Blockbuster heaves sigh of relief at Netflix rate hike
Netflix helped kill Blockbuster.
Its DVD-by-mail service, in conjunction with Redbox's 24-hour $1 rentals drove brick and mortar video store chain Blockbuster from market dominance into bankruptcy and near irrelevance.
Facebook wants to be on your dumb phone, too
Facebook has successfully conquered the smartphone market, with its apps for both Android and the iPhone consistently one of the most downloaded. However, the company has done little to focus on the so-called "dumb phone" market -- that is, until now.
The company announced Tuesday that it was releasing Facebook for Every Phone, a Java-based app which will work on over 2,500 phones. With a good deal of the phones today here in the US and elsewhere now smart phones, the move appears more to increase Facebook's reach in developing markets.
Android Market gets a smart new look
Will the Google makeovers never end? I sure hope not.
Google has started to roll out yet another new version of the Android Market. The revamped store client is going out to Android 2.2 or higher handsets now, on a rolling basis expected to take several weeks.
EA acquires Plants vs. Zombies, Bejeweled maker PopCap
Electronic Arts on Tuesday announced it will acquire PopCap Games for $650 million in cash and $100 million in EA stock. PopCap is known for creating some of the most popular mobile and browser-based video games of the last few years, including Plants vs. Zombies and Bejeweled, and the company is squarely focused on the strongest growth areas of the video game industry.
There's no doubt that mobile and Web-based video games have the potential to be hugely profitable for game studios. With advertisement and in-game purchases, each game title can have multiple recurring revenue streams in addition to the upfront purchase price.
AT&T's new LTE devices support T-Mobile's spectrum
AT&T introduced two LTE devices on Tuesday, while at the same time saying it was on track to roll out the next generation cellular technology in five markets later this summer. Hidden in the details is the that fact the new devices also support T-Mobile's frequency bands, showing confidence in the proposed merger.
The AT&T USBConnect Momentum 4G is the carrier's first LTE dongle which will also support access to AT&T's entire national Wi-Fi network. The AT&T Mobile Hotspot Elevate 4G will be an LTE-enabled hotspot allowing for the connection of up to five devices simultaneously with the carrier's cellular network.
Prep photos for the web fast with FreeSizer
One downside of the ever-increasing resolution of digital cameras, as well as mobile phones, is that they produce massive images. They're great for printing or production environments, but not so useful if you just want to email them to friends or upload them to a blog. Oversized images make web pages load slowly without adding anything to the overall experience, while they produce attachments vast in size that take an age to send, and could get you blacklisted by friends and family for tying up their Internet connection and inbox while downloading them.
While you can manually resize images using your image editor, the process of opening, resizing and then resaving can quickly become tedious. Thank goodness, then, for FreeSizer, a free tool that enables you to quickly and easily resize a batch of images quickly and easily without affecting the original files.
ActiveImage Protector 3.0 Personal Edition: Free backup without nag screens
When you're next looking for a backup program then you could try to save money by opting for the free version of a commercial tool, but that's often a mistake. Many have key functions stripped out, and annoying nag screens added in an effort to persuade you to upgrade.
Fortunately there are a few exceptions, though, and ActiveImage Protector's free Personal Edition is one of the best. It's strictly for home users only, but if that's not a problem then you'll find it packed with useful functions and features.
How much more are you willing to pay Netflix?
I've had a DVD-rental plan from Netflix since February 1999. Sometime between now and September 1, I will cancel that plan -- not because I want to give up DVD movies but because Netflix is forcing me to choose between them or streaming. To get both, I will substantially pay more. So will you, if a Netflix subscriber.
I got the official email about an hour ago: "Your current $9.99 a month membership for unlimited streaming and unlimited DVDs will be split into two distinct plans. Plan 1: Unlimited Streaming (no DVDs) for $7.99 a month. Plan 2: Unlimited DVDs, 1 out at-a-time (no streaming) for $7.99 a month. Your price for getting both of these plans will be $15.98 a month ($7.99 + $7.99). You don't need to do anything to continue your memberships for both unlimited streaming and unlimited DVDs".
