Monday, June 30, 2014
Sunday, June 29, 2014
Saturday, June 28, 2014
AT&T’s HQ LTE Calls Only Available on Galaxy S4 Mini at First
Right in sync with rumors, AT&T has launched its high-quality LTE voice calling in a handful of places across the US. If you live in the right parts of Illinois, Indiana, Minneapolis and Wisconsin, you'll get pristine-sounding phone conversations starting on May 23rd. There's no public roadmap for other regions, but AT&T is promising news on a "market-to-market" basis. Just don't expect a wide selection of phones at first. The only phone that will support voice over LTE from day one is the fairly ho-hum Galaxy S4 Mini - if you just bought a Galaxy S5 or some other hot new device, you'll still have to wait patiently for word of an update. Many smartphones are capable of handling the technology, however, so don't be surprised if your next heart-to-heart chat sounds much clearer than usual.
Read the full story at Engadget.
A 3D Printer Made a Teddy Bear With Needle and Thread
From aircraft to houses and even guns, just about anything can be 3D printed - as long as it's not soft and squishy. Now the repertoire is about to get a lot more cuddly. The first 3D printer that can churn out soft objects made its debut last month at the Computer Human Interaction conference in Toronto, Canada. It has already made small woollen teddy bears, and could one day be used to create electronics that are easy on the skin. That could pave the way for a new generation of body-monitoring sensors and lifelogging devices that can be discreetly embedded in clothing. "The things that we hold close to our body, we would like them to be soft," says Scott Hudson at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who led the team that devised the printer.
Read the full story at New Scientist.
Friday, June 27, 2014
Thursday, June 26, 2014
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
White Flash Diffuser for YONGNUO YN 560, 565, YN560 I II II & YN565EX
White Flash Diffuser for YONGNUO YN 560, 565, YN560 I II II & YN565EX
- Bounce flash diffuser for Yongnuo flash gun
- Softens the flash light
- Easy to use - simply push on and pull off
- Made from durable plastic
- High quality item
Achieve a more natural result with this handy attachment. Tone down a harsh flash and you can produce a softer image.
Attach and detach quickly and with ease. The lightweight design also allows you to transport this excellent accessory anywhere.
Compatible with: YONGNUO YN 560, 565, YN560 & YN565EX
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Firefox for Android tablets now available
If you've been waiting for the tablet-optimized version of Firefox for your Android tablet, we've got some good news for you. Firefox for Android tablets has just entered the nightly builds stage, which means that it is functional enough for the public to play around with and test - so we're one step closer to a final release of the web browser.
So if you love Firefox for Android you might be inclined to check it out. It's not going to be perfect - expect bugs, crashes and whatnot, but hey - that's what the testing experience is all about. Head over to the Nightly Mozilla webpage to get your hands on the web browser now. If you've given it a spin, let us know what you think of it.
HP Webcam HD 5210 lets you Skype in HD
If there's one thing great about technology, it's the ability to keep in touch with the people we care about even though they're thousands of miles away. We've come a long way since the introduction of 320 x 240 webcams (remember those days?) and now HD video calling is slowly becoming the standard. HP's latest entry to the webcam market, the HP Webcam HD 5210 is one such camera.
It allows 720p video streaming or recording in full 1080p HD (for you aspiring YouTube stars), so you can be sure that your videos will look top notch. An auto-focus lens and HP's TrueVision auto light exposure also help in that department. With software to help you perform one-click uploads to Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Flickr, sharing your videos isn't going to be a problem.
The camera's mount allows it to swivel up to 270 degrees, and two premium noise-cancelling stereo microphones onboard ensure your voice is heard. The HD 5210 can also take still photos with at 13-megapixels, and has 5x digital zoom in the event the need ever arises. The HP Webcam HD 5210 will be available on September 21st with a price tag of $99.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntmFWLjcXIM
Monday, June 23, 2014
Gameloft offers prepaid Game Cards in the UK
Not everyone knows how to download/purchase games from the app store his or her phone (or carrier) uses. What's more, not everyone knows what kind of games there are to download. For those folks, Gameloft prepared prepaid cards in partnership with UK-based retailers Game and Gamestation. The so called Gameloft Game Cards are available for 4.95 GBP, offering 5 games that work on "over 2000 handsets." Needless to say, these cards can also come with Android games.
