Redbox expands into video games
Redbox, the automated DVD rental kiosk company, has announced that they have hired their first “senior level videogames executive,” and plan to expand into video game rentals this summer.
“Our customers and retail partners have been really clamoring for video games, and Redbox is responding,” added Mark Achler, Redbox’s new VP of video games. “We are very actively engaged in putting out a video game offering. There are changing demographics, where we see the casual market continuing to open as more women become involved.”
The tricky part now is pricing. Redbox currently offers $1-a-night pricing for its video rentals, but it is almost a guarantee that the same pricing will not be given to video games, which retail for much more than DVDs and Blu-rays.
Achler added that Redbox will offer two types of kiosks; one with only video games and another with both games and movies. There will be titles for the PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii available.
“We think rental really has an opportunity to grow and lift the whole video game sector,” noted Achler.
Hulu almost break even, says Zucker
Popular online video Hulu is close to profitability, or at least breaking even, says NBCU CEO Jeff Zucker.
The site, a joint venture between Fox, NBCU and Disney, now “has to figure out the monetization game,” says Zucker, who adds that subscriptions are a possibility, in an effort to boost revenue.
Hulu has seen exponential growth over the last year, rocketing to the third most popular video site in the world.
Zucker continued that the goal of the site is to eventually have all shows online, but the question would be how many episodes of each show would be available at any given time.
Is Hulu looking for another equity partner? Yes, but Zucker doesn’t believe they will find one, as Time Warner and CBS have their own plans for online video.
eMusic adds Sony’s ‘classic’ catalog
eMusic, the online music download store that started in 1998, has announced that it has added music from its first major label, bringing in Sony’s ‘classic’ catalog, all music that is 2 years old or older.
The store has offered a subscription based model and DRM-free MP3s since its release, and has tracks from thousands of indie labels.
During its 11 years, the company has attracted over 400,000 paying customers, each paying $12 USD per month.
Sony feels placing its newer, more popular songs into eMusic’s unlimited, DRM-free service, is too risky and has therefore excluded the songs. However, Sony’s classic catalog is still very large and includes hits from top name artists such as Britney Spears, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen and Usher.
There is a catch though. “As part of the deal, eMusic says it will slightly raise prices and reduce the number of downloads for some of its monthly plans.”
‘Ghostbuster’ Blu-ray promotion launched by Sony
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has begun a new promotion to promote the upcoming Ghostbusters Blu-ray, allowing fans the chance to become “stars” of the BD-Live features on the disc.
The movie will hit retail shelves on June 16th.
The site GhostbustersIsHiring.com, was set up for the promotion and will incorporate fans of the movie into the Web content. Users can “submit personalized video of themselves applying for a job with the Ghostbusters team. Sony will select its favorite job applicants for eventual display within its BD Live network.”
Additionally, and possibly more notably, fans who upload their photos to the site will receive a $5 discount off the Blu-ray.
Guide: Updating your T-Mobile G1 to Android 1.5 (Cupcake) manually
Guide: Updating your T-Mobile G1 to Android 1.5 (Cupcake) manually
Here is a guide for how to update your T-Mobile G1 to the new and hotly anticipated Android 1.5 (Cupcake) firmware update, manually, instead of waiting for the OTA (over the air) update that could take weeks to fully rollout. Be noted this works for other RCs as well, but for this guide I will specifically be using the new 1.5 update. Please also note if you phone is rooted (we will have guide for that up soon), then this will remove your rooted firmware, un-rooting your phone.
First off, you will need to download the update from the following link: Official US Android 1.5 update.
If you are from a different nation that offers the phone, please visit here for your update: Android 1.5 (Non-US)
Once you have downloaded the update, rename the archive to update from signed-kila… so that the full archive is intact (unpacked) and is Update.zip.
The next part is important. Insert your microSD card into the slot in your G1 and plug the phone into your computer. Your phone will give you a notification that you are now connected via USB so open the notification and select Mount. Your SD card will now be accessible via the computer as a removable drive.
