(Full disclosure: Readers who look closely at the list will notice that all things ATD senior editor Peter Kafka is listed as a contributor. This is true! Also true: Peter wrote biographical entries for several people on the list, but has zero input on its composition. He tells us he had no idea that we were being considered for inclusion, and we believe him. He also says that had he been asked for his opinion, he would have voted for us, his bosses, to be included. We also believe that.)

DreamWorks, Youku in "Panda" Deal

Michelle Kung — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 07:01:41 +0000

DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. reached an agreement letting the Chinese Internet-video company Youku.com Inc. distribute its two “Kung Fu Panda” movies, marking the first time the computer-animation studio’s films will be available online in China.

Youku in June announced a distribution agreement with Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group. Under the terms of that deal, Youku would add 400 to 500 Warner Bros. titles to its on-demand paid video service, including the “Harry Potter” and “Lord of the Rings” series.

Movie studios have long had difficulty establishing a legitimate home-entertainment market in China. The country limits the number of foreign films that can be distributed there each year. Bootleggers produce and disseminate large quantities of pirated material at inexpensive prices.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

Viral Video: Looking Back at All of "Harry Potter" as It All Ends

Kara Swisher — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 07:06:18 +0000

Am I a total nerd that I am completely stoked to see the the last “Harry Potter” movie this weekend and completely bummed it is over?

For those who love the films, here’s a great compilation Warner Bros. did of the whole series:

J.K. Rowling Conjures Up Potter E-Books

Paul Sonne — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 13:30:01 +0000

After years of refusing to release her boy-wizard books in electronic format, Harry Potter mastermind J.K. Rowling is finally taking the digital plunge, launching an online store that will sell Harry Potter e-books directly to consumers and a social-networking site designed to keep the Potter magic alive.

The free-to-access site, known as Pottermore, launches for the first million users on July 31 and opens to the general public—with the online e-book store—in October. Once the online store opens, the full Harry Potter series will be available as e-books in multiple languages, compatible with any electronic reading device.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

Viral Video: Okay, 3-D Might Actually Work in the Last "Harry Potter"

Kara Swisher — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 02:32:00 +0000

Here’s the second trailer for the last movie in the terrific “Harry Potter” series.

It’s also the first of the films to be presented in 3-D, which has become a much abused technology by Hollywood.

Such a bow to a dubious trend at the very end kind of depressed me, since “Harry Potter” creator, J.K. Rowling, has been so strict in keeping the production of the movie in line with her books.

But looking at this video for “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2,” which opens July 15, it looks like it might be tremendous in 3-D, and a fitting end to the cycle.

Judge for yourself (and check out the first trailer here):

Mind Candy's Moshi Monsters Roar to Life Through Toys "R" Us Deal

Tricia Duryee — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 02:01:58 +0000

Facing bankruptcy three years ago, Mind Candy bet its last remaining VC dollars on building a kid-friendly gaming platform.

Already, the idea is starting to pay off.

Since then, the company’s game network (plus aspiring social network) called Moshi Monsters has registered 50 million users, mostly between the ages of 6 and 12 years old, and is adding a new player every second. It’s also on pace to generate $100 million in gross retail sales this year.

At E3 last week, I caught up with Mind Candy’s CEO Michael Acton Smith to hear about how he believes he can leverage the company’s social game roots to build a Facebook alternative for kids under the age of 12 and create an entertainment brand worth billions.

Acton Smith’s ambitious plans include bringing the monsters and other characters from the online virtual world into the physical world.

Mind Candy, which is based in London and has offices in New York, plans to officially announce tomorrow the availability of plush stuffed toys and mini-figurines based on the characters from Moshi Monsters. The toys will be sold exclusively at Toys “R” Us online and in stores nationwide starting in July.

The launch of toys in the U.S. follows the popularity of Moshi Monster-branded toys, books, video games, trading cards and a magazine in the UK and Australia, where the game is more popular. Of the 50 million users, only 15 million are in the U.S. today.

Acton Smith’s ambitions are like Harry Potter or SpongeBob SquarePants on steroids.

In addition to toys, he says they are working on music, live tours, a Moshi film and a videogame for the Nintendo DS.

In the game, players choose from one of six virtual pet monsters to name and take care of. They also get to personal and decorate a page and can post notes to a friend’s pinboard, which is a lot like the wall in Facebook. Subscriptions cost $6 a month, but not all users pay.

The company, which has 50 employees, has raised $10 million in venture capital from Index Ventures and Accel Partners.

Here’s a video interview with Acton Smith from the floor of the Los Angeles Convention Center at E3, where his Jimi Hendrix-type attire easily stood out from the rest of the hardcore gamers:

[ See post to watch video ]

Flixster Update: Warner Bros. Very Interested, as Yahoo Drops Out of Bidding for Social Movie Site

Kara Swisher — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 09:47:03 +0000

Recently, BoomTown reported that Flixster–the popular social movie site whose brands include the Rotten Tomatoes premium reviews site–was in early acquisition discussions with several suitors.

Now, said sources, Warner Bros. appears to be the frontrunner in various talks to buy the entertainment site, while Internet giant Yahoo has dropped out due to price concerns.

