On Monday Wal-Mart announced it agreed to buy online streaming video service Vudu, which allows customers to select online from 16,000’s licensed films, then view movies instantly on their TVs.
“Combining Vudu’s unique digital technology and service with Walmart’s retail expertise and scale will provide customers with unprecedented access to home entertainment options as they migrate to a digital environment,” Eduardo Castro-Wright, vice chairman of Wal-Mart (WMT,Fortune 500), said in a statement.
Vudu is developing hundreds of Internet applications and services that will allow viewers to stream movies to their TVs and Blu-ray disc players, and the video service has already partnered with Internet and media companies such as Facebook, Twitter and the Associated Press, Wal-Mart said.
“The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast.” – Oscar Wilde
Since Monday was a federal holiday, I expected to Netflix to receive the returned DVD on Tuesday, then ship the next dvd in my queue to arrive on Wednesday.
But – no.
Netflix emailed me Monday morning they received the dvd I mailed them on Saturday.
Later that day my updated dvd queue noted the next dvd would ship on Tuesday and arrive on Wednesday.
Instead, it arrived TUESDAY.
Netflix gets a lot of things right – which is in line with its entertainment product offerings – but even better, sometimes its efficiency is magic, too. <G
… would be a killer app – and in more ways than one; streaming more than one movie would easily eat up most people’s iPhone minutes package on AT&T without making *any* calls… Today, from TechCrunch, via Hacking Netflix: Rumor: Netflix Streaming Coming To The iPhone by MG Siegler on August 3, 2009 One big story …
Via CNN.com today: Comcast rolled out a Web-based on-demand television and movie service on Tuesday that gives customers access to more than 2,000 hours of television and movies. – more – The service, named Fancast XFINITY TV (formerly TV Everywhere), is getting mixed reviews on Twitter, and is in beta, with limited …
I’ve been broadcast/cable tv free for about a month now, with only mild withdrawal symptoms (having really re-run episodes of NCIS makes great white noise for me when I work from home; so now I have to improvise….). Even so – the combination of watching/running Netflix offerings in the background is …
When I still had cable tv, I loved my Tivo, even though I never upgraded my Tivo 2 box the Tivo HD. Why not? Pricing. I had a lifetime (of the Tivo 2 box) subscription, so upgrading would have been very expensive for me – first because of Tivo’s high pricing …
Last week a “minority” of T-Mobile Sidekick users learned the “Rule of Data Redundancy” the long, slow, hard way – and through no fault of their own. Sidekick users who stored their data locally (on the device) or backed up their data on a PC through a sync still have their …
Not surprisingly <G>, Wired has an interesting follow up story on how the Netflix prize was won – and notes real progress was made in the contest’s goal to improve the Netflix movie recommendation algorithm by 10 percent only after the leaders joined forces with members of some of the also-ran teams. The …
According to Silicon Alley Insider, with data partly from Comscore, 38 million people watched Hulu at least once in July - a viewership which easily topped Time Warner Cable’s July viewership of 34 million. That same month, only DirecTV (47 million viewers) and Comcast (62 million) pulled larger audiences: While impressive, Hulu.com has a long way to go before reaching the cable companies’ …
As we are in the worst recession in 70 years, only three things are guaranteed: death, taxes, and a yearly 5% or more increase in cable subscription fees.
So – as a consumer, witnessing the on-g0ing scrimmishes between Broadcast TV providers and premium content (cable) providers is also entertainment.
Although this year’s skirmish between Fox and Time Warner was resolved at the 11th hour, Time Warner’s detailed instructions which show its customers how to watch Fox online, for free, with the suggestion viewers head to the likes of Hulu, Fancast, or any search engine–to find their favorite shows.
Time Warner Cable’s instructions on “How to Connect Your PC to Your TV” can be accessed by clicking on the image at the bottom of this post.
Still, no matter how this resolves, the danger for both sides is that consumers really do take up Time Warner Cable on its offer and start watching Fox stuff on the Web, since Fox definitely wants people keep paying for cable TV since Fox really covets subscription fees from cable TV providers.
To paraphrase Douglas Adams: Corporations, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.
