02/13, 10:10pm
iPad 3 run estimated 60pc higher than in 20111
A mix of suppliers and unnamed Korean press mentions have claimed that Apple is planning a dramatic increase in iPad shipments for 2012. Shipments for the new LCD panel, believed designed by Sharp but being manufactured by LG Display and Samsung, were said by the Commercial Times to be already booked to the order of 65 million to 75 million units for the year. Versus production of about 40.5 million in 2011, it would represent 60 to 73 percent higher shipments than last year.
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02/13, 3:05pm
Amazon only other tech firm in top five
Apple has taken first place in a Harris Interactive poll on corporate reputations. The company scored a quotient of 85.63, giving it enough to beat out last year's winner, Google, which in the new poll has claimed second place with 82.82. Remaining companies in the top five include Coca-Cola, Amazon, and Kraft Foods.
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02/13, 11:30am
NPD says Apple top US tech brand
Apple now represents about a fifth of all technology sales in the US, new NPD data showed Monday. By the end of 2011, 19 percent of revenue in the US was related to an Apple product. The company was now the top company selling technology in the US, topping HP, Samsung, Sony, and Dell even when the others could include their sales from all categories.
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02/12, 1:25pm
Apple TV update may join iPad 3 on stage
An upgraded Apple TV media hub might come sooner than thought after signs emerged that multiple stores ran low on stock. Amazon, Best Buy, Buy.com, Radio Shack, and Target all show the device either as out of stock or taking weeks to ship. Apple and others do have supply, but it follows a pattern of third-party resellers usually running out first.
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02/10, 7:30pm
Amazon hires for own TV shows
Two new job listings have hinted that Amazon will be the next commercial Internet video service to produce some of its own content. Its studio division is hiring for the People's Production Company to create comedies and children's shows. Unlike its counterparts, though, it would be developing for traditional formats as well.
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02/10, 5:25pm
Amazon Kindle may set foot in Japan for first time
Amazon might bring the Kindle to Japan and overturn the status quo for e-readers in the country, according to claims made Friday [account required]. Japanese business paper Nikkei heard that the mid-tier Kindle Touch would be the flagship and could come as soon as April. Pricing at 20,000 yen ($258) would be steep relative to the $150 US Kindle Touch 3G, although it would include native, free 3G through NTT DoCoMo instead of roaming on AT&T.
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02/10, 3:50pm
USA Today breaks down mobile app ratios
An escaped USA Today presentation has uncovered some of the real results of mobile news app downloads. GeekWire's copy showed a wide gap between downloads for the iPad and Android tablets: at over 2.9 million downloads, the iPad version had more than seven times the downloads of Android, which had 390,000 combined. The ratio on Android was heavily skewed by the Kindle Fire, which at 260,000 downloads had managed twice as much interest as every other Android tablet combined.
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02/10, 3:10pm
Penguin didn't have Amazon permission for lending
Penguin's recent decision to pull its e-books and digital audiobooks from libraries is because it didn't have permission to distribute the borrowed books by forwarding users to Amazon, INFOdocket said. OverDrive only had relationships in place with publishers, who can store and serve library end users' e-books. It doesn't have the authority to send users to Amazon or any other retailer to actually check out the book, the report continues.
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02/10, 1:50pm
Amazon not making changes to its Prime model soon
Amazon won't split its streaming video service from Prime Instant Video in the near future despite rumors to the contrary. Brad Beale, Head of Digital Video Content Acquisition at Amazon, said during a Wednesday interview with GigaOM that this is unlikely to happen anytime soon. Previously, a letter to shareholders from Netflix CEO Reed Hastings mentioned that he expects Amazon to introduce a service that would undercut its own.
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02/10, 6:10am
Amazon Kindle Fire 9-inch anticipated for midyear
Amazon’s rumored Kindle Fire 9-inch model could be shipping by as soon as the middle of this year, according to All Things D. Pacific Crest Analyst Chad Bartley has raised his estimates on Kindle Fire shipments from 12.7 million to just under 15 million units based on this line of thought. In addition to a new 9-inch Kindle Fire, Bartley’s research also suggests that the first refresh of the original Kindle Fire will also arrive at the same time.
