9 posts and columns on set

News Byte

More TV Buyers Look to LED Screens

in News on February 23 at 1:23 pm PT

For the first time, more U.S. TV buyers are looking to purchase LED TVs rather than cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) TVs, according to a new report from IHS iSuppli. Consumers who planned to buy an LED-backlit TV jumped to 54 percent in the last quarter of the year, a 32 percent increase from the third quarter; the share of CCFL-backlit LCD TVs dropped to 25 percent from 56 percent. The report comes just a couple days after Samsung, the world’s largest LCD-panel maker, said it would spin off its LCD business to focus more on higher-margin OLED screens.

Tasty Geek: Nathan Myhrvold Takes His Modernist Cuisine to “Top Chef”

in Media on January 7 at 10:38 am PT

A side of patent troll pâté anyone?
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Viral Video: More “Hobbit” From the Vlog Files of Peter Jackson

in Media on November 9, 2011 at 12:10 am PT

Who doesn’t want more “Hobbit”? No one, that’s who!
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Viral Video: "The Hobbit" Blog

in News on April 21, 2011 at 12:30 am PT

Director Peter Jackson, he of the “Lord of the Rings” movie trilogy, is now filming “The Hobbit” and he’s doing a video blog from the set. This first one is more than 10 minutes long, but the time will fly for those who love Middle-earth.

Cisco to Unveil an Affordable Home TelePresence Product for Consumers Next Week

in News on September 29, 2010 at 3:01 am PT

Cisco, the networking giant, is making yet another big step into the consumer space, with the introduction next week of an inexpensive home telepresence product for personal use. Consumer or Home TelePresence, sources said, might be launched with Comcast and Verizon. It is not clear if AT&T is involved. The cost for a small unit is reportedly around $200, but that price will be heavily subsidized. Another source said a $500 price point was also possible with fewer hooks.

First Ben Silverman Online Program–"Ready, Set, Dance!"–Debuts on Yahoo

in News on September 28, 2010 at 7:31 pm PT

Yahoo and Electus, the multiplatform content studio headed by former NBC entertainment head Ben Silverman, debuted its first original, branded entertainment programming tonight with “Ready, Set, Dance!” The site, which is now live on Yahoo Music and sponsored by State Farm, merges the candid-camera phenomenon with reality television and “aims to tap into the pop culture interest in television dance shows and dance videos on the Web….” The site is relatively spare right now, with only one episode, titled “Magic Sparkle Chunk and Frisky Ris.”

The Polyvore Team Talks About User-Generated Fashion Stylists and More!

in News on July 30, 2010 at 7:07 am PT

Earlier this week, I headed down to Mountain View, Calif., to the downtown HQ of Polyvore–the unusually named start-up aimed at the inner stylist in everyone–to talk about the economics of fashion online. The odd name is a combination that roughly means the devouring of many or much–which at Polyvore translates into leopard prints, kitten heels or the rubber clothes of Lady Gaga. The registered site, with six million unique monthly visitors, allows users to “mix & match products from your favorite stores” into fashion “sets” on any topic, concept or–in BoomTown’s taste-challenged case–fleece and Pumas.

Former Google Exec Singh Cassidy Becomes CEO of Fashion Start-up Polyvore

in News on February 22, 2010 at 11:00 am PT

Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, former president of Google’s Asia-Pacific and Latin American operations, has taken the CEO job at an unusual fashion and shopping social network called Polyvore. The registered site allows users to “mix & match products from your favorite stores.” In other words, everyone can play at being be a stylist, merchandiser and, if aspirations are high enough, presumably the editor of Vogue magazine.

Geek in Black: Barry Sonnenfeld Comes Out From Behind the Camera to…Vlog?

in News on October 12, 2009 at 5:26 am PT

For many years now, one of our regular attendees at the D: All Things Digital conference has been award-winning movie and television director, producer and writer Barry Sonnenfeld, who is–as it turns out–a not-so-closeted geek in his spare time with a gadget column for Esquire magazine called “The Digital Man.” Now he is branching out to a vlog about his geek passions on Crackle, which will appear every two weeks from wherever he is–either from his homes in East Hampton, N.Y. or Telluride, Colo., or from Hollywood sets.
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