… would be a killer app – and in more ways than one; streaming more than one movie would easily eat up most people’s iPhone minutes package on AT&T without making *any* calls… Today, from TechCrunch, via Hacking Netflix: Rumor: Netflix Streaming Coming To The iPhone by MG Siegler on August 3, 2009 One big story …
Via CNN.com today: Comcast rolled out a Web-based on-demand television and movie service on Tuesday that gives customers access to more than 2,000 hours of television and movies. – more – The service, named Fancast XFINITY TV (formerly TV Everywhere), is getting mixed reviews on Twitter, and is in beta, with limited …
I’ve been broadcast/cable tv free for about a month now, with only mild withdrawal symptoms (having really re-run episodes of NCIS makes great white noise for me when I work from home; so now I have to improvise….). Even so – the combination of watching/running Netflix offerings in the background is …
When I still had cable tv, I loved my Tivo, even though I never upgraded my Tivo 2 box the Tivo HD. Why not? Pricing. I had a lifetime (of the Tivo 2 box) subscription, so upgrading would have been very expensive for me – first because of Tivo’s high pricing …
I seem to be thinking mostly in images these days, when not thinking in terms of databases… Related content: Help Wanted: Zookeeper with a Good Attitude. Most job postings are dry. Really dry. And – they usually include “must haves” which require skills and/or experience with everything but being able to both plumb AND …
According to Silicon Alley Insider, with data partly from Comscore, 38 million people watched Hulu at least once in July - a viewership which easily topped Time Warner Cable’s July viewership of 34 million. That same month, only DirecTV (47 million viewers) and Comcast (62 million) pulled larger audiences: While impressive, Hulu.com has a long way to go before reaching the cable companies’ …
From Techcrunch, last week: At first this announcement appeared to be a good candidate for “News of the Weird:” Microsoft Officially Retires Soapbox, The Poor Man’s YouTube by Leena Rao on July 21, 2009 Microsoft’s YouTube clone Soapbox is officially shutting its doors, according to reports today. Soapbox, which was launched in 2006 as a hub for downloading …
So – the featured speaker at the July 2009 Seattle Chamber of Commerce’s speaker at this month’s “Author Speaker Breakfast” is Chris Anderson, author of FREE: The Future of a Radical Price: FREE: The Future of a Radical Price by Chris Anderson the bestselling author of the The Long Tail In his revolutionary …
Free is Sometimes Free: The Future of a Radical Price
For those not able to make the Seattle Chamber of Commerce breakfast tomorrow, featuring Chris Anderson talking about his book Free: The Future of a Radical Price, his presentation at Wired’s “Disruptive Business Conference” is available online, for free: Related content: Free is Not Always Free. So – the featured speaker at …
Free: The Future of a Radical New Price is now…Free!
Late last month, Chris Anderson released a free downloadable unabridged podcast/audiobook version of his book, Free: The Future of a Radical New Price as zipped mp3 files, and via iTunes. It chapter is an individual podcast; all of which are narrated by Chris. [caption id=”attachment_1506″ align=”aligncenter” width=”162″ caption=”Free: The Future of a Radical …
Comcast rolled out a Web-based on-demand television and movie service on Tuesday that gives customers access to more than 2,000 hours of television and movies.
- more –
The service, named Fancast XFINITY TV (formerly TV Everywhere), is getting mixed reviews on Twitter, and is in beta, with limited availability.
Customer access of XFINITY content is tied to the tiered level of service they subscribe to; a customer must subscribe to HBO via Comcast to be able to watch HBO content on XFINITY.
At least for now, Hulu’s offering has is superior, in regards to both technical quality and also value; but I look forward to the continuing battle between broadcast tv and the web.