The reason for interest from the Time Warner-owned studio, said sources, is due to a spate of recent digital efforts, including its expansion of a movie rental experiment on Facebook.

As MediaMemo’s Peter Kafka wrote last night:

Facebook users watch “The Dark Knight” on the social network for $3. Now it has added five more movies, and is asking more money for three recent releases: It will cost you 40 Facebook Credits–the equivalent of $4–to rent “Inception,” “Life As We Know It” and “Yogi Bear” on the site. The first two “Harry Potter” movies, however, are at the original price.

Flixster has a strong presence on the Silicon Valley social networking giant, which could make it a good vehicle to attract people to the movie rental effort, as well as a popular mobile app.

Interestingly, Rotten Tomatoes was once owned outright by another traditional media giant: News Corp.

It is now only a minority shareholder, after trading Rotten Tomatoes for a 20 percent stake in the combined entity a little over a year ago.

News Corp., which owns 20th Century Fox Studios, is not bidding for Flixster, several sources said.

The price being discussed for the San Francisco-based start-up is between $60 million and $90 million.

Any acquisition negotiations could always fail, of course. In fact, Flixster held advanced discussions in late 2007 with IAC/InterActiveCorp.

Flixster trades all kinds of recommendations, ratings and news and even posts user-generated movie reviews on its Web site and via widgets on social networking sites, mostly on Facebook, and on mobile devices.

Co-founded in 2006 by CEO Joe Greenstein and CTO Saran Chari, Flixster has raised $7 million in venture funding from Lightspeed Venture Partners and Pinnacle Ventures, as well as garnering angel investments, such as from Silicon Valley entrepreneur and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman.

The combination with Rotten Tomatoes and its more robust Web presence made a lot of sense. It features mostly premium content, including professional reviews, trailer videos and news.

The site is famous for its clever fresh and rotten tomato rating system for movies.

I have not received a response from emails sent to Flixster and Warner Bros. requesting comment.

Warner Bros. Tries More Facebook Movies and a New Price

Peter Kafka — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 05:40:20 +0000

Warner Bros. has expanded its Facebook movie rental experiment. Earlier this month, Time Warner’s studio started letting Facebook users watch “The Dark Knight” on the social network for $3. Now it has added five more movies, and is asking more money for three recent releases: It will cost you 40 Facebook credits–the equivalent of $4–to rent “Inception,” “Life as We Know It” and “Yogi Bear,” on the site. The first two “Harry Potter” movies, however, are at the original price.

CTIA Notebook: Mobilized Meets the Muggles at Universal Orlando

Ina Fried — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 11:00:46 +0000

Before and after this week’s CTIA trade show in Orlando, Mobilized indulged her Harry Potter fan side and trekked to Hogwarts–at least the amusement park version of the wizarding school.

For those who haven’t seen it, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter is quite the tribute to J.K. Rowling’s mega-popular series of books and movies. While the village of Hogsmeade is nice, the centerpiece attraction is the Hogwarts castle itself. While waiting for the main ride, muggles wind their way through various corridors and are treated to brief cameos from the actors in the Potter movies.

Other nice touches include artifacts from the books and the pictures of the various headmasters and prominent past teachers whose moving portraits talk and argue with one another. I also enjoyed the Daily Prophet, complete with its own embedded movie. (Mobilized is always a sucker for a newspaper.)

Mobilized felt it was her duty to ride each of the rides several times, as well as indulge in a bit of butterbeer and some sweets from Honeydukes. I did manage to show a little restraint and stopped short of buying a wand. (That may also have had something to do with the fact that the line to get into Olivander’s stretched for more than an hour)

But, while Harry Potter-land was probably the highlight of the visit, some of the coolest technology was in other parts of Islands of Adventure and the neighboring Universal Studios Orlando.

Particularly noteworthy was the use of fingerprinting as a means of authentication. Multi-day pass users had to place their finger on a scanner and use that to show that it was the same person attempting to enter the park each day.

And that wasn’t the only way in which Universal made use of biometrics. The lockers near the Harry Potter rides and elsewhere at the park used fingerprints to lock and unlock lockers.

Creepy or convenient? A little bit of both, I’d say.

The other nifty bit of technology was tied to a roller coaster at Universal Studios, the park next to Islands of Adventure. The Rock-It ride offers riders their choice of soundtrack as they scream and yell through drops, twists and turns. Mobilized went with Evanescence.

Even more intriguing (and probably profitable for Universal) was the option at the end of the ride not just to purchase a still photo, but also a DVD featuring a music video that incorporated live video of the ride, 3-D renderings and the selected song as the soundtrack.

Fork over $40 or so and you get a picture and the video, which is able to isolate a particular rider. The video also does a great job of using computer images and generic footage to augment the relatively few seconds of video it has of each rider.

EBay Unveils Crowd-Sourced Exclusive Fashion Collection

Tricia Duryee — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 20:56:15 +0000

For the first time, eBay is letting consumers dictate the contents of the next designer collection that it will sell exclusively online.

The collection of 16 dresses, designed by Derek Lam, were unveiled this morning at New York’s Fashion Week and posted online.

For the next couple of weeks, visitors to the Derek Lam+eBay site will be able to vote for their favorite dresses. On March 1, eBay will announce the five dresses that rose to the top. The dresses will then be sold online in May, ranging from $125 to $295.

