Continue reading NBC, YouTube pair up for synchronized streaming at London 2012

NBC, YouTube pair up for synchronized streaming at London 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Mar 2012 14:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Following LG’s statement that the company is “heavily in discussions” with Google to become the next Nexus partner, HTC said it too is in discussions with the software giant. According to a new report from TechRadar, the Taiwanese handset maker is in talks with Google in hopes of being selected to design the company’s next flagship smartphone. Google previously worked with HTC to craft the original Nexus One. “Google hasn’t chosen its Nexus partner for (Android) Jellybean as yet. So right now all the manufacturers are crossing their fingers,” HTC’s global online communications manager Jeff Gordon said in a statement that has since been removed. Gordon said that the notion of being the next Nexus partner is “still very attractive to all OEMs, despite the imminent takeover of Motorola.” Gordon didn’t give an exact date as to when Android 5.0 would be released, but stated the company’s current priority is to bring Ice Cream Sandwich to its current device lineup.

[Via Droid-Life]

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In this hatefully commercial world we live in, nothing says "I love you" on Valentine's Day like a bunch of red roses. But if you can't locate a florist, or your partner has a sense of humor, why not try making a bunch using duct tape instead? More »

Mozilla announced Tuesday that it has reached an agreement with Google in which Google Search will remain the default search engine in Firefox for the next three years. “Mozilla has been a valuable partner to Google over the years and we look forward to continuing this great partnership in the years to come,â€� said Google’s senior vice president of search, Alan Eustace. While terms of the agreement remain confidential, Mozilla reported in October that its partnership with Google helped the company achieve a large portion of the $123 million in revenue in reported last year, CNET said.

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DuPont has wanted to bring AMOLED HDTVs to market since at least 2006, and now it appears they've found a partner to help make that happen. There's no name given, but a "leading Asian manufacturer" (Samsung's shown off the tech before and we figure it has some R&D cash to reallocate after dumping ZScreen) has apparently licensed the tech and, we assume, plans to put it to use. DuPont claims AMOLED HDTVs will be better than current LCDs in pretty much every way (color, contrast, response speed, viewing angle, power efficiency), as long they actually ever go on sale. Given the timing, we're hoping there will be something to see come CES time so we can find out if 2012 will finally be OLED's year. The press release is after the break, along with a quick video showing where AMOLED's come from: First, a slot coat HIL and primer layers have to love each other very, very much...

Continue reading DuPont's AMOLED HDTV tech licensed by... someone, will likely be used to build HDTVs

DuPont's AMOLED HDTV tech licensed by... someone, will likely be used to build HDTVs originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 06 Nov 2011 13:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony announced on Monday that it will split its television business into three different branches in an effort to reverse a course that has the arm headed to its eighth consecutive annual loss. The three new branches include LCD TVs, next generation TVs and outsourced televisions, Reuters said on Monday, and the changes will go into effect on Tuesday, November 1st. “By dividing into three divisions, we will make clearer the misson and responsibilities of these,” a Sony spokesperson said. Additionally, Sony is said to be in talks to sell its 50% stake in S-LCD to Samsung, its partner in the joint venture. 
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Rumor has it Microsoft is again toying with the idea of purchasing Yahoo. The Redmond, Washington-based company may partner with another unnamed firm in an effort to make a bid, an anonymous Microsoft executive told Reuters on Wednesday. However, Reuters noted that other divisions inside Microsoft are still not sold on making an offer on the troubled search engine. AllThingsD said rumors about Microsoft’s interest are not true and that the company is not currently interested in acquiring Yahoo. Several other companies are said to be interested in purchasing Yahoo, which recently fired its CEO Carol Bartz, including DST Global, Providence Equity Partners, Alibaba, Hellman & Friedman and Silverlake Partners. Microsoft made an offer for Yahoo in 2008 before cutting off all discussions.

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Apple’s iPhone 4 maintained its position as the best-selling smartphone for both AT&T and Verizon Wireless last month despite the fact that the handset is now more than a year old. Canaccord Genuity analyst Mike Walkley on Tuesday raised his price target on Apple stock to $545 from his prior target of $515, reiterating a Buy rating. Walkley reports that checks again showed strong sell-through for the iPhone 4 in August, and he also noted that the addition of Sprint as a likely carrier partner for the iPhone 5 will bolster sales in 2011 and into 2012. “Our August checks indicated the iPhone 4 remained the top selling smartphone at AT&T and Verizon despite consumer speculation regarding the upcoming iPhone 5 launch,” the analyst writes. “Further, we believe Sprint will receive the new iPhone at launch and heavily promote it given the carrier’s unlimited data plan.” Walkley now believes Apple will sell 83 million iPhones in 2011 and 107 million units next year, and he bumped his 2011 iPad sales estimates from 56 million units to 59 million as well.

Where do you turn when your partner double-crosses you? Who do you tell when the plan goes south and the money goes missing? The only people you can trust: your Twitter followers. Unless! More »

According to the latest issue of Official Xbox Magazine, AMD’s director of ISV relationships Neal Robison said that the next-generation Xbox will offer graphics that will be on a par with the type of effects viewers saw in the movie Avatar. AMD hasn’t publicly been named as a partner on console, which is currently being dubbed the Xbox 720, but the chip maker did provide the hardware inside the current Xbox 360 system. Avatar-style graphics would certainly be a pretty big leap from the offering currently available on the Xbox 360, and we’re definitely excited to hear more on the new system. We’ll probably have just under one year to find out for sure; we exclusively reported in late June that Microsoft would take the wraps off of its next gaming console during E3 2012 next year.

