LoveFilm has inked a major UK distribution deal with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (MGM) to allow its members to watch MGM titles online and through its ‘Watch Online’ web player. It’s coup for the company as MGM has one of the largest film libraries of any Hollywood studio.
MGM Classics will be available to LoveFilm members as part of their subscription including golden oldies like West Side Story and The Apartment. New MGM releases will be available as they are released. → Read More
You might as well take your Rebel T2i back to the store, friends, because Canon just dropped the EOS 60D, a mid-range DSLR with RAW shooting, a swing-mounted LCD, and great video recording. → Read More
Hyperlocal business directory MerchantCircle is getting into the content game today with the launch of a “Local Content Studio.” Merchant Circle, which has been steadily growing, is a business directory for merchants in smaller towns and currently lists 1.3 million small businesses. MerchantCircle has local business members in 95% of the 24,600 U.S. cities and towns with populations over 200.
The Local Content Studio aims to bring bring short-format information and articles that focus on the long tail of consumer local interest. The idea behind the studio is to create in-depth local content designed to connect customers with merchants. And MerchantCircle is encouraging business owners on its site to contribute the content. A typical submission would focus on “the best fishing tips for Five Lake, in Talkeetna, Alaska,” written by a local bait shop owner. → Read More
Here’s the fourth (and final) demo I witnessed at NTT‘s showroom “Note” [JP] in Tokyo: a futuristic apparatus for remote collaboration and education called “t-Room” [PDF]. While NTT’s Home ICT system, the telemedicine technology, and the digital signage system (now with one more video) were quite impressive, the t-Room certainly boasts the biggest wow factor. → Read More
Mobile applications discovery and sharing service provider Appsfire is going social, henceforth enabling users to connect to Facebook in order to bring their Facebook friends in on the fun.
Basically, this allows Appsfire users to easily add their iPhone app collections and share them with their existing social graph, rather than forcing users to build a new one from scratch.
The venture-backed startup has also released some strong figures to back up their reason for being, but more on that below. → Read More
As more businesses look to social media for marketing efforts and to drive sales, there is a need for a comprehensive, yet easy to use platform to manage interactions on social networks. Chicago-based startup Sprout Social is launching its social relationship management platform to the public today.
The startup’s platform allows businesses to connect to customers and monitor key metrics and the overall competitive landscape using social media tools. The Sprout Social platform integrates with social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, LinkedIn and Foursquare and includes lead generation, business intelligence, offer and promotion distribution services, as well as brand monitoring and analytics. → Read More
Straight from the Benjamin Franklin department of “waste not, want not” comes upstart AfterDownload with a simple idea about how to enhance those typical download and ecommerce ‘Thank You’ pages … use them to promote more wares.
Good ol’ Ben would surely ask: ‘Why let them go to waste when you can squeeze them for some additional revenue? Am I right, or am I right?’ → Read More
Those all-in-one 3D TVs Sony announced today weren’t enough for you? Then take a look at the six new 3D Blu-ray recorders the company showed [JP] for the first time. All models support the BDXL format (discs with 100GB capacity), and according to Sony, they just need half a second to be ready after you push the “on” button. → Read More
Here’s a summary of a series of articles I posted over at CrunchGear earlier this week. The occasion: as the first international blogger, I was guided through a special tour of Japanese telecommunications giant giant NTT‘s showroom NOTE [JP] in Tokyo (where I live) last week.
And I can confirm they do have some pretty cool tech. The showroom offers demonstrations for over a dozen of different “next-generation” technologies, but the videos I took focus on these four areas: telemedicine, digital signage, Home ICT, and remote collaboration (hit the links to go to the more detailed posts on CrunchGear). → Read More
Dell announced this morning that 3PAR has accepted its increased offer to acquire the storage company for $24.30 per share in cash, or approximately $1.6 billion, net of 3PAR’s cash.
Dell had previously signed an agreement to acquire 3PAR for $18 per share, with a provision for matching competing bids.
HP subsequently outbid Dell for the data storage company, offering $24 per share in cash, or also roughly $1.6 billion at the time. Dell and 3PAR have now signed an amendment to the agreement reflecting the new offer price, which brings its bid up to par with HP’s offer. → Read More
Cisco this morning announced its intent to purchase privately-held and venture-backed ExtendMedia, a provider of software-based Content Management Systems that helps media companies and network operators manage digital video content.
Financial terms of the transaction remain undisclosed, and the deal is expected to close in the first half of Cisco’s fiscal year 2011. → Read More
A week after purchasing Fortify, HP has made a purchase today, acquiring Stratavia, a database and data center automation company. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Stratavia develops and markets database, server and run book automation software which helps customers reduce the cost of operating their enterprise environments. The software is designed to control application deployment and management in hybrid IT environments as well as simplify the deployment of applications in the cloud. → Read More
Mitsubishi showed them yesterday, and Sony followed [JP] today: All-in-one LCD TVs that feature 3D capability and come with built-in Blu-ray recorders and HDDs. The so-called BRAVIA 2 KDL series consists of three different 3D TVs (two of which come with “2D” Blu-ray recorders only). → Read More
Granicus, a privately held San Francisco company that provides solutions for creating, managing and distributing live and on-demand streaming media content for government agencies, has acquired Webcasting.com for an undisclosed sum.
Granicus did say the company was able to complete the transaction using existing capital, and in a letter to Webcasting.com customers let it be known that chief executive Mike Pollock will not be joining them as part of the deal. → Read More
Dino-lamps For Your Home Or Office Immortality Via Valve’s Team Fortress 2 Hat-Describing Contest Matrix Key System Lets You Lose As Many Keys As You Want It Turns Out The Shapes On Playstation Buttons Aren’t Arbitrary After All LightCap Is A Combo Lantern And Water Bottle → Read More
Well, this is curious.
From our checks, it seems like Google has completely omitted Yelp reviews from Google Places. As you may recall, Yelp has been frustrated by Google’s recent decision to pump up its Places service with Yelp’s content— without Yelp’s consent.
During a recent interview with TechCrunch TV, Yelp’s CEO Jeremy Stoppelman said he was surprised by Google’s move but was confident that it was not a “permanent situation, from what we gather from talking to Google, they are sort of headed in a new direction that which hopefully will be more positive.”
It’s unclear whether this is the “positive” outcome Stoppelman was hoping for.
Updated. Google has confirmed that Yelp’s content will not show up in the “reviews” section of Google Place pages. → Read More
Just three months ago everyone was happy. Lithium Technologies, which has a suite of social CRM solutions, picked up Scout Labs for a reported (by us) $20 million. Minor Ventures, which incubated Scout Labs, was able to take a nice, if small, liquidity event.
Things aren’t so happy now. → Read More
This is pretty interesting. I’ve always thought that the shapes on the Playstation controllers were chosen just to be distinctive, and so they didn’t have to use a numbered or lettered face button scheme like Nintendo’s. As it turns out, they were picked for good reason. Sony’s Teiyu Goto explains: → Read More
Samsung’s Galaxy tablet is showing much promise, but of course no one has actually seen one until now. The Chinese gadget site Giz-China managed to find what is obviously a spy camera video showing some of the functionality of the Android tablet. Check out the video after the jump: → Read More