This is the first time eBay has ever used crowd-sourcing techniques to produce a collection.

The idea is part of a continuing trend by e-commerce sites to experiment with social-networking-like mechanics to make a more engaging shopping experience.

The collection of dresses vary from short and form-fitting to long and flowing, perfect for backyard picnics, or even a formal black-tie event. Colors range from denim to pink to black.

The best part of the experience is the way the dresses are presented on the site.

It’s like a scene from “Harry Potter,” where the subjects in the magical portraits come to life and the people within the image move and interact.

The models shift their weight from one foot to the other, place a hand on the hip and twirl around to show off all sides of the dresses. The fabric and the model’s hair blow in the breeze.

Derek Lam, the designer, launched his label in 2003 and sells his designs in his two retail stores, as well as online at DerekLam.com.

Mobilized Hits London: Blogging on the Wrong Side of the Road

Ina Fried — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 00:15:28 +0000

In town for this now infamous Nokia meeting on Friday, Mobilized had some time to see the sights of London on Thursday.

I began by making some work-related visits, including a stop at Carphone Warehouse, a big seller of phones here in the U.K. and partly owned by U.S. giant Best Buy.

The store had things neatly arranged by category, with most things divided into “phones” and “smarter phones,” although the iPhone had a display all to its lonesome. The clerk told Mobilized that the iPhone is the most popular, followed by some of HTC’s Android phones, with BlackBerry also reasonably popular. As for Windows Phone 7 devices, there were none, though she said some were due to arrive next week. Nokia still sold some, but they weren’t nearly as popular these days, she said.

Considering my work done, I headed to other sites, spending a rainy couple of hours in Camden Market, a great open-air shopping area that is even better when you don’t have to buy a five-pound Union Jack umbrella just to get around.

From there it was on to King’s Cross Station, which Harry Potter fans know as the place where students can catch the Hogwarts Express, assuming they can find Platform 9 3/4. Because there are lots of tourists like me, the powers that be have actually put in a Platform 9 3/4 so people can have their picture taken pushing a trolley into the wall.

Finally, I decided I should check out the Regent Street Apple Store to see how Cupertino retail translates. It turns out the store is very similar to Apple’s stateside stores, with one big difference–the prices, which are much higher. That explains why Mobilized is always in line behind three Europeans at the store in San Francisco.

For those who like pretty pictures rather than words, here ya go. Cheers.

Rupert Murdoch Gives Guests a Sneak Peek of Tomorrow's "Daily" Tonight. Here's What They'll See.

Peter Kafka — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 14:31:32 +0000

The Daily makes its official debut tomorrow morning, at a press event at New York’s Guggenheim Museum.

[CLICK HERE FOR LIVE COVERAGE OF THE PRESS EVENT]
But a select crowd will get to see the iPad newspaper tonight, at an equally notable Manhattan location: Rupert Murdoch’s apartment, where the News Corp. CEO is hosting a “low key” cocktail party.

Although News Corp. owns this Web site, my email invite to tonight’s pre-launch launch event hasn’t arrived, and I’m told it never will. The company hasn’t offered me a peek at the Daily, either.

But at this point I’ve still got a pretty decent sense of what Murdoch’s guests will see this evening, and the rest of us will see tomorrow: A newspaper that’s both old-fashioned and cutting-edge.

People who have gotten up close to the the Daily describe a digital paper where many of the news stories look just like news stories you’d see anywhere else.

Others will look more like iPhone apps, featuring interactive graphics or videos, or photos you can swipe, pinch and zoom–with perhaps almost no text at all.

And there’s more! There’s no 3-D video yet, though it’s on the agenda. But there will be an audio feature so you can have stories read aloud to you. And there’s a crossword puzzle! And Sudoku!

A Daily-watcher who thinks the thing is amazing compares it to the Daily Prophet, the magical newspaper read by Harry Potter and his wizard pals.

More jaded observers tell me it’s more or less what they’ve seen in existing iPad magazine apps, particularly Hearst’s Popular Mechanics and Condé Nast’s Wired. The big difference is that those magazines come out monthly, and the Daily will get beamed to your iPad… daily.

Still, the most striking thing about the Daily has nothing to do with any technical bells and whistles. It’s Murdoch’s insistence that he can sell a digital newspaper app to consumers trained to expect that digital news is what you get on the Web, for free.

The Daily is almost defiantly anti-Web: It will have a free site, with a grudging sample of perhaps 10 percent of the newspaper’s stories, but that’s it. While Web news sites increasingly focus on aggregation and filtering of other people’s content, the Daily will focus on making its own stuff, even though plenty of other people are already doing it.

And while News Corp. officials have tried to argue that the Daily isn’t a newspaper but something else, it is most definitely produced using a newspaper model: Six sections, written once a day–the Daily team is particularly excited about its sports coverage–and delivered in the wee hours of the morning.

The Daily will allow for some midday updates, but it’s really designed to land with a digital thud on your virtual doorstep, just like the newspapers Murdoch has loved all his life.

Murdoch will charge 99 cents a week for a subscription, and he’s certainly going to get some takers at the start, especially since the Daily will be free for the first two weeks after tomorrow’s launch.

