Microsoft has plans for Zune-based ad service
Microsoft has announced that it is hoping to build an advertising network into its Zune media players, giving advertisers a direct connection to consumers.
As explained by Yahoo, “the company demonstrated the concept using a phony Doritos mockup. In the example, a user could befriend a musician through the Zune social page on a Doritos’ sponsored concert to view news and updates on the artist’s profile.”
Once you are added to that list, users can email said profile to other friends and download select tracks from the website to play on the Zune. “When the recipient receives the email through Microsoft’s Hotmail service through their mobile phone, a brief ad will trigger, followed by a short game similar to Asteroids.”
If the user does well playing the game, then they earn a free bag of Doritos chips, and downloadable maps to nearby stores that sell them.
Although it is still in “planning” stages, Microsoft says the program is not “something that is far in the future” and just needs some solid back-end infrastructure.
BREIN wants to shutdown Mininova
BREIN, the Dutch anti-piracy agency that has started a crusade against public torrent trackers, has another site in its sights, the world’s most popular torrent site, Mininova.
The organization has announced that it will be taking Mininova to court hoping that the court will force the site to filter its search results and effectively remove all unauthorized content.
Mininova, which boasts 30 million unique visitors every month, allows for user submitted torrents as well as authorized content from publishers such as the CBC. More importantly, the site does not have its own tracker, which has gotten the Pirate Bay in trouble recently.
Erik Dubbelboer, one of the co-founders of Mininova added the following: “We will proceed to court with full confidence. We operate within the law, as we maintain our ‘notice and take down’ policy. That is, we remove search results if a copyright holder asks us to.”
That should be all that is necessary under DMCA obligations, but of course BREIN does not see it that way. The site does not even host the unauthorized content, just the .torrent files to help peers connect.
Tim Kuik, managing director of BREIN, talked out about Mininova’s business model. “A notice and take down procedure is absolutely insufficient for a site that makes use of unauthorized files, structurally and systematically, he added.
The court case could have huge repercussions around the Web if BREIN has its way. They want Mininova to censor their search results, the site does not want to. If BREIN were to win, what is stopping them from starting cases against YouTube or even Google and MSN?
Panasonic to deliver cheaper, slimmer BD-Live enabled Blu-ray players
Panasonic has announced they have developed the world’s first single-chip processor that can handle all of Blu-ray’s latest Profile 2.0 standards.
By using this latest chip, dubbed the UniPhier3, Panasonic promises smaller sizes, lower power consumption, and cheaper prices for BD players using the chip.
According to the press release, the chip has full “support for the latest BD standards, and functions including dual-screen simultaneous video playback, high-quality audio playback, and network compatibility achieved on a single chip.”
It will also allows for “50% reduction in mounting surface area and 25% reduction in power consumption, compared to current Panasonic products.” That is a huge plus in my opinion as most current BD players are large and obtrusive, compared to many slimline DVD players.
The chip also supports “video playback for BD, DVD, and CD media, and standards including MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 and VC-1; high-quality audio playback compatible with lossless coding”.
Samples of the chip are set to be released to manufacturers beginning next month. Maybe one day, using this chip, there will be a player with a better value than the PlayStation 3.
Nintendo Wii sets software sales record
Nintendo of America’s VP of sales and marketing Cammie Dunaway has announced that the Wii has already sold over 50 million units of software since its launch (18 months ago) and that the figure is a new record.
The previous record, 42 million units sold in 18 months, was from the launch of the PlayStation 2 in late 2000.
As a comparison, in the first 18 months of their lifecycles ,the Xbox 360 had 30 million units sold, 20 million were sold for the PlayStation 3 and 28 million were sold for the original Xbox.
Making the figure even more impressive is that the figure does not include WiiSports which is bundled in every Wii console sold. The figure does however include “WiiPlay” (which comes bundled with a Wii remote) and “Link’s Crossbow Training” (which comes bundled with the Wii zapper.)
CinemaNow now available through Windows Media Center
CinemaNow has announced that its extensive library of 3500 feature length films is now available through Windows Media Center meaning you can download and watch the films without a cable TV subscription.
Windows Media Center is all that is necessary for the service to work, and most Windows XP and Vista users have it already installed. The movies are currently available through an “Online Media channel” in Windows Media Center that offers CinemaNow’s movie and TV download service.
CinemaNow’s library includes 3,500 major Hollywood studio and independent movies, and even some HD-quality movies. There are also over 3,000 TV episodes and over 2,900 music videos available. Now you can use Windows Media Center to easily browse the offering and even watch on your TV using a media hub if you have one.
For more information, make sure to check www.CinemaNow.com.