Still don’t have a DTV converter box? Get your coupon before Monday
In January, the US Government postponed the mandatory DTV transition from February until June 12th, as it was clear that over 6 million households were not ready.
Today, the federal Department of Commerce has said that if you are still unready and have not applied for a converter box coupon, you should do so no later than Monday, or risk having no TV signal by the time of the transition.
Every household can receive two $40 coupons to use towards the purchase of converter boxes, and more information about the coupons can be found at 888-DTV-2009 or www.DTV2009.gov.
As of May 10th, Nielsen estimated that there are still 3.3 million households not ready for the transition.
‘PSP Go’ leaked in new video
The world’s possibly worst kept secret, the upcoming Sony PSP Go, has been leaked today via video, showing off the design of the handheld.
John Koller, director of hardware marketing at Sony America, speaks during the video and notes that the differences between the new PSP and the older slim PSP-3000 model are “on-board memory, the flash memory, and 16 gigs of space. There’s Bluetooth on board as well, so you can use a Bluetooth headset, and you can actually tether it to your cell phone as well. But ultimately, it’s the portability. Since you can bring all that content with you in a smaller form factor, you’ve got the most immersive games to play, and now you’ve got a smaller unit to do it with.”
It is unclear whether the handheld will remove the bulky UMD drive, but it is clear Sony is moving its emphasis towards downloadable games and movie content.
Wikipedia blocks Church of Scientology from editing entries
The user-edited online encyclopedia Wikipedia has announced today that any IP address connected to a computer owned by the Church of Scientology is now banned from editing contributions. The site says for years the Chruch has been editing anything related to Scientology to show it in better light.
“All IP addresses owned or operated by the Church of Scientology and its associates, broadly interpreted, are to be blocked as if they were open proxies,” says the site’s press release.
Wikipedia’s arbitration committee noted that for years, computers owned by the Church had been coordinating editing techniques to make the Scientology articles biased to one specific viewpoint.
“You could imply that there is a conflict of interest,” added Dan Rosenthal, a media contact for Wikipedia. “Rather than two unrelated people getting together, Scientologists were getting together, saying, ‘Let’s work together to make this a more pro-scientology article.’”
‘PlayStation Home’ downloaded over 6.5 million times
PlayStation Home Director Peter Edward has made comments this week that the application has hit a “tipping point” of momentum recently, hitting 6.5 million downloads.
“We do have a profit and loss on Home, and obviously revenue is an important part of it, just like with anything else. But our belief is that if you make the community happy, and get good content on to the platform - if you get a platform that people want to keep coming back to - then the monetisation aspect of it will almost take care of itself,” says Edwards.
“It’s certainly not something that should be the driving force - not something that’s the driving priority at this stage of development.”
“That’s not to say that we don’t want to monetise the platform and that we don’t have plans to do so,” Edward continued. “But it’s definitely a kind of consequence of getting all the other factors right, rather than being a driving force. We’re not in it to make a quick buck from Home, and then move onto the next thing - Home is a strategic platform for PlayStation, and as such we’re developing it.”
Edwards also noted that profitability “is not the driving force” behind PS Home, but instead, user interaction.
“We went to open beta in December and since then we’ve had something like 6.5 million downloads. We’ve got a very healthy active user base, and we’re finding as well that people aren’t just churning, they’re returning - which is obviously key for something like this,” he continued.
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‘Sims 3′ piracy rates higher than ‘Spore’
Two weeks ago we reported that the game The Sims 3 by EA had been leaked two weeks early to P2P, and according to new data figures compiled by research firm BigChampagne, the pirated version had been downloaded over 180,000 times in just four days.
2008’s most pirated game, EA’s blockbuster Spore, saw 500,000 downloads in its first 10 days, so Sims 3 is on pace to beat that.
EA is saying however that the pirated version is not the final release.
“The pirated version is a buggy, pre-final build of the game,” EA’s Holly Rockwood said. “It’s not the full game. Half the world - an entire city - is missing from the pirated copy.”
