ABC isn’t taking kindly to Hulu subscribers who are watching its shows online instead of paying for monthly cable services. The New York Times reports that ABC, which is owned by Walt Disney, has decided to yank newer episodes of its shows off both the free version of Hulu and its own homepage and will instead put them on its mobile app that is only accessible to cable subscribers. The network says that it’s created its own in-house streaming app to better adapt to customer preferences by giving users access to its content on all their portable devices. ABC plans to roll out the app in six different cities over the summer.
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NVIDIA on Tuesday announced the upcoming availability of its Shield gaming console. The Android-powered handheld will be one of the first devices to be equipped with NVIDIA’s Tegra 4 processor, which includes 72 custom graphics cores and four Cortex-A15 processing cores. The controller features dual analog joysticks, a full-sized D-Pad, left and right analog triggers and A/B/X/Y buttons, and can even stream PC games from a GeForce GTX GPU-powered computer. The Shield is also equipped with a built-in 5-inch 720p multi-touch display, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a microSD slot, GPS, Bluetooth 3.0, a mini-HDMI port and runs a stock version of Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. “These pieces, put together by a company full of gaming fanatics, add up
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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc has signed licensing deals with Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment to launch a subscription music service that would compete with fast-growing start-up Spotify, according to a report on Tuesday in technology blog The Verge. Google, the world's No. 1 search engine, could unveil the streaming music service at its annual developer conference, which kicks off on Wednesday, according to the report, which cited anonymous sources. ...
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Android, Glass and Nexus: A Live Chat From Google I/O 2013!
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By Doris Frankel (Reuters) - A surge in option market bets on Sony Corp just before a large hedge fund investor announced a big stake and called for a major restructuring of the company has raised concerns that some traders may have had advance word of the news. U.S.-listed shares of Sony Corp jumped 9.9 percent to close at $20.76 after Daniel Loeb's Third Point hedge fund said on Tuesday it accumulated more than 6 percent of Sony's shares - a stake worth $1.1 billion - making it the largest shareholder in Japan's biggest electronics company. ...
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It may be time for Steve Ballmer to crank up his famous “Developers, developers, developers!” chant again if it will get software developers more excited about Windows Phone 8. Sameer Singh at Tech-Thoughts has charted the growth history of the three major mobile app stores and has found that Windows Phone’s app store is lagging behind where iOS and Android were 30 months after their initial launches. What’s more, he’s found that the additions of new apps to the Windows Phone 8 app market have markedly slowed over the past six months, whereas iOS and Android both saw significant rises in app additions over the same periods after their initial launches. Singh speculates that the slowdown in interest from developers is
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MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) — A federal judge has dismissed a movie company's Internet piracy complaint against 34 Oregonians, saying the company was unfairly using the court's subpoena power in a "reverse class-action suit" to save on legal expenses and possibly to intimidate defendants into paying thousands of dollars for viewing a movie that can be bought or rented for less than $10.
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BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins announced on Tuesday at the BlackBerry Live event in Orlando, Florida that the company’s BlackBerry World storefront is now home to 120,000 applications, including both native BlackBerry 10 apps and ported Android apps. The platform continues to see steady growth, having recently added 20,000 applications in less than two months. BlackBerry 10 still suffers when it comes to the quality of apps, however. Earlier reports claimed that ported Android apps made up more than 20% of BlackBerry World’s offerings, while others were found to be low quality web apps. Popular apps such as Instagram and Netflix are still nowhere to be found. In fact, BlackBerry 10 only offers 34% of the most popular apps found on Android and iOS.
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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google CEO Larry Page has disclosed a problem with his vocal cords that makes it difficult for him to speak and breathe occasionally, but he says he remains fit enough to keep running the Internet's most influential company.
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Rap videos from weird startup guys are nothing new, but the genre may have reached its ultimate nadir. Dave McClure's 500 Startups released this homage to Macklemore's "Thrift Shop" on Tuesday — and it's so tone deaf that you'll be begging for the bubble to burst. 
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The Windows Phone platform is in serious need of high-quality applications. Microsoft recently announced that its Windows Phone app store is home to nearly 150,000 applications, however the operating system is still lacking fan favorites such as Instagram, Dropbox and HBO GO. Windows Phone devices released by Nokia and HTC have been well received by critics, but most reviews share one common complaint — not enough good apps. Vesa Jutila, Nokia’s global head of smartphone marketing, admitted in an interview with Engadget that “the biggest complaint is that customers are missing the apps they want.” The executive noted that there were some significant gaps in the marketplace, although he claims Nokia is “addressing this very strongly” with help from Microsoft.
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Could the flotilla of bloated computer garbage that is iTunes reinvent itself, with the help of Daft Punk?
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NEW YORK (AP) — As the Twitterverse expands with millions of users, it can be hard to have a unique voice. Nicole Richie doesn't have that problem.
