Archive for March 11th, 2008
Microsoft Releases Internet Explorer 8 beta Edition
Microsoft releases the first beta edition of Internet Explorer 8 on Wednesday the 5th of March 2008 for developers and web designers for testing proposes. It is available for download on this site
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/ie/ie8/default.mspx
Add comment March 11, 2008
YouTube rival Hulu debuts with lineup of TV shows, movies and sports
Hulu LLC, a joint online video project of NBC Universal Inc. and News Corp., is set to go live Wednesday with programming from Time Warner Inc.’s television group, Lions Gate Entertainment and sports groups. A beta version of the site was launched in October.Hulu, described as a YouTube rival, will offer full-length episodes from more than 250 televisions series, including The Simpsons and Buffy the Vampire Slayer along with more than 100 movies, according to a report from Reuters. Hulu has also signed video licensing deals with the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League, Reuters said.
A spokesman from NBC Universal parent company General Electric Co. did not return a call requesting comment on Hulu.
Liz Cannes, a blogger for NewTeeVee, noted that Hulu is reporting an audience of 5 million viewers on the site in the past 30 days, which she described as “pretty insane for a semiprivate beta.”
Cannes added that the site’s viewing experience has improved since the beta program started by instituting full seasons of some current shows and movies supported by trailers rather than interrupting ads.
“We’ll be watching to see if it can hit the mainstream,” Cannes noted. “We know some 16% of American Internet households are watching TV online already. Streaming Web video is never going to be the be-all and end-all, but as a happy Hulu beta tester, I would bet it’s gonna be big.”
Paul Glazowski, a blogger at Mashable.com, noted that he expects ABC and CBS to join the effort at some point, “which would undoubtedly offer considerably more weight to Hulu’s long-term business prospects.”
“Though (ABC and CBS) both presently operate stand-alone video portals of their own, there’s little reason to suspect that a partial migration to Hulu will occur,” he said.
“Web video, despite its fresh-faced allure and burgeoning consumer demand, is one that is for the most part unprofitable for large networks now. Web advertising prices don’t yet amount to a valuation that can be considered amply supplemental to the networks’ present-day income. The tried-and-true standard broadcast and cable television mediums are by far the cash kinds of television at the moment,” he added.
Therefore, he said, the more viewers the networks can reach online to generate more ad revenue, the better. The best way to reach more viewers online would be to participate in a concentrated effort like Hulu backed industrywide, he noted.
Source:Computerworld
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Microsoft ‘Moving On’ After HD DVD Breakup
It’s only been a few weeks since Blu-ray was declared the winner of the DVD standards war, but Microsoft is already figuring out the best way to get together with Blu-ray
Just a few weeks after the Blu-ray Disc Association unequivocally won the high-definition video format war, and Microsoft canceled production of its HD DVD drive for the Xbox 360, Microsoft says it’s already trying to figure out the best way to align itself with Blu-ray.
“We’ve already been working on, for example, in Windows, device driver support for Blu-ray drives and the like, and I think the world moves on,” said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at the Mix ‘08 conference in Las Vegas, according to GamesIndustry.biz.
“Toshiba has moved on. We’ve moved on, and we’ll support Blu-ray in ways that make sense,” he said.
Ballmer’s comment squares with remarks Sony Electronics President made Wednesday night to a gathering of reporters in San Francisco, when he said that Sony is holding discussions with a number of partners, including Microsoft, about incorporating Blu-ray into their products. Glasgow said an Xbox 360 console with Blu-ray was certainly “a possibility.”
Though Glasgow didn’t specify whether that meant an internal drive or a detachable one like the HD DVD version, the Financial Times cited an unnamed senior executive Thursday saying that Microsoft is considering an internal Blu-ray drive for the 360.
Source: Business Week
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Google takes control of DoubleClick
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – Google Inc. says it has taken control of online ad service DoubleClick Inc., completing a deal that the Internet search leader announced 11 months ago.
The Mountain View-based company closed the acquisition Tuesday, just a few hours after European antitrust regulators approved the transaction over the objections of Microsoft Corp. and other companies. Those critics had argued the addition of DoubleClick will give Google too much control of online advertising prices.
U.S. regulators approved Google’s purchase in December.
Google makes most of its money selling text-based ads on the Internet. The company is counting on DoubleClick to help sell more dynamic advertising.
Source: Yahoo! Tech News, Internet News
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