Shazam to Let Advertisers "Tag" Commercials, Link to Promotions

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

London – Shazam, a provider of mobile music identification
services, on Wednesday announced the launch of a new program that lets brands
and broadcasters utilize the Shazam service, now on 50 million mobile phones.
The Shazam Audio Recognition Advertising (SARA) program, already used by
Dockers in its Super Bowl ad campaign, lets advertisers set up ads which users
can "Shazam," and receive special promotions and hidden content via
Web links. The company partnered with Augme Mobile to offer SARA in the North
American market.

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/uefay

http://www.augme.com

http://www.shazam.com

MTV Games in Talks with Hendrix Estate on "Rock Band"

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Los Angeles
– Viacom’s (NYSE: VIA) MTV Games and development studio Harmonix are "in discussions
to bring [Jimi Hendrix]" to the "Rock Band" game platform,
Billboard and the Los Angeles Times report. The talks could result in a new Hendrix-themed
iteration of the game, similar to previous versions featuring the Beatles and
Green Day, or simply in Hendrix’s tunes becoming available for download and
play on Rock Band.


 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/uefey
(Los Angeles Times)

http://snipurl.com/ueffc
(Billboard)

Blockbuster On Demand Service to Ship on HTC HD2 Smartphone

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Dallas – Video rental giant
Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI) said on Wednesday that its Blockbuster On Demand movie download
service will ship embedded on HTC’s new HD2 smartphone in the U.S. The deal
marks the first download and multi-screen mobile movie application for
Blockbuster, and will give HD2 owners access to more than 100,000 movies, TV
shows and games, downloadable over a Wi-Fi connection. The HTC HD2 is expected
to be offered by T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) this spring.


 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/uefhz

http://www.sticktogether.com/htchd2

Turner Broadcasting Taps Brightcove for Web Video Delivery

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

London – Brightcove, a
provider of video delivery services for content producers, announced on Wednesday
that Time Warner’s (NYSE: TWX) Turner Broadcasting will use its services to support its online
video content throughout Europe. The first
Turner sites in Europe to launch on the
Brightcove platform include Cartoon Network, Boomerang and Adult Swim, which
will receive localized video experiences for various countries.


 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/uefkh

http://www.brightcove.com

Veteran Game Designer Richard Garriott Forms Portalarium

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
1

Austin
– Veteran video game designer Richard Garriott ("Ultima Online") on Wednesday
announced the formation of a new social media company, Portalarium, which will
initially develop online game applications. Garriott says the new venture
"has a broad-based, open-social mission that will also see it expanding
into content that includes open learning, open health, open
science/environment, open government and much more." Portalarium’s first
product is a cross-platform Web browser plug-in that enables gamed developed on
disparate platforms to run inside the major social networks.


 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/uefik

http://www.portalarium.com

Polish Authorities Raid Operators of Rapidshare Link Forum

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
2

Los Angeles – Authorities in Poland have
conducted a raid on the operators of Filmowisko, an Internet forum where users
post links to download copyrighted materials on file-hosting service
Rapidshare, TorrentFreak reported.

Following an investigation conducted with
local anti-piracy group the Foundation for the Protection of Audiovisual
Creativity (FOTA), police arrested three alleged operators of the site — two
of whom are teenagers.

Authorities also conducted searches on locations
connected with three of the site’s estimated 30,000 members.

While the
Filmowisko site itself hosted no copyrighted content, but instead provided a
forum where users posted links to files hosted by Rapidshare, those arrested
face copyright infringement charges that come with a maximum five-year prison
sentence.

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/uef5v
(TorrentFreak)

Google: 60,000 Android-powered Phones Shipping Daily

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Barcelona – Google (NASD: GOOG) and its
manufacturing partners are now shipping 60,000 Android-powered mobile phones
every day, according to remarks made by CEO Eric Schmidt this week at the
Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

That figure works out to about 21.9 million Android-powered handsets shipping
per year.

In addition to Google’s own HTC-manufactured Nexus One, an
Android-powered handset, HTC also offers a range of its own Android handsets.

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/uef3w
(TechCrunch)

http://mashable.com/2010/02/17/60000-android-phones

AOL Planning Major Expansion of Patch Community News Sites

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
1

New York
– Eight months after acquiring local news and information firm Patch Media, AOL (NYSE: AOL)
is now planning to substantially expand its network of community news blogs,
Silicon Alley Insider reported, citing an internal memo.

The company currently
runs 33 localized Patch sites in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut,
but plans to grow that number into the "hundreds" by year’s end.

In
the memo, AOL said that the expansion is part of its effort to "be leaders
in one of the most promising ‘white spaces’ on the Internet."

AOL acquired
New York-based Patch Media last June.

At the time, CEO Tim Armstrong vowed to
make local sites "a core area of focus and investment for AOL."

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/uef11

http://www.patch.com

Digital Comics Publisher Graphic.ly Acquires iFanboy

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Boulder,
Colo. – Graphic.ly, a digital
content delivery platform for comics and other publications, announced on Wednesday
that it has acquired iFanboy, an online news and community site for comics and
graphic novel enthusiasts.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The
founders of iFanboy will join Graphic.ly, while their site will remain intact
and editorially independent from Graphic.ly.

"As community and content
become more and more entwined, Graphic.ly wants to be at the forefront of the
new digital comic age. By acquiring iFanboy, we become part of one of the best
communities in the industry," said Micah Baldwin, CEO and co-founder of Graphic.ly.

 

Related Links:
http://www.graphic.ly/press/ifanboy

http://ifanboy.com/content/articles/iFanboy_Joins_Forces_With_Graphic_ly

Survey: 24% of Internet Users Are Social Gamers

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Seattle – More than 24% of U.S. and U.K. Internet
users say they play social games regularly, making for a total of approximately
100 million social games players across the two countries, according to a
survey conducted by Information Solutions Group on behalf of social games
publisher PopCap Games.

Among nearly 5,000 respondents, more than 1,200 said
they play games on social networking sites and platforms at least once a week.

The survey found that 55% of all social gamers are female and 45% are male. The
average age of social gamers is 43; 46% of U.S. social gamers are 50 or older,
while just 6% are 21 or younger.

The vast majority (95%) of social gamers
player multiple times per week, with 64% saying they play at least once a day;
61% said their average gaming sessions lasts more than half an hour.

Surprisingly,
just 17% of U.K. social
gamers and 28% of their U.S.
counterparts cite "connect with others" as their most popular
motivation for playing.

"Fun and excitement" was the most popular
reason (53%), while "stress relief" (45%), "competitive
spirit" (43%) and "mental workout" (32%) were also cited by respondents.

Facebook was the most popular destination for social gaming, cited by 83% of
social gamers, followed by MySpace (24%), Bebo (7%) and Friendster (5%).

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/ueekn

http://snipurl.com/ueek3
(PDF of report)

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10455002-36.html

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