Which will be a noisy one. The press will give it plenty of free promotion, and News Corp. will augment that with a digital ad campaign, in addition to offline marketing donated and/or bartered from other Murdoch properties. Perhaps there’s a way to mention it once or twice during Sunday’s Super Bowl broadcast on Fox.

Much more important will be the endorsement from Apple, which is using the Daily to roll out a new “push” subscription feature.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who was supposed to appear onstage in San Francisco with Murdoch to bless the launch, will send content boss Eddy Cue to New York tomorrow instead.

That’s still Apple’s seal of approval, though, and I can’t think of another time the company has so conspicuously blessed a single third-party product. That alone will be enough to prompt an enormous number of people to try it out.

Remember that Apple already has a customer base of some 125 million iTunes users–if you do want to buy this thing, you won’t need to pull out a credit card. A few button clicks will do.

The real question, of course, is how many people are going to pay for the Daily a month down the road, when the buzz is gone. And there’s no way to guess at that when you get your first look at the thing. No matter when that happens.

Maybe UltraViolet, the Ginormous Media Cloud Locker Thingy, Won't Fail, After All. What Do You Say, Steve Jobs?

Peter Kafka — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 08:01:14 +0000

I’m very, very wary of typing this, because it’s about a yet-to-be-released product that’s being demoed at the Consumer Electronics Show.

Which means it could all be from the Island of Pretendistan, which supplies a good portion of the stuff you see every year at CES.

But! It’s possible that “UltraViolet,” the super-ambitious/probably-way-too-unwieldy coalition of just about every big media and tech company except Apple, may actually work. If Steve Jobs will let it.

The big idea behind UltraViolet is that it will let consumers purchase media that can work on multiple devices, using a cloud-based “rights locker.” So someone who bought, say, a “Harry Potter” DVD can watch it on their Blu-ray player, but also on their iPad, or their friend’s Google TV, or whatever.

It’s supposed to start rolling out this spring, and it’s a good idea. In theory.

In practice, even if the group putting this together–everyone from Akamai to Sony to Microsoft to Time Warner–can get the technology to work on every platform, the fact that Apple isn’t playing along is a huge problem. The music industry used to have a “works on most devices except for Apple” standard, and it was called Windows Media Audio. Remember? No?

But today Akamai, which is powering the back end for UltraViolet, will demo a version of the service on four devices: A Windows-based PC, a Mac, an iPad and an iPhone.

The UltraViolet people still don’t have Apple’s buy-in on the project, but the demo is meant to prove that the coalition can still work with Apple’s products, even if Apple doesn’t formally sign up. They’re accomplishing that by playing the Mac stuff on a Web browser, and on the iPhone and iPad via an iOS app that Akamai hasn’t submitted to Apple yet.

But the Akamai people say they don’t see why Apple will have a problem with the app, and stress they’ve been working closely with Apple to make sure that their tech synchs with the iOS platform.

They could be right, too. Apple lets plenty of other companies sell products that compete with Apple’s own media offerings via the App Store: Amazon’s Kindle, Pandora, Hulu, Spotify (sort of), etc.

If so, then UltraViolet really could pan out, if the coalition doesn’t screw it up with byzantine restrictions and pricing tiers–$X amount for a DVD, $X+Y for a DVD with iPhone privileges, etc. (It’ll probably do just that, actually.)

Still, Steve Jobs has been very successful at tending a walled garden. And if UltraViolet really works, it means he’d be letting someone else manage Apple customers’ media, and letting all that work he’s put into nurturing the Mac/iTunes/iOS ecosystem go to waste.

Theoretically possible. But so is a lot of the stuff we see at CES that never shows up anywhere else.

AKAMAI DEMONSTRATES DELIVERY OF ULTRAVIOLET ENTERTAINMENT

· Prototype unveiled at CES for delivering content that meets the UltraViolet specifications
· UltraViolet is a new industry standard that makes it easier for consumers to purchase, access and watch digital entertainment from a variety of locations and devices

2011 International Consumer Electronics Show, Las Vegas – January 6, 2011 – Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the leading provider of cloud optimization services, today announced its involvement with the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE) LLC, and demonstrated a prototype for delivering digital home entertainment content according to DECE’s recently announced UltraViolet specifications. UltraViolet represents a new way for consumers to enjoy greater choice and flexibility in how, when and where they collect and watch digital movies and TV shows.

While not yet commercialized, the prototype Akamai unveils at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) will detail how its video delivery platform will allow consumers to experience UltraViolet movies and TV content they have purchased. It is also designed to enable retailers to more easily bring UltraViolet services to market. When consumers buy UltraViolet entertainment, the access rights to that content can be stored in their UltraViolet account and digital locker, which is accessible across multipleplatforms and devices. In addition to easy access, UltraViolet is designed to increase the value of digital entertainment by enabling streaming as well as download and burn to physical media functionality.

“One key facet of UltraViolet’s open-specs design is the ability for world-class infrastructure and B2B service providers like Akamai to accelerate retailers’ deployments, with premium-quality enablement and delivery on a cost-efficient basis,” said Mark Teitell, general manager of DECE. “As a member of DECE, Akamai’s prototyping of this UltraViolet experience is a great example of how individual companies’ initiative and market development will combine with our industry-standard technical specs to bring UltraViolet to consumers this year.”

