Digital media

Aereo raises $38m and broadcasts plans for 22 new markets

January 9, 2013 12:56 am by Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson

Aereo is not sitting around waiting for a judge to decide its fate. The digital video service that might disrupt traditional television economics if it can get through a legal thicket thrown up by those most wedded to traditional TV economics is going for growth.

Chet Kanojia’s start-up, which last year began offering streams of high-definition broadcast TV signals to devices from smartphones to tablets, plans to expand from New York City to 22 new markets, having secured $38m in a series B financing round, led by Barry Diller’s IAC and Highland Capital Partners. Read more

Posted in Digital media, Tech |

CES 2013 – Sony unveils ‘super’ smartphone

January 8, 2013 2:59 pm by Financial Times

Sony is calling its new smartphone, launched at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, a ‘super phone’, winding the clock back to the time of super models, super cars and when the Japanese group ruled the high-end electronics market. Daniel Thomas, telecoms correspondent, says the device is grown-up but far from revolutionary. Read more

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Posted in CES 2013, Digital media, Hardware, Personal technology |

AP juggles impartial news and Samsung-sponsored CES tweets

January 7, 2013 7:58 pm by Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson

The right balance between commercial imperatives and editorial purity has been debated since Benjamin Franklin first made a habit of carrying advertising in the Pennsylvania Gazette. But when the Associated Press announced on Monday that it would be sending out sponsored tweets from Samsung during the Consumer Electronics Show, the news agency still managed to raise eyebrows. Read more

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Posted in CES 2013, Digital media, Social, Tech |

Buzzfeed raises $19.3m and heads to UK

January 3, 2013 3:46 pm by Duncan Robinson

Buzzfeed, the social news website that publishes everything from funny pictures of cats to long-form reporting on the US presidential race, has secured $19.3m in funding to bulk up its original editorial content and expand internationally.

The website will launch an office in London later this year, according to Jon Steinberg, Buzzfeed’s president and chief operating officer.

“London is the natural next expansion,” said Mr Steinberg. Although the office will include both editorial and sales staff it will be “very small” with “fewer than 10” staff. Read more

Posted in Digital media, Internet, Social, Tech, Tech Finance |

Chris Nuttall Leap Motion lands Asus and another $30m

January 3, 2013 1:00 pm by Chris Nuttall

Motion-sensing advances in computing will be a major feature of next week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas with companies including eyeSight, InvenSense, PointGrab and PrimeSense showing their technologies and Intel emphasising the “perceptual computing” of voice and gesture commands at its press conference.

But Leap Motion, which will be demonstrating its motion controller’s capabilities at the show, claims its technology is over a hundred times better than the competition and today it is announcing a a $30m funding round and a deal with Asus. Read more

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Posted in Consumer Electronics, Digital media, Hardware, Tech Finance |
From Inside Business column January 2, 2013

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Like all things to do with Las Vegas, the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which arrives in town next week, is loud, flashy and over the top. But, as a guide to what will soon be appearing in your living room, the show’s record is patchy.

Take the hot trends in televisions, as seen in Las Vegas in recent years. From the arrival of internet-connected sets in 2007 to the first ultra-high definition OLED screens in 2008 and then 3D TV in 2010, there has been no shortage of ideas for reinventing the medium. None of these has yet gone mainstream, though.

 Read more

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Posted in Digital media, Personal technology |

Tim Bradshaw Zuckerberg donates $500m to Silicon Valley charity

December 19, 2012 4:00 am by Tim Bradshaw

Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla have made their biggest charitable donation yet, giving Facebook stock worth $500m to a Silicon Valley foundation. Read more

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Posted in Digital media, Social |

Tim Bradshaw Twitter tops 200m users

December 19, 2012 12:05 am by Tim Bradshaw

Twitter has topped 200m active users, more than doubling its audience since September last year.

While 2011 saw Twitter come to the fore in political events such as the Arab Spring protests and the UK scandal over superinjunctions, 2012 has seen it gain more mainstream attention through international events like the US presidential elections and the London Olympic games, as well as on-screen promotions of tweets and hashtags on TV news and talk shows, where its live, up-to-the-minute updates can really shine. Read more

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Posted in Digital media, Social |

Chris Nuttall Kaleidescape buys Hollywood second DVD chance

December 11, 2012 7:48 pm by Chris Nuttall

Kaleidescape, whose dvd-ripping system for the rich has embroiled it in eight years of legal battles with Hollywood, has come up with a new offering the studios seem to like.

The Kaleidescape Store, opening today with more than 3,000 digital movies and 8,000 TV shows from Warner Bros, offers a solution to a thus far intractable problem for the majors – how to persuade consumers to buy rather than rent their digital entertainment. Read more

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Posted in Consumer Electronics, Digital media |

Tim Bradshaw Meet the innovators: Letterpress’ Loren Brichter

December 11, 2012 7:41 pm by Tim Bradshaw

As the developer of Tweetie, Loren Brichter created one of the first Twitter apps for the iPhone – and in the process, established new standards in designing for the small screen. He spoke to the FT about his design philosophy for the FT Weekend magazine’s monthly “Meet the Innovators” slot. Read more

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Posted in Digital media, Mobile, Tech |
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