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02/09, 11:40pm
Eolas sees web patent lawsuit claim tossed
Eolas' attempt to patent the "interactive web" may have been dealt a permanent blow after a jury in the normally patent lawsuit-friendly town of Tyler, Texas ruled that the patent was invalid. The decision negated both any attempts at claiming damages and also negated three future trials. The rejection came in part after testimony from the spiritual creator of the web, Tim Berners-Lee, as well as individual creators whose work predated that of Eolas owner Michael Doyle.
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02/09, 4:30pm
Netflix Android port gets social sharing
Netflix has updated its Android app (Market to add Facebook sharing in those countries that support it. Canada, Ireland, Latin American countries, and the UK now let viewers share what they're watching or check others' habits directly from the app. American users can't yet get access as Netflix is waiting on a bill easing video privacy permissions.
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02/08, 9:35pm
Amazon Kindle Fire ad touts price over all
Amazon has started running one of its first TV ads for the Kindle Fire this week in a conspicuous jab at Apple. The spot (below) recalls Amazon's earlier ads criticizing the poor readability of the iPad but, this time, has an answer to the regular Kindle's lack of features. The $79 Kindle, combined with two $199 Kindle Fires, lets a mother at the beach give herself and her children a device each at under the price of an iPad.
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02/08, 6:25pm
Company expands patent litigation
A Texas court is finally ready to hear arguments in a high-profile patent lawsuit that names tech giants Google, Amazon and Yahoo among a list of defendants. The companies are attempting to defend themselves against a suit filed by a patent holding company, Eolas Technologies, that accuses the group of violating several patents related to "interactive web" technology.
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02/08, 11:40am
Amazon now offers Viacom content, library at 15K+
Amazon on Wednesday officially confirmed earlier rumors that it has inked a deal with cable provider Viacom to bring its TV shows to Amazon's Instant Video streaming service. As part of the deal, Amazon will allow customers to access thousands of episodes from MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, TV Land, Spike, VH1, BET, CMT, and Logo. This will include past seasons of shows like Chappelle's Show, Hot in Cleveland, Jersey Shore, Yo Gabba Gabba, and iCarly, among others.
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02/07, 7:20pm
Amazon and Viacom expected to tie up
The mystery Viacom video deal was attached to Amazon Tuesday in a leak Tuesday. While the terms of the deal weren't known to Reuters, it would be part of a rumored plan to offer Internet subscription video as an option separate from a Prime deal. As hinted by Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman, the deal could be made public as soon as this week, although whether or not that would include the new Amazon service wasn't mentioned.
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02/07, 11:35am
Random House stays pay-once with e-book libraries
Random House helped set a possible precedent for e-books in libraries late last week after it agreed to a deal on lending. While it would raise the price for an e-book by an unspecified amount, the term would guarantee that libarires could have any title they want and provide an unlimited number of loans. The deal was portrayed to Publishers Weekly and others as giving authors fair compensation while still letting libraries treat e-books like they would paper.
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02/06, 1:55pm
Amazon may sell Kindle and paper books in Seattle
Amazon may dip into retail stores if rumors prove true. A boutique shop was said by Good E-Reader to be in the works for Seattle before the holidays. Most of the emphasis would appropriately be on the Kindle and Kindle Fire, but the store would also include exclusive paper books as well as accessories.
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02/04, 5:05pm
Olympus OM-D shows face early
The Olympus OM-D had some of its details spoiled after Amazon Japan (cached) briefly posted a product page with photos. True to form, the Micro Four Thirds camera will be a tribute to the OM-4 with the retro look and tall box above the lens. Instead of a mirror system, though, this space would have the rumored 1.44-megapixel electronic viewfinder, putting it in a more natural position than the corner position on other mirrorless digital cameras.