I guess experimenting with distribution could prove beneficial for Gameloft (and other game publishers for that matter). This is especially true for people who want to buy some game(s) as a gift. Sending a promo code can't compete with the good ol' physical touch, even if it's just a voucher that will eventually lead to digital download. Or at least that's the way I see it. What do you think?
Adobe’s launching Flash Player 11, Air 3 bringing HD video and 3D gaming to all
While we've had access to Adobe's Flash Player 11 in beta form for months, the company announced it will finally get official, along with Air 3, next month. Among the many new features included are support for accelerated 2D and 3D graphics with a claimed 1,000 times faster performance than Flash Player 10 and Air 2. That's enough to enable "console-quality" gaming on both computers and connected TVs and on mobile devices (Android, iOS, Playbook) with a pre-release version of Flash 11 (a production release you can take on the go is expected in "the near future"). Other new options include allowing developers to package Air 3 along with their apps in a single install, HD video quality on multiple platforms including iOS, DRM for video rentals, 64-bit support and more. Check out Adobe's pitch to developers with a press release and demo videos after the break, including a look at the hit iPad game Machinarium which was built with its tools.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkoBcA_hDf4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqMCe4caFd8
Sunday, June 22, 2014
Colour Splash Studio
It's simple, its creative, and most importantly all features are working. I really like this app because it didn't confuse me with its complexity like other apps, and gave me good results. People who like photography often take pictures while travelling, I even got good results while capturing moving objects.
Color Splash Studio
Now I can quickly apply masks, can adjust image settings, can compare results with original, can import photos from Aperture and iPhoto, and can share masterpieces - and it takes seconds with this outstanding app. Why should I use other softwares to maintain picture quality when I have this app? Those who always worry about the picture quality specially professional photographers can make all type of adjustments in picture with this app. Picture sharing on Facebook, Twittor, Flickr, and Tumblr with millions of people is now possible in few minutes by using same app. Colour themes are marvellous. Thumbs up for Colour Splash Studio.
No related posts.
iPhone 5: a revolution in Mobile Commerce
According to the market experts, Apple is going to revolutionize mobile commerce by including NFC (Near-Field Communication) technology in upcoming iPhone 5. This technology incorporates information of financial accounts and ties that data to specific devices. That means iPhone 5 will allow you to use it for making payments as a virtual credit card.
NFC technology considered as more secure technology than RFID and other touchless technologies because it works at a range of four to five inches via point of sale scanners. It is also in discussion that apple could put this system in all version of its iPhones in future. Normally owners of iPhones are typically heavy users of data and upscale demographics of these users make them desired target for businesses.
It's a revolutionary step of Apple that will customize the shopping practices of iPhone users and will allow them the opportunity to utilize their iPhone in more effective way. It's also a great opportunities for companies who can increase their profits. Retailers who still do not have NFS scanners would need to switch to new terminals so that they could also get the advantage of this technology.
Though iPhone users have already been using various types of applications for ecommerce and payments, but after the inclusion of NFC in iPhone 5, the mobile commerce will become more easy and effective for the users. But it will not decrease the importance of iPhone applications because these applications have turned the world in to the pocket size Hub.
So the iPhone users and shopping lovers should be ready to experience another revolutionary move of Apple.
No related posts.
Saturday, June 21, 2014
Professional guide for yoga through your All-in yoga app
Professional assistance is required when you have planned your yoga workouts routine. By simply downloading the All-in yoga app you would be able to enjoy professional yoga content with HD quality. It is so convenient to be used on your smart devices like iPod, iPad, Mac, and iPhone by simply downloading it from Apple iTunes.
Yoga will no more be a rocket science to be learnt, you just have to count on your fingertips and open your All-in yoga app. It is amalgamated with workout programs, video and audio guide of asanas, breathing exercises and yoga music. You just have to select that whether you want to purchase complete app or want to use a free portion.