… would be a killer app – and in more ways than one; streaming more than one movie would easily eat up most people’s iPhone minutes package on AT&T without making *any* calls… Today, from TechCrunch, via Hacking Netflix: Rumor: Netflix Streaming Coming To The iPhone by MG Siegler on August 3, 2009 One big story …
I’ve been broadcast/cable tv free for about a month now, with only mild withdrawal symptoms (having really re-run episodes of NCIS makes great white noise for me when I work from home; so now I have to improvise….). Even so – the combination of watching/running Netflix offerings in the background is …
When I still had cable tv, I loved my Tivo, even though I never upgraded my Tivo 2 box the Tivo HD. Why not? Pricing. I had a lifetime (of the Tivo 2 box) subscription, so upgrading would have been very expensive for me – first because of Tivo’s high pricing …
I seem to be thinking mostly in images these days, when not thinking in terms of databases… Related content: Help Wanted: Zookeeper with a Good Attitude. Most job postings are dry. Really dry. And – they usually include “must haves” which require skills and/or experience with everything but being able to both plumb AND …
According to Silicon Alley Insider, with data partly from Comscore, 38 million people watched Hulu at least once in July - a viewership which easily topped Time Warner Cable’s July viewership of 34 million. That same month, only DirecTV (47 million viewers) and Comcast (62 million) pulled larger audiences: While impressive, Hulu.com has a long way to go before reaching the cable companies’ …
For the past few months, a lot of people have tried to catch an invite for Google Wave.
For those who are already enrolled in the beta, there is a lot of discussion as to how and why Google Wave will change the world; but no real consensus.
Steven Jobs, cofounder of Apple, has been labeled many things, from visionary to egomaniac. Often I think he is inspirational too: We’re here to put a dent in the universe. Otherwise why else even be here? Innovation is the distinction between a leader and a follower. The system is that there is no system. That doesn’t …
My friend Leslie recently acquired an Android phone which she swears surpasses the iPhone in sound quality, UI, and pretty much every other aspect as well. I’m taking her word since I don’t own either; but have to acknowledge the call quality of calls from her Android phone is pretty amazing. I …
From Techcrunch, last week: At first this announcement appeared to be a good candidate for “News of the Weird:” Microsoft Officially Retires Soapbox, The Poor Man’s YouTube by Leena Rao on July 21, 2009 Microsoft’s YouTube clone Soapbox is officially shutting its doors, according to reports today. Soapbox, which was launched in 2006 as a hub for downloading …
The U.S. Department of Energy host the Solar Decathlon—a competition in which 20 teams of college and university students compete to design, build, and operate the most attractive, effective, and energy-efficient solar-powered house. The Solar Decathlon is also an event to which the public is invited to observe the powerful combination of solar energy, energy efficiency, and the best in home design.
The Solar Decathlon brings attention to one of the biggest challenges we face—an ever-increasing need for energy. As an internationally recognized event, it offers powerful solutions—using energy more efficiently and using energy from renewable sources.
The Solar Decathlon has several goals:
To educate the student participants—the “Decathletes”—about the benefits of energy efficiency, renewable energy and green building technologies. As the next generation of engineers, architects, builders, and communicators, the Decathletes will be able to use this knowledge in their studies and their future careers.
To raise awareness among the general public about renewable energy and energy efficiency, and how solar energy technologies can reduce energy usage.
To help solar energy technologies enter the marketplace faster. This competition encourages the research and development of energy efficiency and energy production technologies.
To foster collaboration among students from different academic disciplines—including engineering and architecture students, who rarely work together until they enter the workplace.
To promote an integrated or “whole building design” approach to new construction. This approach differs from the traditional design/build process because the design team considers the interactions of all building components and systems to create a more comfortable building, save energy, and reduce environmental impact.
To demonstrate to the public the potential of Zero Energy Homes, which produce as much energy from renewable sources, such as the sun and wind, as they consume. Even though the home might be connected to a utility grid, it has net zero energy consumption from the utility provider.
I really do want one of these houses – but am still watching the videos to figure out which one ;)
Today CNN.com is running a story on humanity is acquiring the right technology for the right reason – and is also a current example of R. Buckminster Fuller’s life quest to answer the the question “Does humanity have a chance to survive lastingly and successfully on planet Earth, and if so, how:” Inventor Jon Bohmer created …
There’s a useful post on lifehack.org: “34 Tips for Your Younger Self.” The advice I’d probably give my younger self is to appreciate while we don’t always control our lives or environments, we always have choices – even if our choice becomes figuring out where to go from the spot some …
The Roku Channel Store will roll out 10 new (and free, at least for now) channels to users within the next two weeks: Pandora, MotionBox, MediaFly, blip.tv, TWiT.tv, Facebook Photos, Revision3, framechannel, flickr & MobileTribe.