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02/03, 8:30pm
Kindle Touch now shipping globally
The Amazon Kindle Touch
is now available for shipping internationally from the Amazon online store. However, the availability is limited only to the Wi-Fi models with no news on when or if the 3G-capable version will also ship overseas. Users are advised that in addition to its $139 US price plus shipping, overseas import duties and taxes may apply, but they will still enjoy Amazon’s full 12-month warranty.
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02/03, 5:55pm
Brandon Watson goes from WP7 to Android
Microsoft took a symbolic blow Friday after its Windows Phone Developer Experience lead Brandon Watson confirmed he was leaving for Amazon. The often outspoken advocate of WP7 told ZDNet he would now direct the Kindle Cross Platform team, which develops the e-reading app both for Windows Phone as well as for Android, iOS, and competing platforms. He explained it as a virtue of a tempting offer, but whether it was the work itself, the pay, or both wasn't apparent.
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02/03, 2:40pm
Motorola Woot auction slips Xooms with user info
Motorola has started up a return program after a minor but still significant privacy gaffe during a Woot auction. About 100 of 6,200 refurbished Xoom Wi-Fi tablets sold during auctions between October and December are believed to have still had some private data stored inside. These could have included anything from account logins through to personal files, Motorola said.
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02/03, 10:25am
Sister Sledge says Warner cheating on music
Sister Sledge has filed a lawsuit Thursday against Warner Music Group. The San Francisco complaint caught by the Hollywood Reporter accused Warner of cheating the "We Are Family" singers of revenue on iTunes, Amazon MP3, and other stores through purportedly deceptive terms. By counting a download as a one-time sale rather than a license, Warner was taking the group down from a 25 percent cut to much less.
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02/02, 2:40pm
Viacom may expand on-demand content soon
Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman hinted in a discussion of fiscal results that his company was about to sign a significant digital content deal. The agreement was cast as for an online, subscription-based video on demand service and could be made public next week, The Hollywood Reporter understood. Which service, and what content, weren't divulged.
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02/02, 1:25pm
Amazon Kindle Fire habits broken down in study
Amazon Kindle Fire owners get more digital content, but aren't as happy as their iPad-using counterparts, ChangeWave found Thursday. About 29 percent said they would spend more in the next 90 days, a 10-point lead over those who didn't have the Android tablet. Even so, only 54 percent said they were "very satisfied" with the device, or well under the 74 percent of iPad owners who were similarly happy.
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02/01, 7:35pm
Acer chairman sees core unity in notebooks
Acer chairman JT Wang made more comments at his company's Lunar New Year event that outlined more of how Acer planned to survive Apple and the computer market. He made the prediction that ultrabooks and netbooks would fold into a single category within the next 18 to 24 months. Digitimes didn't glean how this would happen, although the company had predicted $499 ultrabooks by 2013 that would leave little gap between the two.
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02/01, 9:35am
NetApplications shows gap in mobile share
Android tablets are gaining share of Internet use, but they still present no competition to the iPad online, NetApplications uncovered with its January wrap-up. The combined Samsung Galaxy Tab line had just 0.42 percent of mobile Internet share, while the Kindle Fire's possibly brisk sales still saw just 0.34 percent. Although down from December, the iPad at almost 24 percent was still in no danger from Android tablets, where even Android 3.2 was at 0.77 percent.
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01/31, 5:45pm
Barnes and Noble will not stock Amazon at retail
Barnes & Noble's chief merchandising officer Jaime Carey issued a statement declaring that the company's retail stores wouldn't carry Amazon's paper books. The move was in retaliation for Amazon trying to push for e-book exclusives such as its DC Comics deal. A publisher that as a store operator would pull its content wasn't a "good publishing partner," the CMO said.
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01/31, 4:55pm
Amazon Q4 defined by Kindle Fire losses
Amazon posted results Tuesday that outlined the costs of pushing the Kindle Fire. The online shop's Kindle device sales almost tripled, at about 177 percent over the past year. Its net profit dropped 58 percent to $177 million, however, underscoring how it had sold the Fire at a loss to get device share.
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01/30, 7:55pm
Fire app different than Android variant
Sling Media is reportedly set to launch its SlingPlayer app for Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet. Although the device is powered by Google's mobile OS, the new app is said to omit the remote control interface and SlingBox guide that can be found on its standard Android Market counterpart for Honeycomb-based tablets.