All-in yoga app offers you over 250 different poses, each pose is explained with audio and video guide. Those of you who found it difficult to follow the wordy explanation can visualise the poses in HD quality and copy it during their yoga workouts routine. The poses are shown in 3D muscle models so that you can enjoy in real modes.
Breathing is the crucial part of yoga workouts routine. Every exercise requires special type of breathing which is explained and taught by the professionals. In All-in yoga app almost have 40 different types of breathing exercise along with four programs. This boosts up the metabolism during meditation and relaxation yoga programs.
As every one of you cannot be at the same level, thus All-in yoga has offered exercises from beginners to gurus. It has even allowed you to decide your motive and choose the exercise for body shaping, health, de-stressing, losing weight or stretching. The best part of the available yoga programs is that you can modify it according to your requirements. You can make amendments in the workout plans in terms of duration of poses and set orders. You can also custom your poses with the help of professional guides.
Along with professionally designed routine workouts, you are facilitated with yoga music through All-in yoga app. This app presents 10 relaxation and 10 music tracks which you can play during your exercise or asanas. Music will give you pleasure and will boost up your morale to do yoga. You can even set your yoga music track for the resting period and relax during resting time.
All-in yoga app is quite handy and has numerous features that let you stay connected with the world. You can share whatever you are doing, with your friends. You can set time duration for relaxing and exercising. Make your profile and update your calendars with this app and enjoy the world of yoga in new manner.
No related posts.
The iPhone 5 – what to expect
The latest version of Apple's iPhone - the 4S - broke all existing sales records for a smartphone and when the iPhone 5 hits the shelves it seems inevitable that this feat will be repeated. Whether it will be quite as groundbreaking a piece of technology as previous generations are is debatable. It might be that after smashing so many barriers the iPhone has literally run out of ground to break. That said with Apple you never know what tricks they may pull from their sleeves.
The first, and for many people most important question to ask is, physically how will it be different? The word from various well-sourced blogs is the iPhone 5 is likely to be slightly (but only slightly) taller than the current model as well as slightly thinner. The word from the rumour mill is that Apple has aimed to make the iPhone 5 the slimmest smartphone on the market - an aspirational tag if ever there was one. The existing headphone jack will have been moved to avoid the recurrent 'wire-bend' that many users of the iPhone 4 and 4S complained of. Also, and this is bad news for anyone who invested in an expensive audio-dock for previous incarnations of the iPhone, the connector-port for said technology will be marginally smaller too. From the few leaked pictures made available on the web (that under no circumstances show the front of the handset) it seems more use will be made of brushed aluminium than in previous models.
All of this tells us that Apple is certainly not ready for an iPhone revolution yet. In the case of the iPhone 5 the buzzword circulating on all the technology blogs is of evolution, and the subtle alterations to its physical composition reflect this. It is not one of the cheap mobile phones but one thing's for sure: it looks millions of people will be itching to add it to their collection.
No related posts.
Friday, June 20, 2014
Xcode 6 Allows Developers to Test Larger iPhone and iPad Screen Sizes
The options are likely to enable developers to start developing apps that fit on the rumored larger 4.7 and 5.5 inch screens of the iPhone 6 and, perhaps, the rumored 12-inch iPad Pro. Another photo of the Xcode simulator shows the difference between an app visually optimized for an older iPhone in what appears to be the resolution for one of the two iPhone 6 models.
It's not yet known what the exact resolutions are for the 4.7 and 5.5 inch iPhone 6 models or even the rumored 12-inch iPad Pro, but the "resizable" functionality would allow developers to explore building versions of their apps for larger screens that are currently available.
OS X Yosemite Public Beta Limited to First Million Registered Users [Mac Blog]
How can I participate?Users will also need to be running OS X Mavericks, and Apple recommends that the OS X Yosemite beta be installed on a secondary Mac in the event of possible bugs and errors.
To join the OS X Beta Program, just sign up using your Apple ID. When the beta software is ready, you'll receive a redemption code that will allow you to download and install OS X Yosemite Beta from the Mac App Store. Then go ahead and start using it. When you come across an issue that needs addressing, report it directly to Apple with the built-in Feedback Assistant application.
