THE DOWN LOW

June 1, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

Sure Microsoft stole the spotlight today with a series of Xbox game announcements at E3, but rumors continue to pop up online about some new video features Apple might unveil next week at its developer's conference and beyond that will place it at the center of the entertainment universe.

The first rumor, first reported by a tipster on Salon, is that it will add the option of downloading movie and TV shows directly to the iPhone. Right now, iPhone users have to download video to their computer and then transfer it to their phones if they want to watch video.  Following Salon's report, ...Read More
Industries: Technology

May 29, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

Hulu has gotten a lot of hype this week for its plans to stream a Dave Matthews concert live online Monday. It's the first time Hulu will stream a concert live, though the site has streamed a presidential debate and some other news events live in the past few months.

Real time is all of a sudden all the rage after the last couple years when studios, TV networks and everyone else rushed to offer anything and everything on demand all the time so that no one had to be bothered with watching anything on anyone else's schedule. But now, real time is the new buzzword. Real time searches on Twitter, real time ...Read More
Industries: Technology, VOD/Downloads

May 27, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

Speaking at the Wall Street Journal's All Things Digital conference today, Liberty Media's John Malone talked about how he got people to pay for cable and what companies will have to do to get them to pay for content online.
Industries: Studios/Suppliers, Technology, VOD/Downloads

May 26, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

The online retailer was granted an application today for a building that looks to be a mini store, according to Seattle's TechFlash blog. You can see the patent for yourself here.
TechFlash says that Amazon opened mini grocery pickup stores in the Seattle area in 2007, which look just like the drawings in the patent, which was filed in Oct. 2007. Those mini locations have since been closed.

So now, we've got rumors putting both ...Read More
Industries: Retail, Technology

May 21, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (1)

I'm going to miss this case when it's done, if it's ever done, because it's great theater.
Last week, RealNetworks was calling the studios an "illegal cartel" in statements after it filed an antitrust lawsuit against them, its latest attempt to keep its RealDVD software and Facet DVD device legal.
Then in closing arguments this afternoon in a San Francisco court, Real lawyers told the judge they'd be willing to change the DVD ripping software RealDVD and Facet to make them more palatable to studios if  the studios would work with them, according to PC Magazine's coverage. Real lawyers said the company would even consider reworking Facet, a DVD copying set-top dev...Read More
Industries: Studios/Suppliers, Technology