More channels are promised “as they become available.”
Tip for Roku: adding Hulu would be a lot more compelling. How about a January 2010 release for that one? :)
… would be a killer app – and in more ways than one; streaming more than one movie would easily eat up most people’s iPhone minutes package on AT&T without making *any* calls… Today, from TechCrunch, via Hacking Netflix: Rumor: Netflix Streaming Coming To The iPhone by MG Siegler on August 3, 2009 One big story …
When I still had cable tv, I love my Tivo, even though I never upgraded my Tivo 2 box the Tivo HD. Why not? Pricing. I had a lifetime (of the Tivo 2 box) subscription, so upgrading would have been very expensive for me – first because of Tivo’s high pricing …
I still haven’t quite figured out how Netflix’s business model keeps it profitable - even with a paid subscriber base of 10,000,000, there are a lot of operational costs behind Netflix.com, from software engineering to shipping costs to and from that paid subscriber base; each queued title shipped as a DVD …
According to Silicon Alley Insider, with data partly from Comscore, 38 million people watched Hulu at least once in July - a viewership which easily topped Time Warner Cable’s July viewership of 34 million. That same month, only DirecTV (47 million viewers) and Comcast (62 million) pulled larger audiences: While impressive, Hulu.com has a long way to go before reaching the cable companies’ …
I seem to be thinking mostly in images these days, when not thinking in terms of databases… Related content: Help Wanted: Zookeeper with a Good Attitude. Most job postings are dry. Really dry. And – they usually include “must haves” which require skills and/or experience with everything but being able to both plumb AND …
Today Netflix Corp. awarded its long-awaited $1M Grand Prize to team “BellKor’s Pragmatic Chaos,” which consisted of Bob Bell, Martin Chabbert, Michael Jahrer, Yehuda Koren, Martin Piotte, Andreas Töscher and Chris Volinsky. The 3-year crowdsourcing contest motivated self-forming, unpaid volunteer teams to compete for one $1 million dollar prize by creating an …
Hugh’s list of 37 tips which helped him be more creative is available as an awesome print and as a blog post. My favorites from his list : 5. You are responsible for your own experience. 9. Everybody has their own private Mount Everest they were put on this earth to climb. 10. …
We are continually faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems. - John W. Gardner When Alexander the Great visited Diogenes and asked whether he could do anything for the famed teacher, Diogenes replied: ‘Only stand …
Today’s GapingVoid cartoon really captures our current economy, as do the quotes below:
“We are continually faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems.” - John W. Gardner “The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a …
I will always be very appreciative of the many things I learned from working for great managers. These experiences changed my life in small and large ways which keep alive inside me the hope I will have an opportunity to work for at least a few more - and sooner rather than later. I’ve …
When I still had cable tv, I loved my Tivo, even though I never upgraded my Tivo 2 box the Tivo HD.
Why not? Pricing. I had a lifetime (of the Tivo 2 box) subscription, so upgrading would have been very expensive for me – first because of Tivo’s high pricing for the Tivo HD box – which was over $700 about this time last year; although today the Tivo HD XL box is priced at $599.00.
In any case, I would have had to resubscribe to Tivo in order to actually use the new HD box, plus the monthly subscription cost for my old digital cable package; you do the math.
Since then, I’ve switched from cable to Netflix, especially Netflix’s On Demand offerings, which I watch on my HD tv thanks to my Roku box which while not HD, produces a signal as good as my former cable provider offered those HD viewers who didn’t pony up extra money each month for their “HD Viewing” add on.
Roku just announced two new models will be available in addition to the existing Roku HD Player; all three are much less expensive than Tivo’s HD box:
Roku SD: $79.99. Standard definition player with composite video and RCA audio, ethernet and 802.11b/g WIFI. Here’s the back of the Roku SD Player:
Roku HD: $99.99. Existing player with HDMI, composite, and component video, RCA audio and optical video out, ethernet and 802.11b/g WIFI.
Roku HD-XR: $129.99. Same video and audio I/O as Roku HD, but with 802.11b/g and 802.11n networking support, as well as a mysterious USB port on the back for “future use.”
Here’s the back of the Roku HD player:
Within the next month, Roku will launch a Roku Channel Store for customers to choose channels to watch via their Roku box.