OS X Yosemite includes a brand new user interface design alongside major new features focusing on seamless integration between Mac and iOS devices. The new operating system also includes a new cloud storage solution called iCloud Drive, as well as the ability to make phone calls and texts through an iPhone.
Thursday, June 19, 2014
Take A Look At These Handy Iphone Tips
The iphone is a useful and convenient device. The iphone doubles as an entertainer, personal secretary, tutor and many other valuable things. This means there are a multitude of ways to use the iphone to best advantage in your life. Keep reading to learn how to do so.
Make sure your phone is using the latest updates. Keeping your phone updated will ensure that it is loaded with the latest options and software patches. This will allow you to keep a backup of all your pictures and information so you do not lose everything if your phone is damaged or lost.
You don’t need to type in the “.com” when browsing the web on your iphone. Simply type in the main portion of the address. Your web browser will understand what you are saying and will put you on the right site. How much time could you save by cutting out these unnecessary elements?
Screen Protector
Always use a screen protector with your iphone. Without a protector, there will be scratches and nicks. A scratch can be caused by even the tiniest particle of dirt you may have on your finger. Therefore, a screen protector is an essential accessory.
Most iphone users spend a good deal of time browsing Mail or Safari, but they might not know how easy it is to save images from them. Just hold the image you want for a moment. A box pops up after this period of time prompting you to save any image on your iphone.
There are applications that let you use your iphone to store files. With this app, you are able to upload pictures, brief videos, music and text files. You can access files by connecting your phone directly to your computer, or you can view/listen to them on your phone.
You may be wanting to add an accented or umlauted letters but are not sure how. Here is how to find them. If you touch an individual letter for only a few seconds, options will appear for that letter. A pop-up box should appear with extra keys. Here, you can choose unique letters to spice up your text.
There are a lot of multimedia capabilities that you can use when you are playing with your iphone. Some of these include downloading television episodes or different comedy clips from websites.
Access your email quickly and easily by tagging your accounts directly to your iphone. This can be very useful in that it permits you to receive notifications with every incoming message, allowing you to read them instantly. You are not limited to a single email account with this feature.
The calculator utility is a standard feature on the iphone that provides you with a quick way to perform common math calculations. You can use it easily in the usual vertical position or turn your phone horizontally for a sleek scientific calculator look.
As mentioned, your iphone is not just a regular phone, and it has a number of great features. It can do more things that you might not know about. Use the advice this article has provided you with to make great use of your iphone.
Tip of the Day: What to Do if Your Home Button Doesn't Work
Home button or Sleep/Wake button not working properly? (Maybe you had some kind of iPhone misfortune involving water or a drop?) You're probably planning to take your phone in to get fixed; but in the mean time, Assistive Touch is a great work around to this problem:
To turn on Assistive Touch go to Settings>General>Accessibility>Assistive Touch and toggle Assistive Touch on.
A virtual Home button will now appear on your screen at all times. Press this button and you will bring up a screen like this:
Tapping Favorites will allow you to create your own custom gestures.
Tap Siri to use your phone's digital assistant.
Tap Home to return to the Homescreen.
And tap Device to bring up a whole new menu of options that allow yout to lock the screen orientation, rotate the screen, adjust the volume, mute or unmute your ringer:
Tapping More will bring up another menu that let you shake to undo, take a screenshot, bring up the multitasking bar, or use gestures.
Topics:
- Top Story
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
Tim Cook Emails Employees About Apple’s Supplier Responsibility Progress Report
Apple News | Tim Cook Emails Employees About Apple's Supplier Responsibility Progress Report
Friday, 13th January 2012, 08:01 pm
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Apple CEO Tim Cook has emailed employees to share the results of Apple's 2012 Supplier Responsibility Progress Report, reports MacGeneration.
The report details Apple's efforts to improve worker protections and factory conditions.
You can find Cook's email below...
Read More
--
Team,
We've just released our sixth annual update on conditions in Apple's supply chain, and I want to personally share some of the results with you.