LCD TVs outsell plasmas 8 to 1 globally
According to data compiled by research firm DisplaySearch,, global LCD TV sales outsold plasma TV sales by a huge 8-to-1 margin for the Q1 2008 and that gap doesn’t seem to be getting any smaller anytime soon.
Over 21 million LCD TVs were sold during the timeframe compared to a measly 2.8 million plasma sets, says the report.
The total number of TVs sold during the period was 46.1 million, about equal to year-over-year sales for 2007. Overall revenue jumped 8 percent however, to $24.8 billion USD thanks to increasing sales of larger, more expensive LCD and plasma displays.
Aging CRT TVs were still the best selling, with 22.1 million sold, with LCD closely behind at 21.1. Plasma and rear projection televisions brought up the rear with 2.8 million and 134,000 sold respectively. Year over year CRT sales were down 21%, LCD up 45%, plasma up 20% and RPTV down 79%.
In terms of brands, Samsung led in revenue for the 9th straight quarter, with huge 39 percent year over year growth.
Zhongsou is guilty of copyright infringement
Zhongsou, the popular Chinese internet search engine, has been found guilty of copyright infringement and the authorities have ordered the internet company to “stop infringing immediately and pay the maximum penalty of RMB 100,000.” There was also word that three servers belonging to the search engine were taken indefinitely.
In September 2007, the IFPI logged a formal complaint with the Hebei Provincial Copyright Bureau and further investigations led to the revelations that “copyright infringing files accessed by the delivery service were hosted on servers owned by Zhongsou in Cangzhou city in Hebei province.” The ISP Cangzhou Netcom then helped authorities seize the three servers.
The administrative fine of RMB 100,000 that the site must pay is the largest fine for copyright infringement in the history of Hebei province and the first time a site of the nature of Zhongsou has been forced to pay such a fine. Yahoo China and Baidu were found guilty of similar charges but did not pay such a fine.
Leong Mayseey, Regional Director of IFPI Asia, added: “We are pleased with the maximum fine imposed by the administrative authorities against Zhongsou’s blatant and deliberate infringement of our members’ copyright. This should send a signal to other similar infringing music services.
“China has the potential to be one of the most dynamic digital music markets in the world, but legal services cannot compete when household names like Zhongsou deliberately break the law, abuse the rights of others and seek to drive advertising revenue by providing illegal content. We cannot tolerate such abuse of our members’ rights and other internet companies that are breaking the law should be warned that we are coming after them next.”
MPAA wins case against ShowStash and Cinematube
In a not so shocking decision, a jury has awarded the MPAA around $4 million USD in fines from the companies ShowStash.net and Cinematube.net. The sites were sued last year by the MPAA and have been defending their actions ever since. What gives this case more importance over the thousands of others the MPAA has filed is that neither company hosted any of the unauthorized content and instead acted as search engines.
Regardless of that fact, the courts fined ShowStash $2.7 million USD and Cinematube $1.3 million for their actions, fueling more fire for the MPAA which has been on a role with “victories” as of late. It seems that new business model of the MPAA and RIAA is to “vigorously pursue litigation” and make a profit in the courts. Of course it is clear that these organizations will never see any of this money, essentially because the companies and people they are suing don’t have it.
The MPAA was awarded $111 million US from TorrentSpy earlier this month, but the site’s lawyers said the company was bankrupt and would not pay one dime. Publicity stunts or legitimate lawsuits?
GameStop drops Microsoft Zune
The huge video game retailer Gamestop has announced that it will discontinue selling the Microsoft Zune citing its “poor performance in terms of sales.”
In its initial six months, Microsoft sold 1 million units but since then, and despite a complete line revamp, sales have slowed to a crawl. It has taken another year for Microsoft to reach 2 million units sold for its Zune line, a considerably slower pace for sales.
Despite at one point being the top seller on Amazon for MP3 players, the Zune has failed in comparison to iPod sales. For the Q2 2008, Apple had sold roughly 11 million of the popular media devices.
Ignoring Gamestop’s decision, Adam Sohn, Microsoft’s Zune marketing manager, said Zune sales “have seen good momentum” for the last few months.
Akimbo is shutting down
The Internet video-on-demand (VOD) startup Akimbo has confirmed that it is closing its doors citing that the company has not been able to raise enough capital to remain profitable.
The company has been laying off staff and is currently looking for an acquiring company to buy up the company’s remaining assets and staff. Currently all video services run through Akimbo are running, including Homezone and MavTV.
Chief finance officer Peter Chantel is the only executive now left at the company and noted that 24 employees have been laid off in the last month.
Akimbo is one of the pioneers of networked set top boxes and as long ago as 2006, was supplying features in its service that rivaled the Apple TV or the new Roku Netflix player.