… would be a killer app – and in more ways than one; streaming more than one movie would easily eat up most people’s iPhone minutes package on AT&T without making *any* calls… Today, from TechCrunch, via Hacking Netflix: Rumor: Netflix Streaming Coming To The iPhone by MG Siegler on August 3, 2009 One big story …
I’ve been broadcast/cable tv free for about a month now, with only mild withdrawal symptoms (having really re-run episodes of NCIS makes great white noise for me when I work from home; so now I have to improvise….). Even so – the combination of watching/running Netflix offerings in the background is …
Last week a “minority” of T-Mobile Sidekick users learned the “Rule of Data Redundancy” the long, slow, hard way – and through no fault of their own. Sidekick users who stored their data locally (on the device) or backed up their data on a PC through a sync still have their …
Not surprisingly <G>, Wired has an interesting follow up story on how the Netflix prize was won – and notes real progress was made in the contest’s goal to improve the Netflix movie recommendation algorithm by 10 percent only after the leaders joined forces with members of some of the also-ran teams. The …
According to Silicon Alley Insider, with data partly from Comscore, 38 million people watched Hulu at least once in July - a viewership which easily topped Time Warner Cable’s July viewership of 34 million. That same month, only DirecTV (47 million viewers) and Comcast (62 million) pulled larger audiences: While impressive, Hulu.com has a long way to go before reaching the cable companies’ …
Clive Thompson has an interesting article in Wired this month about today’s “real-time Web,” which is changing the playing field for traditional search engines such as Google, Bing, Ask.com, et al; and at least for now, creating a market-changing opportunity for real time search engines such as Tweetmeme, OneRiot, Topsy, …
Today Netflix Corp. awarded its long-awaited $1M Grand Prize to team “BellKor’s Pragmatic Chaos,” which consisted of Bob Bell, Martin Chabbert, Michael Jahrer, Yehuda Koren, Martin Piotte, Andreas Töscher and Chris Volinsky. The 3-year crowdsourcing contest motivated self-forming, unpaid volunteer teams to compete for one $1 million dollar prize by creating an …
Those whose budget won’t stretch to a two-year MBA can simulate the experience at home — or at work, in the gym or anywhere else they choose – free of charge.
Of course, this type of learning does not come with an actual university degree, or the many lifelong benefits of actively participating in an accredited BSchool alumni association – but if knowledge is power, this is a true opportunity for those interested to learn.
“French business school HEC Paris is due to launch its iTunes U content in the next few months, but it has been running an ambitious podcast program since 2006.
Begun as an experiment in partnership with Apple, all new MBAs at HEC are provided with an iPod Touch. Around half of the MBA lectures are filmed using an automatic camera system and the footage is made available for students to download and view on their iPhones…
…Vanessa Klein, HEC’s project manager for iTunes U, told CNN that the iPod-enabled curriculum has proved a hit with students.
… Klein says that by making lectures available via iTunes U, HEC wants to be at the forefront of providing content for the rest of the world, but she acknowledges that the technology is also a great way to promote the business school.
“It’s a good marketing tool, not as publicity but to really show people what we are providing,” she told CNN.
“You can watch a lecture, learn a lot and think ‘I wish I could be there.’ The idea is to show what you could learn if you were at this place.”
In addition to Business Schools broadcasting on iTunes, YouTube EDU launched in March this year with YouTube channels of hundreds of universities including videos of lectures and discussions provided by business schools including INSEAD, ESCP Europe and University of California Haas School of Business.
Also, Academic Earth hosts videos from U.S. universities including Harvard, Yale and Princeton, although the business content is provided almost exclusively by Stanford University.
“Knowledge is like a garden; if it is not cultivated, it cannot be harvested.” – African Proverb
“The great end of life is not knowledge, but action.” - Thomas Fuller (1608 – 1661)
Knowledge can indeed be free, especially within the technology space; all it takes is a little initiative to find key web community sites, plus iTunes to unlock the podcast keys to the galaxy. My favorites include: Software Engineering Radio The Pragmatic Bookshelf IT Conversations Network Controlling Chaos Harvard Business Ideacast Business Now – if we’re bored, not learning …
of killing