We insist that our manufacturing partners follow Apple's strict code of conduct, and to make sure they do, the Supplier Responsibility team led more than 200 audits at facilities throughout our supply chain last year. These audits make sure that working conditions are safe and just, and if a manufacturer won't live up to our standards, we stop working with them.
Thanks to our supplier responsibility program, we've seen dramatic improvements in hiring practices by our suppliers. To prevent the use of underage labor, our team interviews workers, checks employment records and audits the age verification systems our suppliers use. These efforts have been very successful and, as a result, cases of underage labor were down sharply from last year. We found no underage workers at our final assembly suppliers, and we will not rest until the number is zero everywhere.
We've also used our influence to substantially improve living conditions for the people who make our products. Apple set a new standard for suppliers who offer employee housing, to ensure that dormitories are comfortable and safe. To meet our requirements, many suppliers have renovated their dorms or built new ones altogether.
Finding and correcting problems is not enough. Our team has built an ambitious training program to educate workers about Apple's code of conduct, workers' rights, and occupational health and safety. More than one million people know about these rights because they went to work for an Apple supplier. Additionally, Apple offers continuing education programs free of charge at many manufacturing sites in China. More than 60,000 workers have enrolled in classes to learn business, entrepreneurial skills or English.
Finally, we are taking a big step today toward greater transparency and independent oversight of our supply chain by joining the Fair Labor Association. The FLA is a leading nonprofit organization dedicated to improving conditions for workers around the world, and we are the first technology company they've approved for membership. The FLA's auditing team will have direct access to our supply chain and they will report their findings independently on their website.
No one in our industry is driving improvements for workers the way Apple is today. I encourage you to take some time to read more about these efforts, so that you can be as proud of Apple's contributions in this area as I am. The details are online now at apple.com/supplier responsibility.
Tim
--
Source
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
iPhone 6: 4-inch, 4.7-inch or 5.5-inch screen – Which one will you buy?
It has been widely speculated that Apple will launch iPhone 6 with larger 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch screens to compete with Android based smartphones that usually come with larger screens.
The 4.7-inch iPhone 6 could feature a 1704 960 resolution display with a display density of 416 PPI, and the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 could feature a 1704 960 resolution display with a display density of 356 PPI.
So the question for today’s poll is: Which iPhone 6 will you buy? Will you buy the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 or the 5.5-inch phablet? I’m assuming that just like the iPad Air and the Retina iPad mini, the hardware will be the same, and the only differentiating factor will be the screen size between the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 and 5.5-inch iPhone 6.
It also looks like Apple won’t launch a 4-inch iPhone 6, but I am adding it as one of the options, as a number of readers have said that they would prefer to stick to the 4-inch screen.
Please take this poll below and let us know what has been your experience, and please feel free to leave a comment if you like to elaborate.
Which iPhone 6 will you buy?
New concept imagines a much-needed iTunes redesign
Brye Kobayashi, a designer, posted a new concept that reimagines the look of iTunes on OS X that addresses many navigation and usability issues, and brings the design in line with the new iOS 7 design language.
Some of the issues the designer highlights with iTunes’ existing designs are:
- Dropdown to switch between Music, Video and App libraries is confusing for the average user.
- The narrow rows of songs in the list view with small text isn’t legible
- There are two highly distinct styles of design within iTunes - the list based library view and the more modern grid based iTunes Radio view
The concept revamps the iTunes design with a flat look, a better iTunes Store, a more readable library view and improved navigation.
The library view, earlier a simple linear list, is an alphabetically grouped list in the concept:
The iTunes Store features a simplified design, with a less complex information hierarchy, big banners, and of course flattened buttons and other UI elements:
The device management screen is redesigned too, with the storage bar featuring flatter colors, and Find my iPhone and iCloud accessible right from within this window.
Over time, there has been a lot of feature creep in iTunes, with unrelated functionalities like the App Store, device management, app library etc. being crammed in what was once a music player. iTunes’ design is long due for a rethink, and we think this concept does a good job at exploring what the future of the music player might look like. Let us know what you think in the comments below.