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01/30, 11:20am
NPD sees tablet market gorow with developing world
NPD researchers on Monday took a gamble with a belief that tablet demand would explode over the next five years. It saw the category swelling from 72.7 million in 2011 by about 5.3 times to reach 383.3 million in 2017. Almost half of those, 46 percent, would go to developing countries as prices came down.
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01/30, 7:40am
Analyst reckons strong Kindle Fire shipments in Q4
Stifel Nicolaus analyst Jordan Rohan was willing to risk a late prediction of Amazon's results with a research note late Sunday. He estimated that Amazon shipped six million Kindle Fire tablets in the fall. The online reseller was succeeding as it had "staked out" both the low end of the market and a loyal base that would likely spend a large amount on e-books and videos.
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01/29, 11:00pm
Barnes and Noble tries third-gen Nook reader
Barnes & Noble in an elaborate study of its business gave away plans for a third-generation Nook e-reader. Scant details were given to the New York Times, but it would ship sometime in the spring. The bookseller's recently established pattern suggests it's an E Ink reader like the Nook Simple Touch rather than an Android tablet.
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01/27, 7:20pm
iPad has firm footprint two years on
Friday signaled the second anniversary of the iPad's introduction and what has since been interpreted as the start of a shift in the entire computing space. Apple's tablet was unveiled this day in 2010 at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco by its late co-creator, Steve Jobs. It would only go on sale April 2, but it proved to be polarizing from its unveiling, even for Apple loyalists.
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01/27, 5:10pm
Flurry says Kindle Fire squeezing Android tablets
Amazon's Kindle Fire is squeezing out other Android tablets for actual use online. New Flurry data shows that the Kindle Fire virtually cut the Samsung Galaxy Tab line's usage share in half, from 63 percent in November to 36 percent in January. Other devices saw a similar squeeze, which mostly came from the Kindle Fire's rampant sales rather than a drop in Android use.
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01/26, 3:30pm
Toshiba BD50 color e-book reader slated for Japan
Toshiba has introduced a new seven-inch color e-book reader in Japan, the BD50. Effectively a local alternative to the Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet, the Android 2.3 slate carries a 1024x600 LCD as well as 8GB of internal storage space. A 1GHz Freescale CPU powers the device and is paired with 1GB of RAM.
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01/26, 7:40am
Android tablets rise to 29pc only via Amazon help
The Amazon Kindle Fire may have saved Android's share of tablets, Strategy Analytics reckoned from its calculation of shipments. Although the research firm didn't break down individual model numbers, the known strong Kindle Fire sales could be credited to Android more than tripling tablet shipments versus a year ago, to 10.5 million units. Apple's 15.4 million iPads still kept it in the clear majority, at 57.6 percent, but Android now had 39.1 percent of the fledgling category.
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01/25, 4:55pm
Netflix Q4 2011 buoyed by US, hurt elsewhere
Netflix saw the fuller consequences of its more controversial decisions on Wednesday with results from the fall. The company added more streaming customers than it expected, 220,000, but the "continued impact" of its price hike for those keeping DVDs and streaming led to it shedding 2.76 million disc subscriptions. These, along with the costs of expansion outside of the US, dragged Netflix's profit down 13 percent year over year to $41 million.
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01/25, 12:10pm
Amazon Instant Video may go separate
Amazon might separate at least the subscription side of its Instant Video service to better compete in Internet video. A rumor late Tuesday from the New York Post had it breaking the subscription video out from its bundling with the $79 Prime service. Studios are reportedly unhappy that Amazon was following its traditional practice of using a service as a loss leader, presumably for setting unrealistic price expectations or treating movies and TV shows as afterthoughts.
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01/24, 7:40pm
Digital versions offer limited viewing options
Paramount has become the first movie distributor to sell movies using the UltraViolet digital distribution system directly to customers. Up until now, UltraViolet digital downloads were available only as part of a DVD/Blu-Ray disc
package deal or from a retailer such as Amazon.
