GLENN’S SHOWNOTES
http://edition.
Apple is selling more than 200,000 iPads per week, says Mike Abramsky, an RBC Capital Markets analyst. That’s almost twice the rate of Mac computers, which average about 110,000 units sold each week.
The iPad isn’t outselling the iPhone, though it’s coming close. Apple was selling about 246,000 units of the iPhone 3GS per week during its first quarter of launch.
http://edition.
released in Japan 30 years ago this week, created millions of glazed-eye addicts and spawned more than 400 products, including a cartoon, a breakfast cereal and a hit song.
An unlicensed sequel, Ms. Pac-Man, followed in 1981. Namco soon embraced the game and adopted it as an official title. In all, more than 30 official spin-offs, plus numerous clones, were inspired by Pac-Man’s success.
“Pac-Man Fever,” a novelty song by Jerry Buckner and Gary Garcia, reached No. 9 on the Billboard pop chart in early 1982.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-MONIvP6kI
In 1999, Billy Mitchell of Florida became the first player to achieve a perfect Pac-Man score — 3,333,360
http://apcmag.c
Microsoft and Foxtel today revealed that the cable TV platform would be offered as a streaming and video on demand service directly through Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console
to be launched “later this year” — will see Foxtel channels such as Fox Sports, Discovery, Nickelodeon, Disney and MTV directly through Microsoft’s Xbox Live platform. “A wide range” of movies and television series will also be provided in a video on demand format.
The service will be launched “towards the end of the calendar year”, with further details — including packages and prices, as well as the full channel line-up — to be disclosed closer to launch date
today Microsoft rival Sony switched on its own video on demand platform in Australia, which is provided across its PlayStation 3 and PSP devices. “A wide range of titles will be available in High Definition and Standard Definition, from all the major movie studios
Google showed off a preview of the Google Chrome Store during the opening keynote at its Google I/O 2010 developer conference. The final version will appear in a release of the developer build of the Chrome browser in the near future, Google vice president for product management Sundar Pichai said. It will also be natively supported on Google’s forthcoming Chrome OS targetted at netbooks
Apps in the Chrome Web store can be built on standard web technologies, including Flash, and we will support them all in the Chrome Web store
The store will support 40 languages and be available in more than 70 countries, Pichai said
http://www.thea
Due to popular demand, we’re making the game permanently available.”
The Pac-Man game, which spent the weekend incorporated into a logo atop the Google online search homepage, was given a new venue at www.google.com/pacman.
It was the first time Google made an interactive logo at its homepage
http://edition.
Yahoo Sports confirmed with the stadium that the iPad falls under its “no laptops” security policy and patrons won’t be able to enter the ballpark with one in their possession.
The following items are prohibited:
- Any soft-sided bag larger than 16 inches by 16 inches by 8 inches, including diaper bags, backpacks and purses
- Briefcases, coolers and hard-sided bags and containers
- Glass, cans and plastic bottles
- Laser pens
- Video cameras
- Laptop computers
- Firearms or knives
- Beach balls, blow horns and all other distracting noisemakers
- Any other devices that may interfere with and/or distract any sports participant, other patron, audio or audio/visual telecast or recording of the game or any technology-related service provided in Yankee Stadium
http://edition.
People who want to use the more secure search option can type “https://www.google.com” into their browser, scrambling the connection so the words and phrases they search on, and the results that Google displays, will be protected from interception.
The beta service of the secure Web search option begins in the United States on Friday and will be rolled out over the next few days to users around the world, said Murali Viswanathan, a Google search product manager.
The encryption protects only data in transit between an individual’s browser and the Google search server. When people click on a search result and are directed to another Web site, they leave the encrypted channel.
People who choose the secure option on Google will only be able to get encryption for Web searches and not for other types of searches, such as Image Search and Maps, at least for now. As a result, links for those searches will not appear on the side or top of the search page when someone is in the secure search mode.
The secure Web search option will slow down the initial connection a computer makes to the Google server, but it may be hardly noticeable to most people. It also means Google will have to use more processor power to handle the scrambling and unscrambling of the SSL connection, which is the biggest reason most Web sites don’t offer it as an option.
the ability to search for a show name, switch to any channel showing that program and identify sites offering streaming access to episodes
automatically schedule recordings of a future recording on a connected PVR or PC
When watching a sports broadcast, Google TV can switch to a picture-in-picture mode to allow access to live stats alongside the actual match.
Individual shows can have specially-developed results pages associated with them, making it easier to research their background or find other episodes.
launching Fall 2010 in the US only
The platform is based on Android, and non-phone-specific Android applications will also run on Google TV set-top boxes, with a software development kit due to be released when the first hardware appears mid-year
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diTpeYoqAhc&feature=player_embedded
http://www.smh.