The integrated Akamai video delivery platform and the UltraViolet digital locker are designed to enable leading retailers to quickly bring premium, turn-keyUltraViolet-compliant services to market. Beginning with the sale of physical media like Blu-ray discs that come with UltraViolet, retailers will be able to extend their relationship with consumers to include UltraViolet-compliant services to stream high definition content to connected devices such as Internet TVs and Blu-ray players, and mobile apps for smartphones and tablets.

“Over the last decade, Akamai has had the privilege of working with the top retailers, consumer electronic manufacturers and media and entertainment companies to accelerate their websites and enable high-quality digital media experiences,” said Steven Chester, Akamai Vice President of Film. “Akamai believes that our distributed global network is uniquely able to provide the scale, security and quality required for the industry’s next phase of business model innovation. Akamai’s goal is to enable retailers and content providers to take advantage of the incredible opportunity presented by UltraViolet, and be a part of bringing the next generation of premium home entertainment services to the market.”.

Shocking Bieber Upset: Oil Spill Tops Twitter's 2010 Trends

Liz Gannes — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 08:00:33 +0000

Although World Cup tweeting caused record high volume and infrastructure demands on Twitter, the most-discussed topic on Twitter in 2010 was actually the Gulf oil spill, said the San Francisco-based company tonight. The South Africa-hosted World Cup came in at No. 2.

(Of course, Twitter hasn’t revealed the secret formulas that helped it aggregate, tabulate and rank these topics.)

In the Twitterverse, after the BP oil spill and soccer, the next most popular topic of conversation in 2010 was the movie “Inception,” followed by the Haiti earthquake and the vuvuzela. The iPad, Android, Justin Bieber, Harry Potter and Pulpo Paul round out the top 10. It’s an odd list, indeed.

The person most discussed on Twitter in 2010 was obviously he of the dedicated servers, Mr. Bieber. (It’s somewhat shocking that world events and tech gadgets were able to keep the teen phenom out of the overall top spot.) Beating out her royal highness Lady Gaga, the No. 2 person on Twitter was Brazilian president-elect Dilma Rousseff (pictured).

Here’s the full 2010 list, courtesy of Twitter, followed by 2009′s list for comparison.

2010 Twitter Trends

Overall Top Trends:
1. Gulf Oil Spill
2. FIFA World Cup
3. Inception
4. Haiti Earthquake
5. Vuvuzela
6. Apple iPad
7. Google Android
8. Justin Bieber
9. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
10. Pulpo Paul

News Events:
1. Gulf Oil Spill
2. Haiti Earthquake
3. Pakistan Floods
4. Koreas Conflict
5. Chilean Miners Rescue

People:
1. Justin Bieber
2. Dilma Rousseff
3. Lady Gaga
4. Julian Assange
5. Mel Gibson

Movies:
1. Inception
2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
3. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
4. Despicable Me
5. Karate Kid

Television:
1. MTV Video Music Awards
2. Pretty Little Liars
3. True Blood
4. Walking Dead
5. Grammy Awards

Technology:
1. Apple iPad
2. Google Android
3. Apple iOS
4. Apple iPhone
5. Call of Duty: Black Ops

World Cup:
1. FIFA World Cup
2. Vuvuzela
3. Pulpo Paul
4. Dunga
5. Diego Maradona

Sports:
1. LeBron James
2. Wimbledon
3. Manchester United
4. Brock Lesnar
5. Celtics

Hash Tags:
1. #rememberwhen
2. #slapyourself
3. #confessiontime (hash tag started by Usher)
4. #thingsimiss
5. #ohjustlikeme

2009 Twitter Trends

News Events:
1. #iranelection
2. Swine Flu
3. Gaza
4. Iran
5. Tehran
6. #swineflu
7. AIG
8. #uksnow
9. Earth Hour
10. #inaug09

People:
1. Michael Jackson
2. Susan Boyle
3. Adam Lambert
4. Kobe (Bryant)
5. Chris Brown
6. Chuck Norris
7. Joe Wilson
8. Tiger Woods
9. Christian Bale
10. A-Rod (Alex Rodriguez)

Movies:
1. Harry Potter
2. New Moon
3. District 9
4. Paranormal Activity
5. Star Trek
6. True Blood
7. Transformers 2
8. Watchmen
9. Slumdog Millionaire
10. G.I. Joe

TV Shows:
1. American Idol
2. Glee
3. Teen Choice Awards
4. SNL (Saturday Night Live)
5. Dollhouse
6. Grey’s Anatomy
7. VMAS (Video Music Awards)
8. #bsg (Battlestar Galatica)
9. BET Awards
10. Lost

Sports (Teams, Events, Leagues):
1. Super Bowl
2. Lakers
3. Wimbledon
4. Cavs (Cleveland Cavaliers)
5. Superbowl
6. Chelsea
7. NFL
8. UFC 100
9. Yankees
10. Liverpool

Technology:
1. Google Wave
2. Snow Leopard
3. Tweetdeck
4. Windows 7
5. CES
6. Palm Pre
7. Google Latitude
8. #E3
9. #amazonfail
10. Macworld

Hash Tags:
1. #musicmonday
2. #iranelection
3. #sxsw
4. #swineflu
5. #nevertrust
6. #mm
7. #rememberwhen
8. #3drunkwords
9. #unacceptable
10. #iwish

Warner Bros. Probing Online Leak of "Harry Potter"

Lauren A.E. Schuker — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 00:19:53 +0000

Warner Bros. is investigating how the first 36 minutes of the newest “Harry Potter” film came to be posted on the Internet late Monday night, four days ahead of the movie’s world-wide theatrical debut on Friday.