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01/24, 6:30pm
Apple talks tablets versus PCs in US
Apple during its fall quarter results revealed IDC data that tablets outsold PCs in the fall. While he didn't provide concrete details, he suggested that the iPad, Android, and other tablet platforms had pushed past the combined Mac and Windows PC markets. IDC's own PC figures showed 18.6 million US computers, making it probable that Apple's 15.4 million plus the smaller share of the rest of the market was enough to push past.
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01/23, 12:40am
Pew shows huge tablet ownership spike in late 2011
Ownership of both tablets and e-readers exploded through the holidays, Pew found on Monday. About 10 percent of Americans owned each in December, but both had surged to 19 percent in January. There was relatively little overlap, as 18 percent owned one or the other before the holiday rush while 29 percent had either an e-reader or a tablet in January.
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01/21, 1:45am
Hagens Berman amends Apple suit over collusion
Hagens Berman's class-action over iBookstore prices was expanded on Friday with potentially more serious evidence. New claims from the law firm allege that Hachette Livre (incorrectly described as Hatchett) chairman Arnaud Noury met with an unnamed Amazon executive on December 3, 2009 several weeks before the iPad unveiling to convince him to raise the price of e-books on the Kindle Store. According to the anecdote, Noury had said that a $2 to $3 price hike over the existing $10 would solve not just Hachette's problems but those of its competitors, suggesting that it was aware of and working together on raising prices.
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01/20, 7:45am
Kindle Fire demand cools fast after holiday
Amazon's hot sales of the Kindle Fire during the holidays may not have been sustainable if industry rumors are accurate. Part suppliers claimed to Digitimes Friday that, after shipping six million of the Android tablets in the fall, orders were now down to three million for the winter. The drop was "in line" with anticipation of a post-holiday drop, the insiders claimed, although such a decline would still be steep.
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01/19, 4:50pm
First Kindle Fire loss made up with post sales
Despite losing money on every Kindle Fire sold, Amazon more than makes up for it in terms of content users purchase for the device. According to a study from investment banking firm RBC, each Kindle sold results in $136 in additional income for Amazon over its lifetime.
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01/19, 1:00pm
iBooks 2 gets our early look
Apple committed iOS to education in a big way at its event by launching iBooks 2. We've taken a look at Apple's first dip into a full digital textbook platform and come back fairly impressed. Read ahead for more details and what this might mean for Amazon, Kno, and others hoping to get into e-books for schools.
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01/18, 7:35pm
Study shows iPad still in wide lead on tablet web
Apple's iPad still doesn't have any immediate threat from other tablets if web usage is an indicator, Chitika reckoned on Wednesday. For every 100 iPad web hits, just 2.4 came from the next-closest Amazon Kindle Fire. Its design sibling the BlackBerry PlayBook was next at about 1.8, while the Motorola Xoom and Samsung Galaxy Tab families were near-even at 1.6.
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01/18, 5:35pm
Update blocks BurritoRoot
Amazon has released yet another firmware update for its Kindle Fire tablet, as the company continues to quietly battle with unofficial tools that enable users to gain root access. The latest firmware, version 6.2.2, temporarily closed the loophole that had been exploited by BurritoRoot, however developers quickly released an update to the root utility to restore its functionality.
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01/17, 7:00pm
Launch could come as early as tomorrow
Amazon may soon be launching a cloud search service. PandoDaily reports through sources that the product may already be in the hands of early customers for testing. Amazon has sent out e-mail announcing a big event tomorrow morning, and there is speculation it could be about this new service.
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01/17, 2:40pm
RIM said optimistic in hoping for Samsung takeover
A contentious rumor Tuesday alleges that RIM has been trying to get a buyout offer from Samsung. The "trusted sources" for BGR had the company talking to anyone interested in buying some or all of the BlackBerry maker, but co-CEO Jim Balsillie was reportedly "going hard" for a Samsung deal. Samsung might want the company for adding enterprise-grade services and expanding or replacing ChatON with the more tightly integrated BlackBerry Messenger.
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