[via kurocha]
Monday, June 16, 2014
The Digital TV Endgame: 10-Year Transition to All Things IP
While Internet TV is already technically feasible, commercial challenges are keeping it from becoming a mass-market reality. Services like Hulu, YouTube and Netflix are helping turn online video into a viable substitute for broadcast television, but the Internet still has a long way to go. Industry insiders often talk about being four years into a 10-year transition, so what will the next six years look like as online distribution increasingly eats away at the broadcast TV market? Who will be the winners and losers in this new world? What technology needs to be invented, what deals need to be struck, and what existing commercial relationships need to be upended?
Then and Now
Everyone remembers how Napster sparked a collision between the music industry and the Internet that forever changed how people consume music. Buying a physical CD in-store quickly became a thing of the past, and today we stream music on-demand, over the air, from digital services like Spotify or Songza. A similar transition is happening in television. Platforms like Hulu and Roku are melding video with online distribution, disrupting traditional cable/broadcast consumption and making it faster and more convenient than ever before for viewers to watch their favorite shows. Most importantly, consumers are increasingly taking advantage of these new platforms. In the last 12 months, 1.8 million Americans have cut the cord and unsubscribed from cable TV, according to a recent study by research firm SNL Kagan. This represents a 3.1 percent drop in cable subscribers, and the trend continues to gain momentum despite the limited availability of premium sports or prime-time entertainment shows on digital platforms. As more of this content becomes available online, expect to see cable subscriber losses accelerate as consumers enjoy the benefits of a digital user experience combined with full access to their favorite shows and sports.
But it's not just a question of content availability. Online distribution actually represents a superior product from a user-experience standpoint. With content parity, there seems little doubt users would migrate to digital TV even faster. Traditionally, television has been a broadcast (one-to-many) medium. A station broadcasts a single show, at a specific time, with all viewers seeing the same content and ads simultaneously. By contrast, online video is a one-to-one medium. Each user connects individually; pulling in the specific content they want, where they want, when they want. Digital platforms enjoy far richer user interfaces, robust search, on-demand content accessibility and multi-device on-the-go access. As well as personalizing content, advertisers are also embracing this one-to-one relationship with viewers. This new, individualized experience enables ads to be delivered based on user preferences, search history and interests, enabling advertisers to reach consumers in a far more targeted (and hence relevant/effective) way. Eventually, this may even reduce the numbers of ads viewers are subjected to, as advertisers get more efficient at targeting only the most relevant audiences for their products. All this was impossible in the old broadcast world.
With so many benefits to Internet delivery, one would wonder why all TV isn't delivered this way. The challenge has far less to do with technology, and far more to do with existing business relationships and commercial interests. Existing broadcasters, cable companies and content producers enjoy the status quo ... the TV business is good, why rock the boat? Affiliate fees (the revenue share on viewer subscriptions paid by cable companies to the content owners) are a $32 billion income source, and are the primary revenue stream that funds TV content development. Thanks to bundling, content owners like Disney and Viacom are able to make more money than if consumers cherry-picked individual channels or shows. The TV industry, at all costs, wants to avoid a repeat of the iTunes model - one in which consumers can purchase individual songs a la carte, eliminating the need to purchase the full album.
Additionally, because of the scale of these relationships, it's almost impossible for new companies to enter the market with competing services. Each year, DirecTV pays the NFL $1 billion for exclusive rights needed for its NFL Sunday Ticket package. But, with more than 20 million subscribers and $30 billion of annual revenue, it's a price DirecTV can afford to keep its subscribers loyal. The fact that it also erects a substantial barrier to entry for any new digital-MSO competitor is a much-appreciated secondary consequence. Even if a startup could create a more intuitive, on-demand IP-based service, would subscribers migrate if the content they wanted were not available? A handful of digital-native companies have the deep pockets needed to take the plunge and buy the content rights needed, but they will face many years of substantial losses on content as they build their subscriber bases.
What Now?
The prize will be substantial for the company that can overcome these challenges and launch a successful IP television business. By combining the world's best content with an intuitive digital user experience, companies will bring television into the 21st century. In the last month alone, we've seen more than a dozen major steps taken by large media companies to fulfill this vision:
- Time Warner Cable just announced that over the next year it would be eliminating the need for its 15 million deployed set-top-boxes to move toward a software solution that can be licensed to third-party devices like Roku and Xbox.
