NewsGator Acquires Social Computing Firm Tomoye

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
1

Denver
– NewsGator Technologies, a provider of news content aggregation services,
announced on Thursday that it will acquire Tomoye, a developer of social
computing technologies.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Denver-based
NewsGator said it counts over 2.1 million paid enterprise social computing
users, with customers including USA Today, CBS, CNN and National Geographic.

Tomoye
counts among its social computing customers the U.S. Army, with 150,000 users.

"This
strategic move expands our market reach and gives us a broader portfolio of
solutions for current and future customers," said J.B. Holston, NewsGator
CEO.

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/u5c6g

http://www.newsgator.com

http://www.tomoye.com

Grammys Telecast to Feature 3D Michael Jackson Clip

By
Mark Hefflinger
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0

New York
– This year’s Grammy Awards telecast will feature a 3D clip made by Michael
Jackson before his death, the Associated Press reported. The five-minute 3D
clip for Jackson’s
song "Earth Song" was to be included in the series of comeback
concerts that never happened. Target will offer free 3D "Grammy"
glasses in its retail stores from Jan. 24 until the day of the broadcast on
Jan. 31.


 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/u50hs
(AP)

Sirius XM Adds 257K Subscribers in Q4 2009

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

New York
– Sirius XM Radio (NASD: SIRI) announced on Wednesday that it added 257,000 net subscribers
during the fourth quarter of 2009, to end the year with a total of 18.8 million
subscribers. "Based on preliminary financial data, we expect to report
over $100 million of free cash flow for 2009, an extraordinary improvement over
the pro forma negative free cash flow of $552 million that the company
experienced in 2008," said Sirius XM CEO Mel Karmazin. "This is the
first year in our history that we have generated positive free cash flow for
the entire year."  


 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/u50kp

http://www.sirius.com

"Tetris" Hits 100 Million Paid Mobile Game Downloads

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

New York
– Classic video game "Tetris" has surpassed 100 million paid
downloads to mobile phones worldwide, according to distributors Blue Planet
Software and EA Mobile. The game was developer by Alexey Pajitnov in 1984
originally for the PC, but was later ported to the original NES, Nintendo Game
Boy and eventually mobile phones in 2001.


 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/u4zzp

Chinese Video Portal Youku Adds Copyright ID Platform

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Beijing – Chinese video
portal Youku on Wednesday announced the launch of a new copyright
identification management platform, calling it "the first of its kind in China."
The company said it plans to "embark on content acquisition on an
unprecedented scale" this year, and that the new system will
"accelerate the industry’s movement toward legitimate content."
"Trial operation of the copyright identification system has already begun
for European and American audio-video copyright holders," said Yao Jian,
Youku’s chief technology officer. "Following this initial stage of
operations, we will continue to improve and perfect the system, making it more
efficient and more convenient to use."


 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/u50h5

http://www.youku.com

YouTube Tests Movie Rentals with Sundance Partnership

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

San Bruno, Calif.
– Google’s (NASD: GOOG) YouTube plans on Friday to test the waters with movie rentals, as it
launches a partnership with the Sundance Film Festival to make five films from
this year’s and last year’s festival available for rental to U.S. users. The
film rentals, which include "The Cove," "Homewrecker" and
"Bass Ackwards," will cost $3.99 for 48 hours access. The company
also issued a call for more independent filmmakers to join its new rental
program.


 

Related Links:
http://ytbizblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/youtube-to-sundance-independent.html

Report: Manchester United Bans Players from Social Media Sites

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

London
– Professional soccer club Manchester United, a team within the English Premier
League, has imposed a ban on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter for
its players, according to reports. The reports indicate that a Facebook account
for Man U player Wes Brown was taken down, while the "Walls" of
profiles for Ryan Giggs and Rio Ferdinand were wiped clean. Twitter accounts
purported to be operated by Man U players Wayne Rooney, Ryan Giggs and Darren
Fletcher are no longer online.


 

Related Links:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/01/19/man_utd_social_networking_ban/

http://snipurl.com/u50jq
(EPL-Talk.com)

http://snipurl.com/u50jw
(Manchester United statement)

http://www.manutd.com

Verizon

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

CNET: Verizon Suspending Service of Repeat File-Swappers

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
1

San Francisco
– Verizon Communications (NYSE:  VZ) acknowledged that it has penalized an undisclosed
number of its Internet access subscribers who failed to comply with multiple
file-sharing warning letters with service interruptions, CNET News.com
reported. "We’ve cut some people off," Verizon Online spokeswoman
Bobbi Henson told CNET.

"We do reserve the right to discontinue service.
But we don’t throttle bandwidth like Comcast was doing. Verizon does not have
bandwidth caps."

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)
announced in late 2008 that it would end its campaign of copyright litigation
against file-swappers, saying it would instead partner with ISPs on a
"graduated response" campaign.

Verizon’s Henson told CNET that the
number of subscribers who had seen their service interrupted was small — revealing
that the warning letters have been effective.

"We’ve found that we don’t
have to warn most people a second time," Henson told CNET. "Most
people stop. Or they tell whoever [in their household] is doing it to stop."

 

Related Links:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10437176-93.html

http://snipurl.com/u50er
(DMW previous coverage)

Michael Robertson: Apple Planning Cloud-based Music Service

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Palo Alto,
Calif. – Despite speculation that
Apple (NASD:  AAPL) acquired streaming music service Lala so that it could launch a
subscription plan alongside outright sales at its iTunes Store, digital music
veteran Michael Robertson postulated in a guest post on TechCrunch that the company
is actually planning a cloud-based service. Among Lala’s assets is a personal
storage service, which loads a user’s personal music library into an online
locker, so that users can stream their collection from any Web-connected
device.

"This technology plus the engineering and management team is the
true value of Lala to Apple," Robertson said.

Such a service would allow
Apple to expand the iTunes software for its more than 100 million users without
having to pay additional streaming licensing fees.

"Because users are in
possession of the materials no new licenses are required from the record labels
or publishers," Robertson added.

"Record labels are wary to give
Apple even greater dominance which is why Apple’s new strategy is designed to
sidestep new licenses from the major labels."

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/u509s
(TechCrunch)

http://michaelrobertson.com

http://www.lala.com

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