A spokesman for the studio, a unit of Time Warner Inc., declined to say whether it had yet figured out the source of the leak, but said an investigation was underway. The spokesman said the early release wasn’t a promotional gambit.

The watermarked footage was made available for download on BitTorrent file-sharing sites such as IsoHunt.com and thePirateBay.org. Copies were still available Wednesday, though Warner Bros. said it was working to remove the illegal copies.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

A Nerd by Any Other Name Would Be as Geek–Bing Gordon Waxes Poetic and More at the SFund Launch

Kara Swisher — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 12:32:43 +0000

BoomTown will admit it: I am a social party pooper.

In any case, here is a lovely video I did yesterday while at the launch of the sFund.

The sFund is a $250 million fund for social start-ups, whose partners include Kleiner Perkins, Amazon, Facebook, Comcast, Liberty Media, Zynga and Allen & Co.

The event participants included, as you can see above, Silicon Valley power VC John Doerr, Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos, Facebook CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, Zynga CEO and founder Mark Pincus, and VC Bing Gordon.

All are also below.

At the end of the presentation to the press, the sFund’s new majordomo, Gordon (who looks like a clean-shaven version of Hagrid from “Harry Potter”), took to the stage and read a very unusual poem about entrepreneurs, which I recorded for posterity. After which, he took on a video interview.

Here’s the result:

[ See post to watch video ]

[Photo credit: Richard Morgenstein]

How to Waste Even More Time on YouTube

Peter Kafka — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 14:35:20 +0000

You really don’t need a guide to time-wasting on YouTube. That’s sort of the point of Google’s ( GOOG) could-be-profitable video site, right?

But still. There are more-efficient ways to go about it.

Like this excellent flowchart from Karen Kavett, a junior at the Rhode Island School of Design. Pretty self-explanatory, though worth noting that Kavett is, by her own admission, really into Harry Potter and “wizard rock.” (Click image to enlarge, or head here for a slightly larger version.)

Pretty great. How else would I have learned about the joys of FlippyCat?

(Hat tip: DVICE)

CES: Steve Ballmer Keynote

John Paczkowski — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 02:00:01 +0000

Steve Ballmer is delivering his annual state-of-Microsoft address at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas tonight–his second since assuming the duties of former CEO Bill Gates.

If anything like last year’s, Ballmer’s address will offer a broad overview of Microsoft’s (MSFT) consumer strategy for the year, touching on everything from the company’s hardware-software ecosystem to its home entertainment offerings.

Likely to figure prominently in tonight’s address: Windows 7 and the new touch-enabled PC form factors it has evidently inspired; Bing; and Natal, Microsoft’s controller-less game control system, which will launch in time for the 2010 holidays.

The keynote begins with, what else, some introductory remarks from Consumer Electronics Association President Gary Shapiro: “Happy New Year and welcome to 2010 CES, the World Cup of innovation. The past year has been a challenge. The global recession has affected all companies. Fortunately, signs are pointing upward, and I believe CES will be remembered as a turning point.”

Let’s hope so.
Shapiro welcomes Steve Ballmer to the stage, and the Microsoft chief begins by noting that 2009, in case you hadn’t noticed, was a year of profound economic turbulence. But innovation persisted. And with that, he rolls a first video designed to demonstrate his point. It features “one random guy’s” experiences with technology this past year, namely Seth Meyers of “Saturday Night Live.” Seth talks to his grandmother on a Web cam. He plays videogames with a kid and loses. “Before texting existed, I never sent the wrong person a letter telling them they’re a jackass. Thanks, technology….Before Twitter, if I knew what someone’s cat was thinking, I would have had to be an idiot.”
Ballmer: “We’re going to focus on three things tonight. The [first is the] increasing importance of the small screen, the ever-evolving PC and the future of TV. The second is the cloud. Third is natural user interface–NUI technology. The last few decades have been absolutely stunning in the changes they’ve brought.”
And here’s the sound byte of the evening: “We Bing. And we Bing. And we Bing Bing Bing. At least in my world.” Ballmer says 2009 is a year in which the company has made incredible progress with Bing. “We added 11 million new users….We redefined what search should do for users–we work to understand user intent and anticipate what users are really looking for. We know we’re at the beginning of a long journey, but we think we’re off to a good start.”

