Slacker Web Radio Service Launches in Canada

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

San Diego – Slacker, the
personalized streaming radio service, announced on Thursday that it is now available
in Canada, although under
somewhat different terms than it is offered in the U.S.

The free, basic service will
be available to Canadians for 30 days, after which time they will have to pay a
$4 USD per month subscription fee; U.S. users are able to stick with
the ad-supported free service indefinitely.

The company said told Billboard the
different terms were due to the fact that the ad market in Canada is not as mature as that in the U.S., and because
rival Pandora isn’t live there yet.

The Canadian version of Slacker is now available
on PCs, Android and BlackBerry, although the company said an iPhone application
is coming soon.

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/u32y4

http://snipurl.com/u32xx
(Billboard)

http://www.slacker.com

Report: Google Increases U.S. Search Share in December

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Los Angeles – Google’s (NASD: GOOG) share
of the U.S.
search market grew in December, while Microsoft’s (NASD: MSFT) Bing’s popularity fell a bit,
according to data from measurement firms Experian Hitwise and Nielsen.

According to Hitwise, Google took 72.25% of the market in December, followed by
Yahoo (NASD: YHOO) (14.83%), Bing (8.92%) and Ask.com (2.54%).

Nielsen’s figures show Google
with 67.3% of the search market, compared to Yahoo (14.4%), Bing (9.9%) and
Ask.com (1.7%).

Both firms noted that Google increased its search share in
December, while Bing was seen as losing the most ground to its competitors.

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/u32ml
(Hitwise)

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-10434099-17.html

Report: Google Nexus One Phone Sales Sluggish in First Week

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
1

San Francisco – Google (NASD:  GOOG) sold about 20,000 of its Nexus One
smartphone during its first week on sale from the company’s website — far
below first-week sales of competitors like the Motorola Droid (250,000 units)
and the Apple iPhone 3G S (1.6 million units), according to data from mobile analytics
firm Flurry.

The figures mean that the Droid outsold the Nexus One by more than
12 times in its first week out, while the iPhone 3G S sold 80 times as many
units.

Flurry notes that Google did not spend a great deal on launch marketing,
compared with Verizon’s $100 million campaign to launch the Droid, and did not
launch the Nexus One before the holiday shopping season.

Google declined to
comment on the Flurry figures for Wired.com, and a spokesperson said the
company is not disclosing sales data for the Nexus One.

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/u32ik
(Flurry blog)

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/01/nexus-one-sales/

Survey: 82% of Parents With Kid Gamers Aware of ESRB Ratings

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Santa Monica,
Calif. – A large majority (82%) of
the parents of children who play video games, and 75% of children themselves,
are familiar with the Entertainment Software Ratings Board’s (ESRB) voluntary
video game ratings system, according to a survey conducted by The Harrison
Group on behalf of game publisher Activision (NASD: ATVI).

The survey was hatched as part of
Activision’s "Ratings Are Not A Game" initiative, which "focuses
on educating consumers about the ESRB’s rating system and helping parents make
informed decisions about the video games their families play."

The survey
also found that 63% of parents with children who play games consider themselves
gamers, with that number increasing to 83% for parents ages 35 and younger.

Seventy per cent of parents said they "pay close attention to the ratings
when purchasing a game for themselves or their families," while 62% said
they conduct research before purchasing a game their child wants.

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/u321y

http://www.harrisongroupinc.com

http://www.activision.com/RatingsAreNotAGame

Kodak

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Kodak Sues Apple, RIM Over Camera Phone Patents

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
1

Rochester,
N.Y. – Eastman Kodak (NYSE:  EK) has filed
patent infringement claims with the U.S. International Trade Commission against
Apple (NASD:  AAPL) and Research in Motion (NASD:  RIMM), related to the cameras in the companies’
respective smartphones. Kodak claims that the iPhone and BlackBerry are
infringing a Kodak patent that covers technology related to a method for
previewing images.

The complaints ask the agency to bar imports of the devices
from their overseas manufacturers.

Separately, Kodak said it filed two lawsuits
against Apple in federal court in New
York, which allege infringement of Kodak patents
related to "digital cameras and certain computer processes."

