Domino's Pizza and Papa John's are two fast food delivery franchises that have recently been showing the value of being connected. Today, both companies expanded their connection to customers further, but along divergent courses.
Domino's went for the TV, by giving users of broadband-connected TiVo units the ability to order pizza directly from their TV. Through interactive ad tags in live TV mode, or through the "Music, Photos, Products, and More" menu icon, users can place an order for delivery or carry-out food. A user with a Domino's Pizza online account need only enter his username and password, and once the order is placed, Domino's trademark Pizza Tracker comes up on screen.
Today Fujitsu Laboratories announced its newest in-vehicle camera technology that gives drivers a third person perspective on their vehicle while driving.
Four cameras, mounted on the driver side, passenger side, forward, and rear of a vehicle, feed live video into an MB86R01 system on a chip running the embedded OpenGL ES image and video processing platform.
Just shy of one year old, the "Project Canoe" joint venture between six of the biggest Multi-System Operators has announced that the earliest stages of its targeted ad system will begin testing within the next 60 to 90 days.
The joint venture's stated goal from the outset has been to create a targeted advertising platform for cable television. Participating in the venture are Comcast, Cox, Time Warner, Charter, Cablevision and Bright House.
Nonprofit equity computing project One Laptop Per Child this morning opened its Give One, Get One (G1G1) store on Amazon.com.
For $399, customers buy one OLPC XO Laptop to donate to a developing nation, and get one for themselves or to give as a gift. The G1G1 program last year initially was slated to last only one week, but was extended due to the extremely high demand placed on the company's ordering infrastructure.
Yesterday, amid the launch of the new Windows Live services, which included the update to Games for Windows Live, the Microsoft Store officially opened for US businesses.
Having previously launched in the UK, Germany, and Korea, the Microsoft Store sells both hardware and software, and offers the option to purchase software either as physical media or as a download.
In an exclusive deal with Russian carrier Scartel's Yota network, HTC has premiered its first GSM/WiMAX handset, indicating how rapidly the evolution of the world's communications infrastructure may be leaving the US behind.
Logically called the MAX 4G, HTC's Windows Mobile 6.1 device offers a 3.8" (800 x 400) WVGA tactile display with the company's TouchFLO 3D user interface, the UI of HTC's Touch Diamond, Pro, and HD devices.
Today, Sun Microsystems announced a restructuring plan that involves reducing its global workforce by 5,000-6,000 employees, or 15%-18% of its total staff. Under this plan, the MySQL division may be more protected.
When Sun reported its first quarter 2009 earnings, it said diminished hardware sales to the financial sector had an unmistakable effect on the company's North American and European revenue. It posted a loss of $1.67 billion and did not even announce its guidance for the next quarter.
Blizzard Entertaiment today has released the second expansion pack for its indomitable World of Warcraft massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Naturally, it's an excuse to throw a big party.
Called Wrath of the Lich King, the game pack adds new zones, dungeons, skills and abilities to the nearly five-year old World of Warcraft realm. Last year, Blizzard announced that the game had more players than the entire population of New York City after the first expansion pack Burning Crusade, was released. In a single month, it sold 3.5 million copies.
In September, networking technology joint company Alcatel-Lucent named Ben Verwaayen, formerly of British Telecom, its new CEO. The company today announced its completed leadership team that will take office on the first of the new year.
Alcatel-Lucent has been in a protracted transitional phase where it has not yet become profitable. As such, it has taken on an all new leadership team and a new business model. The new model breaks operations into three regions: the Americas, Europe/Middle East/Africa, and Asia-Pacific (APAC).
Microsoft Today unveiled upgrades to its Games for Windows Live service -- the PC equivalent of Xbox Live -- that immediately updates the interface, and promises a Games for Windows Live Marketplace in early December.
The re-design optimizes the Live interface for Keyboard and Mouse, John Schappert, VP of Live Software and Studios said, "This new release was designed specifically with our community of PC gamers and game developers in mind. It's a natural next step in delivering a world-class online service for Windows gamers."
Research in Motion's first touchscreen BlackBerry, the Storm, will be coming to Verizon on November 21 for $249.99. Germany will be getting the Curve 8900 (a.k.a. "Javelin") by the end of the month.
Officially announced in October, the 3G touchscreen Storm offers tactile feedback, accelerometer-driven portrait/landscape layout swapping, a 3.2 megapixel camera, and BlackBerry's famous productivity application lineup.
Microsoft's Windows Live team today formally announced a number of upgrades to the Live platform that constitute its "next generation," a more unified experience across all the services within Windows Live.
Beginning in the coming weeks, existing Windows Live users' home.live.com page will change from the current straightforward (read: Google-ish) list of services to a social, profile-based (read: Facebook-ish) setup where all the existing Windows Live services are tied together with a central update feed.
Belkin today announced what would have otherwise been an unremarkable piece of cabling had it not been given a name that sounds like a piece of advice.
The cable is meant to recreate on a Windows machine the Mac's built-in Migration Assistant, which is used to transfer user accounts, applications, network and computer settings, files and volumes between Macs. Migration is also an optional process when initializing a new Mac.
Citi Investment Research (formerly Smith Barney) looked at the near future of advertising and predicted yesterday that US advertising budgets will shrink by almost 2% by the end of this year, and as much as 4% next year.
Analysts from Citigroup said that decreased consumer spending, as well as budgetary and credit constraints placed upon businesses, will lead to an overall advertiser pullback in all media that could last until the fourth quarter of 2010.
On Monday, November 17, One Laptop Per Child's 2008 holiday "Give One, Get One" XO program will begin. This year, ordering and shipping are organized by Amazon.com.
In September Amazon announced it would be handling the second annual One Laptop Per Child "Give one, get one" holiday program where customers buy an OLPC XO to donate to a developing country and get their own in return.