Traveling Europe this summer? Telestial says its data roaming is 20x cheaper
California-based mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) Telestial on Tuesday announced it had dropped its international 2G and 3G roaming rates to the lowest in the industry.
Customers who buy one of Telestial's Passport or Passport Plus SIM cards can now connect to data networks in France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and 21 other European countries for as low as $1 per megabyte. The company's prepaid SIM cards are compatible with mobile networks in 180 countries worldwide and require a SIM-unlocked GSM 850/900/1800/1900 phone for activation.
Android 3.2 GPL content is out, but don't get excited for open source Honeycomb yet
Android Open Source Project engineer Jean-Baptiste Queru on Tuesday announced the portions of Android 3.2 covered under the GNU General Public License (GPL) and GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) have been released to the Android Open Source Project.
Android uses several different Open Source licenses, but the majority of the code falls under the Apache Software License 2.0. Things like the Linux kernel and Bluetooth stack fall under the GNU licenses.
Google extends Offers to New York and San Francisco
Groupon has nothing to fear from Google. Yet. But the methodical Google Offers expansion shouldn't be ignored -- today two other cities join Portland. Google Offers beta launched in the Oregon city on June 1.
Google announced New York and San Francisco as coming soon on that day. Next up, revealed today: Austin, Boston, Denver, Seattle and Washington, DC and possibility Google Offers could reach 10 major metropolitan areas by early autumn.
Anonymous reveals 90k military email and password combos in the name of #Antisec
Black hat security group Anonymous has exposed 90,000 military email addresses stored on servers from consulting firm and U.S. government contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. The hacker group said the breach was done to expose the corruption of government and related corporate entities.
Booz Allen Hamilton deals with all branches of the armed services as well as the defense and intelligence communities of the U.S. Government. It claims to provide, among other things, "strategy and technology solutions that help deter 21st century threats and meet complex mission requirements."
Cyberduck 4.1: Tweaked for Windows, ready for Lion
There are so many ways of storing your data online these days that accessing it all can become rather a chore. FTP soon gave way to accessing storage via your web browser which, while convenient in terms of not needing another program, is quite restrictive.
Such problems fuelled the development of Cyberduck. Yes, it's an FTP client, but it's also capable of giving you quickly and easy access to a wide range of other online storage providers too via a single client, including Amazon S3, Google Docs and WebDAV. Version 4.1 has just been released, promising a raft of the under-the-hood improvements, new WebDAV implementation and a tweaked user interface in Windows.
Could Google+ reach 10M users today, 20M by the weekend?
Now Facebook cofounder Mark Zuckerberg should worry. Google+ is scarcely two weeks old and invite-only but growing like a weed. Ancestry.com founder Paul Allen (not to be confused with Microsoft's cofounder of the same name) estimates the 10 million-user number based on a cunning surname analysis.
I wouldn't be surprised at the 10 million number. Over the weekend, I saw a sudden and stunning surge in people following me who aren't early-adopter techies. Many are friends who didn't receive invitations from me, by the way. Sorry guys.
Airfoil: When Apple AirTunes or AirPlay isn't enough
Rogue Amoeba Software LLC has announced updates to its Airfoil application for Windows and Mac. Airfoil allows users on Windows and Macs to wirelessly stream music to compatible devices on an Apple Airport Express network, including AirTunes-connected speakers and hi-fi systems, as well as iPhones, iPod touches, iPads and other computers running the complementary AirFoil Speakers software.
The updates, which are platform specific, include a redesigned user interface in Windows for greater ease of use, plus full support for third-party Airplay devices on Mac, and greater controls for those running the free AirFoil Speakers add-on to control playback of streaming media.
Most Commented Stories
© 1998-2025 BetaNews, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy - Cookie Policy.