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As someone who admires the innovations that Microsoft made with Windows 8 while at the same time recognizing the platform’s glaring flaws, I’ve found it encouraging that the company has decided to own up to some of its mistakes and dial back some of the big changes it made to its operating system with the release of Windows 8.1. The new update, which Microsoft announced Tuesday would be available as a public preview starting on June 26th, will reportedly bring back the Start button as an option and give users the choice of booting up their computers in desktop mode. But the feature that really has me excited about Windows 8.1 and that makes me think Microsoft is serious about
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By Gerry Shih SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Square Inc, a closely watched payment-processing company, made a significant push into the hardware business on Tuesday, unveiling a new credit-card reader that it claimed could be the centerpiece of the next-generation checkout counter. At a press event in a sunlit San Francisco cafe, Chief Executive Jack Dorsey introduced the "Square Stand," a white, molded-plastic iPad holder that lets businesses accept credit cards with a mounted iPad and an integrated card reader. ...
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The PC market isn’t the only tech sector in trouble. According to Gartner’s new numbers, Asia-Pacific is the only region in the world where mobile phone volumes are still growing. Phone sales in the United States are now dropping at 9% annualized pace. Globally, phone volumes were practically flat in Q1 2013, inching up a mere 0.7% year-over-year. Smartphone growth came in at a torrid 43% during the quarter, several points above what was expected a few months ago. This contrast means that feature phone sales are in a real free fall. This is particularly clear in Latin America, where even the hot smartphone growth is not enough to prevent overall phone sales from declining by nearly 4%. The deepening feature
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We have seen mixed reports regarding BlackBerry’s performance with the BlackBerry Q10, its first QWERTY toting BlackBerry 10 smartphone. Most industry watchers seems to think early Q10 sales have been strong, though a few analysts have strayed from the pack. RBC Capital Markets’ Mark Sue is in the first camp, though he noted in a new research note on Monday Q10 sales might not blow us away. Regardless, however, the analyst says BlackBerry has already succeeded in one respect: The Q10 is buying BlackBerry some time to turn things around. “BlackBerry is filling depleted channels, with the company on pace to meet our May-qtr estimates,” Sue wrote in a note to clients sent Monday. “Competition remains fierce and Samsung’s GS4 is
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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google CEO Larry Page is finally disclosing the health problem that spooked investors last summer when he mysteriously lost his voice.
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Are you fed up with paying an $80 cable bill every month for dozens of channels that you never even watch? Not to worry, says National Cable and Telecommunications Association chief Michael Powell: You’re actually being given “unparalleled choice” in your programming. Variety reports that Powell, speaking on Tuesday at a Senate subcommittee meeting to discuss the benefits of “a la carte” cable programming, said that it’s a “very serious question mark whether consumers would have lower bills or cheaper service as a result of a la carte” because consumers may end up having to pay the same amount for fewer channels. Powell also said that it would be a mistake to make significant revisions to the 1992 Cable Act
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By Alexei Oreskovic SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc Chief Executive Larry Page provided the first public details of the voice ailment that sidelined him from speaking engagements last summer, saying that he has limited movement in his left and right vocal cords. The 40-year-old co-founder of the world's No. 1 Internet search engine said that doctors have been unable to identify a cause for his "very rare" vocal cord issues, but that he has been making progress in his recovery and is "fully able to do all I need to at home and at work," he wrote on his Google+ page on Tuesday. ...
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A Nokia executive has hinted once again that the company may release tablet in the future. Jo Harlow, Nokia’s executive vice president of smart devices, revealed during an interview with CNET that the company is “very interested” in tablets and it is a market that is being closely examined. Nokia CEO Stephen Elop has previously said that the company was studying the market “very closely,” leading many to speculate that an announcement of a Lumia tablet may be coming soon. Considering Nokia’s partnership with Microsoft, the rumored tablet will likely run either Windows 8 or Windows RT. Nokia remains the only major smartphone vendor yet to launch a modern tablet.
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By Ben Klayman ANN ARBOR, Michigan (Reuters) - Cars that "talk" to each other to avoid crashes or traffic jams, like those being tested here, will save lives but the cost of the systems will determine consumers' acceptance of such technology, the U.S. transportation secretary said on Tuesday. "These are definitely safer vehicles. At what cost though?" Ray LaHood told reporters at a connected-vehicle conference in Ann Arbor, Michigan. "To me, that's what the bottom line's going to be. Safety has a cost and we're going to have to make that judgment. ...
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Sharp needs help. The consumer electronics company on Tuesday posted a worse-than-expected $5.4 billion loss for the previous fiscal year, and it released its plan to turn things around over the coming three years. For one thing, the company intends to tap banks for $1.5 billion in funds. Sharp also said it will look to boost smartphone display sales to Samsung as business with its top client Apple begins to slow. “A key challenge for Sharp’s recovery, however, is keeping its factories busy enough to earn profits that will satisfy its creditors despite slowing growth in its business making screens for Apple’s iPads and iPhones,” Reuters’ Reiji Murai and Tim Kelly wrote in a report on Tuesday. Sharp said it expects
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NEW YORK (AP) — A planned Windows 8 update to address complaints and confusion with Microsoft's new operating system will be made available for free this year, the company said Tuesday.
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