- ESPN president John Skipper was quoted as being open to deals with IP video services - so long as they bought/paid for packages comparable to those offered by traditional MSOs.
- Companies like Intel, Apple and Google are actively working on connected-TV offerings, in addition to their current robust set-top boxes. These companies not only have the best resources to produce these smart devices, but also have the user base and, most importantly, the money to make exclusive partnerships happen.
- Dish recently announced Dish Digital, an IP-only subscription package, similar to Aereo, Netflix and Hulu, that essentially competes against its core business. A bold/risky yet perhaps insightful move in understanding how real this shift to digital consumption truly is.
Each week, there appears to be a new story hitting the press about the ways in which the Internet is reshaping the future of television; making it one of the most exciting, but potentially challenging, periods in the history of the TV industry. Unlike music and newspapers before it, the television industry has been able to benefit from the lessons learned by those who faced the Internet challenge. While those lessons from history may ease the transition, they don't lessen the deep impact that IP distribution is having. TV networks are faced with the challenge of adapting to new ways of distributing content to their consumers and building new, more direct relationships with their viewers; all without destroying strategic business relationships that provide the essential revenue they need to operate and invest in new content development. While this challenge is no doubt fraught with risk and complexity, the outcome at this point seems inevitable. Consumers want the benefit of access to content on demand anytime and anywhere, advertisers value the precision targeting and measurement of digital, and even MSOs are beginning to see the benefit of delivering more interactive, engaging experiences to their subscribers. The digital endgame has taken a long time to arrive, but it's now closer to a reality than ever before.
Mark Trefgarne is chief executive officer and co-founder of LiveRail.
Twitter's Roadshow Video: No Frills, by Design
Twitter's IPO roadshow presentation was posted to the Web on Friday morning, as the company kicks off its tour to pitch to investment firms around the country.
The most remarkable point: It's completely unremarkable, a stark contrast to an obvious comparison - the highly produced Facebook roadshow video we saw last year.
Twitter's video consists basically of CEO Dick Costolo laying out exactly what makes Twitter tick, and walking investors through the company's ad products and user statistics. CFO Mike Gupta makes an appearance later on, explaining monetization and the company's rapid revenue growth.
But, unlike Facebook's production, Costolo and Gupta appear against a plain, static backdrop, and run through a series of slides to lay out Twitter - basically the template for any other soon-to-be-public company creating a roadshow video. Compare that to the sweeping camera angles, animated graphics and airy soundtrack seen in Facebook's pitch.
Twitter's S-1, too, was plain and understated. It lacked the founder's letter that Facebook's Zuckerberg penned, instead putting much of the focus again on exactly how Twitter works.
Make no mistake: Twitter's no-frills approach is entirely by design. Despite all the heightened attention it has received, Twitter has sought to make this a low-profile IPO process, aiming to steer clear of the massive hype that surrounded Facebook's debut on the Nasdaq exchange. Instead, the idea has been to position itself more in line with a tech company like LinkedIn, which, compared to Facebook, receives far less media attention yet delivers consistently upbeat quarterly financial results.
To be fair to Facebook, Twitter's pitch wasn't entirely without flourishes. The company ran a short video featuring three of Twitter's founders, as well as Costolo, briefly explaining the service's charm. But it was short and sweet - one minute and 40 seconds, to be exact.
Will the IPO itself, set to drop in the first week of November, actually be as low-key as Twitter wants? Like Fortune's Dan Primack, I seriously doubt that will be the case.
But it certainly won't be for lack of effort by Twitter.
Sunday, June 15, 2014
Saturday, June 14, 2014
Friday, June 13, 2014
Thursday, June 12, 2014
Women who have a child 'face paying 30% more interest on student loans'
Time out for one baby ramps up debt, modelling shows, proving budget is 'sexist as well as being cruel and brutal', Greens say
Continue reading...
Thailand's army declares martial law after six months of political unrest