In these
suits, Kodak seeks a court order to stop Apple’s alleged infringements, and
unspecified monetary damages.

Kodak, which holds more than 1,000 digital
imaging-related patents, has so far licensed its technology to around 30
companies, including Motorola, Nokia, LG and Sony Ericsson, the Associated
Press noted.

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/u31mj

http://snipurl.com/u309a
(AP)

China Says Web Firms Must Respect its Laws

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Beijing – China has indicated that companies
doing business in the country must abide by its laws, in response to Google’s (NASD:  GOOG)
announcement that it would no longer censor search results in the country and
is contemplating a full retreat from the company. Google’s move comes after the
company suffered a cyberattack on its Gmail service in which the accounts of
Chinese human rights activists were breached. "China
welcomes international Internet enterprises to conduct business in China according
to law," was the response from Jiang Yu, a spokeswoman for the country’s
Foreign Ministry.

Google, Yahoo and other companies have set up shop in China, but have
to this point allows their search results to be censored by the Chinese
government.

Google now says it may opt to withdraw its business from the
company in its entirety.

"Google leaving China
makes people sad, but accepting censorship to stay in China and abandoning its ‘Don’t Be
Evil’ principles is more than just sad," Teng Biao, a law professor and
human rights lawyer who says his Gmail account was hacked, wrote on his blog,
The New York Times reported.

"The recent cyberintrusion that Google
attributes to China
is troubling, and the federal government is looking into it," Nicholas
Shapiro, a White House spokesman, told The Times.

 

Related Links:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/15/world/asia/15beijing.html

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100114/ap_on_hi_te/as_china_google

Blockbuster Eliminates Credit Agreement With Viacom

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Dallas
– Video rental giant Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI) announced on Thursday that it has eliminated
the final $24 million of certain letters of credit it maintained on behalf of
Viacom (NYSE: VIA), its former parent company.

The letters of credit were maintained by
Blockbuster to cover Viacom’s potential liability under certain Blockbuster
store leases.

The video rental chain said it plans to close nearly 1,000 of its
stores — about 20% — in 2010.

"Eliminating this final $24 million of
credit exposure frees up cash and helps our liquidity," said Blockbuster
CFO Tom Casey.

"Not only were we able to eliminate the previous $51
million of letter of credit exposure with Viacom in 2009, we also raised $675
million on our bond offering to extend our debt maturities into 2014.

"While
2009 was a challenging year in the overall macroeconomic environment, what we
were able to accomplish in such a credit strapped market last year was truly
remarkable."

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/u2z6j

eMusic Parent Sweetens Bid for Control of The Orchard

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

New York – Dimensional Associates, the private equity arm of
JDS Capital that owns digital music service eMusic, has sweetened its bid to
acquire the rest of independent music distributor The Orchard (NASD: ORCD) it does not
already own, PaidContent reported, citing a regulatory filing.

The initial
offer of $1.68 per share was first raised to $1.84 and now stands at $2 per
share — an offer now under review by The Orchard.

Dimensional Associates
already owns a majority stake in The Orchard, and actually owned the company outright
before The Orchard merged with Digital Music Group Inc. in 2007.

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/u2z2n
(PaidContent)

http://www.theorchard.com

http://www.emusic.com

AOL's Ad Products Head Resigns for Role at Yahoo

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

New York
– Just three months after being hired to build the company’s ad platform,
Shashi Seth has left AOL (NYSE: AOL) for a similar position at Yahoo (NASD: YHOO).

"It is with a
heavy heart that I must tell you that I am resigning from my role at AOL,"
Seth wrote in an email to staff, published by All Things D.

"Very recent
developments in my personal life have made it impossible for me to maintain an
executive role that requires extensive travel."

Seth was named AOL’s
senior vice president of global advertising products in early October, working
for the company’s Silicon Valley offices.

The
position required extensive travel to and from AOL’s headquarters in New York.

"This new
role will enable me to remain local," he wrote.

He previously served as
the head of monetization for Google’s YouTube, and also worked as the product
lead for web search at Google.

AOL has named Jamie Fellows to head its Global
Advertising Products organization on an interim basis.

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/u2yzz
(All Things D)

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