There’s some news about Bing today, a distribution deal that makes it the default search engine on HP PCs in 32 countries.
Also figuring prominently in 2009: Xbox. Microsoft first launched it at CES in 2001. Today, there are over 39 million Xbox 360s around the world. And more than 500 million games. The console has generated $20 billion in total game revenue.
Ballmer is moving on to the mobile space now. Windows Phone–technically Windows Mobile 6.5, a necessary stopgap on the path to 7.0–which debuted last fall in a nimbus of disappointment. Ballmer notes that Microsoft is announcing a new Windows Phone partnership today with T-Mobile, which is bringing HTC’s HD2 phone to the U.S. He says little about Windows Mobile 7, Microsoft’s “modern” mobile operating system, which at last check was scheduled to arrive at market sometime in late 2010.
Ballmer is talking up Windows 7 now. PC sales jumped 50 percent the week the OS debuted, he says. And according to research outfit NPD, sales of Windows PCs grew 50 percent over the 2009 holidays and retailers sold 63 percent more PCs than they did this time last year. Gartner (IT) now sees three percent PC unit growth in 2009–nearly 300 million PCs shipped in 2009. For 2010, Gartner sees a jump of more than 12 percent.

“Windows 7 is by far the fastest-selling OS in history,” says Ballmer. “Clearly, consumers are saying there’s never been a better time to be a Windows 7 PC….Windows 7 is a rising tide that’s lifting all boats in the PC business.”
Ballmer calls Ryan Asdourian, senior product manager for Windows, to the stage. “We’re going to see some of Ryan’s favorite hardware and software,” he says. Among them the Sony (SNE) Vaio L–an all-in-one built for high-definition entertainment–and the Asus NX90, a slick-looking laptop designed with help from legendary audio firm Bang & Olufsen.

“Being in Vegas, you’ve got to look sexy,” says Asdourian. Ballmer: “Good thing we brought some PCs.”
Next, some software demos–Ray Kurzweil’s Blio Ereader App?, then a new Skydrive collaboration in Windows Live. Ballmer: “Developers baby! Developers! I love the people who’ve built this stuff.”
Ballmer moves on to Windows Media Center and Mediaroom 2.0, which will now deliver live and on-demand TV through set-top boxes, PCs, and Windows Mobile devices like the HD2. It is coming to AT&T’s (T) U-verse. Streaming video on the HD2 looks pretty slick.
“The world of entertainment and content will come in different forms and flavors. But no matter what the source, Windows PCs will offer the greatest entertainment experiences in the world,” says Ballmer. And with that, he shows offs some new slate PCs. Sadly, the Courier–the dual-screen multitouch device that many had been hoping to see–is not among them, as BoomTown reported earlier today. There are, however, some cool-looking offerings from Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and Archos.
Ballmer rolls another Seth Myers video, “Milestones in Technology.” Not funny. Yeah, I don’t really miss “Saturday Night Live” at all anymore.
Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s Entertainment & Devices division, takes the stage. “Computer science is the only science bounded solely by our imaginations,” he says, referring to Xbox. “2010 is going to be a landmark year for Xbox customers. We’ll be offering the best line of Xbox 360 games.” Examples: Mass Effect 2 and Splinter Cell Conviction. Also an episodic “psychological action thriller” called Alan Wake. “Imagine ‘Lost’ written by Stephen King, filmed by David Lynch,” implores Bach.
Bach: “What ‘Star Wars’ is to film, what Harry Potter is to fantasy books, Halo is to videogames.” And with that, he rolls some video of Halo Reach that I can’t see because I’m watching the event remotely. The game is coming in the fall of 2010, but will be available as a multiplayer beta on Xbox Live this spring.
Bach announces Game Room for Xbox Live! More precisely, a vintage gaming service that offers 30 classics from Atari, Intellivision, etc. The company plans to add over 1,000 games to Game Room over the next three years.
And here comes the pitch for Project Natal: “We’re at an exciting inflection point in tech, where we can create an experience that is more intuitive. With Natal we’re freeing you from the last barrier, the game controller.” Bach rolls a video of the folks behind the Xbox’s new natural user interface, or NUI, which is due out later this year. “Project Natal will be available this holiday 2010….It will work with your existing Xbox 360.”
“When I said 2010 was going to be a big year for Xbox 360, I was lying: 2010 is going to be the biggest year in Xbox history!”
Bach wraps things up with some big-picture remarks and–well, I guess that’s it. He leaves the stage and the house lights come back up.

Freaky Geek Bear, Nooks, 3-D Cameras, Head Massages and a Facial for BoomTown: The Churchill Club GadgetFest Video!

Kara Swisher — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 16:05:10 +0000

Last night, Walt Mossberg and I hosted our seventh annual “What’s Hot and What’s Not in Personal Technology” program for the Churchill Club in Silicon Valley.

Every year, we show off a range of new tech toys to the crowd, helped by our regular gadget freak, Greg Harper, and by guest “tech geek” celebs.

This year, they were Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Mike Schroepfer, the social networking site’s VP of Engineering.

They brought a range of old and new favorite and innovative gadgets, including a Squeezebox Wi-Fi music player, a bizarre plush bear with GPS and other such tech features, and a facial brush that Sandberg tested on BoomTown’s flawless skin.

Also on the bill: A tie that takes pictures, a camera that stalks smiley people, a 3-D camera and digital photo frame, an Android netbook, a Nook e-reader, a bizarre head massager and a “Harry Potter”-like remote-control wand.