Australian television audiences got their first look at 3D sports coverage with the Socceroos friendly against New Zealand being broadcast in 3D
Mr Paragalli, 55, has spent nearly $5000 getting his family 3D-ready in time for the World Cup. He hopes that by kick-off day on June 11 two extra sets of glasses – which cost $150 each – will be delivered.
State of Origin will also be broadcast on Ch9 Sydney in 3D
http://apcmag.c
ABC app packed with news reports, streaming video and other goodies, and judging from the screenshot below it’s going to be sweet and slick.
the app won’t be launching this Friday, but an ABC spokeswoman assures us it “will be available soon after the iPad launch in Australia.”
This will be followed later in the year by a second app designed for the ABC’s iView ‘catch-up TV’ video service.
Apple to open Bondi store on iPad day
Apple will be holding a public grand opening of an Apple Retail Store on Oxford Street, Bondi Junction this Friday, 28 May — the day its flagship iPad tablet goes on sale.
The store is thought to be a vast vista of trees, greenery and Apple Geniuses wandering around like angels under an expansive glass rooftop — a tropical Apple paradise in the heart of Bondi Junction
MARK’S SHOWNOTES
Google gets U.S. antitrust OK on AdMob buy
(Reuters) – Google Inc has won U.S. approval to buy mobile advertising rival AdMob, after months of delay and rumor that the No. 1 Internet search engine was headed for a court fight with government officials over the $750 million transaction.
The Federal Trade Commission’s decision followed unusually public comments by app developers — whose software for mobile devices are often supported or subsidized by advertising — that the agency’s staff seemed determined to challenge the deal.
The FTC said in a statement on Friday that it was concerned that two top mobile advertising networks were combining, but said Apple Inc’s entry into the market would mitigate the effects of the Google/AdMob powerhouse.
“The decision was a difficult one because the parties (Google and AdMob) currently are the two leading mobile advertising networks, and the commission was concerned about the loss of head-to-head competition between them,” the FTC said in a statement.
Apple’s new platform for the iPhone and iPad — dubbed iAd — marked Apple’s first move into a small but growing market and comes shortly after its purchase of Quattro Wireless, the third largest mobile ad network, Quattro Wireless.
The commission said it believed Apple would quickly become a strong mobile advertising network competitor.
“Though we have determined not to take action today, the commission will continue to monitor the mobile marketplace to ensure a competitive environment and to protect the interests of consumers,” the FTC said.
Google, which announced the deal in November, called the approval “great news” and said it would close “in coming weeks.”
AdMob founder and Chief Executive Omar Hamoui said he was pleased with the decision and would work with Google to close the deal.
Despite an early, small bump in Google’s stock price, it quickly shed the gains to close down 0.62 percent at $472.05 on Nasdaq.
“It’s heavy volume, they got the bump and they took it back down,” said Colin Gillis, a senior tech analyst with BGC Financial. Gillis argued that the slip was at least partially because the AdMob acquisition will do little to immediately push up Google’s revenues.
SIGNS OF A FRUSTRATED CHALLENGE?
The mobile ad market was evolving and growing so fast that challenging a deal in the space would be very difficult, said David Balto, a former FTC policy director.
“Apple’s moves over the last couple of months hurt the FTC’s case,” he added, referring to the iAd launch and requirement that app developers work within certain specifications.
Few app developers seemed to share the FTC concern that the Google-AdMob merger would leave them with fewer firms to sell their advertising space.
One told Reuters in April that the FTC staff appeared “dead set against” approving the deal, and went on to say that he was puzzled by the FTC’s concern.
This sort of commentary — and that of others who went online to describe similar interaction with the commission — made the FTC’s job even harder as it faced the prospect of explaining its case to a judge, said Jeff Shinder, an antitrust lawyer with Constantine Cannon.
“Someone’s got to get hurt here. You want to show consumers coming in, saying ‘I’m worried,'” Shinder said on Friday. “And (it hurts) when one of these constituencies is openly disdainful of the agency’s action.”
Google, which generated 97 percent of its $23.7 billion in 2009 revenue from advertising, has faced growing antitrust scrutiny as it seeks to use revenue from its dominance of the search market to move powerfully into other markets.
The company walked away from a search deal with Yahoo Inc in 2008 when the Justice Department said it would challenge the tie-up. And Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt was forced to step down from Apple’s board last year after his dual roles came under FTC review.
The U.S. Department of Justice has been sharply critical of Google’s settlement with book publishers and authors’ groups that would allow the search giant to create an online digital library. That class action settlement is awaiting approval by a court in New York.
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