At CES 2012, 3-D Is Riding Shotgun to “Smart” TVs

3-D isn’t going away — it’s becoming just another check-off feature, as TV sets get “smarter.”
3DvsSmartTV

News Byte

YouTube Movie Rentals Adding Pooh, Pirates and a Pile of Disney

YouTube’s movie rental operation is getting a big infusion of Disney over the next few weeks. Google announced today that the first handful of what will eventually be hundreds of films from Disney, Pixar and DreamWorks Studios are now available on the service in the U.S. and Canada, joining movies from Sony Pictures, Universal and Warner Bros.

Reed Hastings Lays Out the Netflix Comeback Plan

The idea is simple: Turn Netflix into a “premium television network,” like HBO. Convincing investors and customers that he can do it will be hard work.
reed hastings

Al Gore on Steve Jobs, Tim Cook and Apple’s Board (Video)

The Apple board member says the company is set up to succeed without its iconic founder.
gore jobs

A Tablet Children Can Grow Into

LeapPad Explorer from LeapFrog Enterprises, a company known for its educational children’s toys, is a tablet aimed at ages 4 through 9.
LeapPad Explorer

Essay: Jobs’s Departure as CEO of Apple Is the End of an Extraordinary Era

Why the day Steve Jobs resigns as CEO of Apple isn’t like the day a typical CEO resigns.
Walt Mossberg and Steve Jobs share a laugh at D5.

Film Titans Rush to Get Animated

DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc.’s chief executive Jeffrey Katzenberg played down a decision by Paramount Pictures to launch a rival animation division—a move by its partner that adds to other new challenges for the animation powerhouse.

Viral Video: “Brave” Finally Gives a Princess a Job

Disney animated movie unit Pixar finally comes out with a film in which a female character is at its center and actually has something to do.
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Seven Questions for Doug Hauger, Head of Microsoft's Azure Cloud Platform

The man who runs Microsoft’s cloud explains how it’s different from other clouds out there, and how companies are using it not only to save on IT costs, but to do things they couldn’t do before.

Viral Video: Up, Up in L.A.

BoomTown is swanning around Los Angeles today, so it seemed apt to post this amazing video, in which one of its movies was made real in the skies. That would be Pixar’s animated gem “Up,” in which a house was carried away by balloons.

DOJ, Tech Companies Settle Hiring Probe

Twitter Taps Pixar Exec as CFO

Apple iPad Event Liveblog

iPhone Users: We’ll Pay for Content

Apple’s iTunes Pitch: TV for $30 a Month