Here’s a video I did at the event, including interviews with Sandberg, Schroepfer, Mossberg, Harper, the bear and my son, Louie, who manned the digital hand vacuum from Dyson:

[ See post to watch video ]

Intel Makes Leap in Device to Aid Impaired Readers

Walter S. Mossberg — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:03:59 +0000

Despite all of the advances in digital technology, too few high-tech products have emerged to help the blind read books or other paper documents, or to make reading such texts easier for people with impaired vision or language-related learning disabilities.

A few years back, a breakthrough was made with text-to-speech software that could be installed on a specific mobile phone, but with limitations due to the phone’s small screen and buttons, and restricted processor power.

[ See post to watch video ]

Now, Intel (INTC), the giant chip maker, is attacking this problem with a new product: the Intel Reader. It’s a chunky, book-size device with a computer-grade processor and a large, forward-facing screen that can be viewed easily while its downward-facing camera is shooting text for translation into audio and giant text. It also has raised buttons that are easy to find via touch.

I’ve been testing the Intel Reader with books, newspapers, magazines, bank statements, menus and even cereal boxes. My results were decidedly mixed. In some cases, especially with books and certain magazine articles, it worked pretty well, often almost perfectly. In others, it did a poor job. I also found that it takes a lot of practice to learn how to aim the Reader’s camera properly.

However, an important caveat is in order. I have full, normal vision and no learning disabilities, so I can’t put myself in the place of someone who is unable to read paper documents, or who struggles to do so. For them, the limitations I found in this product might easily pale when compared with its liberating benefits. More information is at reader.intel.com.

When it worked as promised, the Intel Reader was a delight. It would start reading the text to me in under a minute, while displaying the words on the 4.3-inch screen in an easily adjusted font size that could allow as little as one word to fill the display. I also could switch to a view of the photo of the whole page, and zoom in to focus on a portion of the text. It holds multiple texts and has an easy interface with large menus that the machine can read to you.

But the Reader is relatively big and expensive. It costs a whopping $1,500 and is available from only a limited number of retailers who specialize in products for special-needs consumers. By contrast, the competing cellphone product, called the KNFB mobile reader, is much smaller because it uses a standard Nokia (NOK) mobile phone. It can be purchased through Amazon.com (AMZN), also for $1,500.

The Intel Reader

The Intel Reader is a special-purpose computer that weighs 1.4 pounds and is dominated by the roomy horizontal screen, with control buttons to the right and below. Along the bottom edge is a five-megapixel camera with flash.

The Reader’s second-most-prominent feature is a large, bright-blue “shoot” button, which occupies all of the diagonally cut upper right hand corner. You press this easy-to-find button twice to take a picture of the text that the Reader will then convert.

Both the text on the screen and the speed of the audio reading can be adjusted with prominent, raised buttons. Other buttons begin and end playback, and navigate through the menus.

The Reader uses the same Intel Atom processor found on netbook computers, and can hold 600 processed pages that you can transfer to and from a PC or Mac. It also can convert your processed pages into audio files for playback on a portable audio player.

The Reader can capture two book pages at a time. Intel also sells a $400 stand to make book conversion faster and easier.

In my tests, my biggest problem was aiming correctly. The Reader automatically corrects the curvature and orientation of pages. But in many of the items I captured, the first and last few words were either garbled or skipped. The company admits there is a learning curve to the Reader, and I did get better with time.

The Reader did a great job with pages from the new Ken Auletta book, “Googled,” and a fair job with pages from the first Harry Potter book. To my surprise, it didn’t stumble so much with the made-up words in the latter book, but with common ones like “magic.” In the book about Google (GOOG), the reader’s robotic voice kept pronouncing MySpace as “mizzpizz.” And it often pronounced the word “I” as “one.”

The device was excellent at reading a menu from a local bakery, even down to the tiny type, but it utterly failed to make sense of a simple summary statement from my bank, or the front of a box of Cheerios.

Newspapers were a particular challenge. The Reader frequently picked up fragments of adjoining articles or picture captions, or got completely flummoxed. In one case, it got permanently stuck trying to process an article. Intel says that was a rare bug it will fix.

On balance, I’d recommend the Reader, provider the user understands its limitations and is willing to tackle the learning curve.

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

Microsoft’s Bing Deal

John Paczkowski — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:15:55 +0000

[ See post to watch video ]

Windows 7 to Harry Potter: Expelliarmus

John Paczkowski — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 17:01:58 +0000

Here’s an interesting Windows 7 stat as we near the operating system’s official release: It’s Amazon (AMZN) U.K.’s biggest pre-ordered product of all time. In fact, the online retailer has received more pre-orders for Windows 7 than it did for J.K. Rowling’s final “Harry Potter” book.

“The launch of Windows 7 has exceeded everyone’s expectations, storming ahead of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows as the biggest grossing pre-order product of all time at Amazon.co.uk,” Amazon’s Brian McBride told the Telegraph. “Demand is still going strong. Over the past three months, only Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol has sold more copies than Windows 7, which is an incredible achievement for a software product.”

And an incredible achievement for Microsoft (MSFT), especially after that monument to disappointment, Windows Vista. Seems those early discounts and launch parties paid off. Well, maybe not the launch parties.