[Via Business Insider]

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Despite ballooning revenues and a record of kick-ass quarterly reports, Apple’s stock has been downgraded from “market outperform” to “market perform” by JMP Securities. The firm said that it made the choice based on the “notable deceleration in [Apple's] primary manufacturing partner Hon Hai (Foxconn) that was emerging even prior to the amplified uncertainty created by developments in Japan.” JMP Securities suggested that Hon Hai’s sales decelerated from 84% year on year in December to 37% in January — then decelerated yet again to 26% in February. As a result, JMP Securities is also dropping its Q2 2011 revenues estimates from $23 billion to $22 billion.

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Were you still hoping to get your hands on one of Google's experimental Chrome OS laptops? Sad news: Google's VP of Product Management sent out a quick tweet saying the supply of Chrome OS CR-48 laptops has run out; but the public can expect partner devices to arrive by mid-year. [@sundarpichai via PC World] More »

Yesterday, we told you about VeriFone’s unprovoked, online vendetta waged against mobile-payments startup Square. VeriFone CEO, Douglas G. Bergeron, wrote and open letter to humanity and created a YouTube video declaring that consumers were in “dire risk” because of Square’s card reader. Although the accused company did not respond to requests for comment yesterday, Square’s CEO has published a letter of his own, downplaying VeriFone’s concerns, while taking the proverbial high-road.

“Any technology—an encrypted card reader, phone camera, or plain old pen and paper—can be used to ‘skim’ or copy numbers from a credit card,” writes Jack Dorsey, Square’s CEO. “The waiter you hand your credit card to at a restaurant, for example, could easily steal your card details if he wanted to—no technology required.”

The letter goes on to reassure Square users that the company is “constantly improving the payment experience to enhance security” and that it’s partner bank, JPMorgan Chase, “stands behind every aspect” of the company’s service. Hit the jump to read the full context of the rebuttal.

Today one of our competitors alleged that the Square card reader is insecure. This is not a fair or accurate claim and it overlooks all of the protections already built into your credit card.

Any technology—an encrypted card reader, phone camera, or plain old pen and paper—can be used to “skim� or copy numbers from a credit card. The waiter you hand your credit card to at a restaurant, for example, could easily steal your card details if he wanted to—no technology required. If you provide your credit card to someone who intends to steal from you, they already have everything they need: the information on the front of your card.

The bank that issues your credit card recognizes this and does not hold you responsible for fraudulent charges. When they are alerted to odd activity, they simply give you a call and will reverse the transaction. With Square, your credit card is designed to be used without worry,in more places than ever before.

Our partner bank, JPMorgan Chase, continually reviews, verifies, and stands behind every aspect of our service, including our Square card reader. And we are constantly improving the payment experience to enhance security. For instance, you can request an instant text message or email receipt delivered from our secure squareup.com server after every transaction.

At Square we work tirelessly to remove all complexity from accepting credit cards. That includes removing every concern around security. We thank you for your increasing supportto make Square the leading way to pay with a credit card, safely.

Jack Dorsey
CEO, Square

March 9, 2011

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In a meeting with analysts, Redbox President Mitch Lowe reaffirmed the Coinstar-owned company’s plans to launch a Netflix “Watch Instantly” competitor this year. Coinstar CEO Paul Davis first confirmed the forthcoming service last year during an earnings call, though he would not specify whether the company’s Internet streaming service would utilize an all-you-can-eat pricing model or and a la carte model. Lowe has now confirmed that the service will be subscription-based, but he did not indicate price points for the service. Redbox currently owns and operates a large network of unmanned DVD rental kiosks located throughout the country. These self-service kiosks, which are stocked with new releases and popular recent titles, allow customers to rent DVDs for as little as $1. Redbox still has not revealed a partner for its upcoming streaming service, though rumors suggest Amazon may be the most likely candidate.

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Sprint’s press event tonight will yield a new Kyocera smartphone dubbed “Echo,” according to a report from Bloomberg Businessweek. Further information is not available for the time being and the moniker Echo doesn’t seem to be a great fit for theme of magic and illusion suggested by the invitation seen above, but Businessweek seems thoroughly confident in its source. Sprint announced last month that it would hold a special press event tonight. With Dan Hesse on hand alongside special guest David Blaine, a “master illusionist and world record holder,” Sprint promises to announce “yet another industry first.” Kyocera is most certainly not the first handset partner that comes to mind when carriers hold events like these, and we’re all the more intrigued as a result. BGR will be on hand at the event tonight and we’ll be live blogging all the action from start to finish.

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Here’s an interesting development, it looks like AT&T and Microsoft will be holding a Windows Phone 7 event on October 11. Despite Microsoft’s own website billing the “Worldwide Launch Event” for 3:00 PM on October 11 with T-Mobile in tow, we’ve just been sent an invitation to a 9:30 AM October 11th event; complete with appearances by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vega. Looks like AT&T may be the exclusive launch partner for Windows Phone 7 after all… even if it is only for a few hours.

It's been no secret that Google TV is scheduled to arrive sometime this fall and we've already seen the Logitech Revue box hardware pass the FCC, but a tipster has just shared an internal Best Buy document with us disclosing that the original planned launched date was October 3rd, and it's now been mysteriously pushed back by two weeks. That would pin the official launch as October 17th, which is certainly later then what Intel's chief recently hinted at. While it's certainly not definitive proof, considering the fact that Best Buy is an official partner of Google TV and the dates timing relative to the upcoming holiday season, we don't think this leak is all that far fetched. Let's not forget that schedule would also place its release a little more than two weeks after the suggested ship date of Cupertino's new hobby. Sure, Google's mantra may be "do no evil", but that doesn't mean they can't try to rain on Job's parade every now and again right? Oh and for all the eloquent waxing you could want on Google's assault on the living room, make sure you check our editorial on the platform if you happened to miss it.

Google TV officially launching October 17th? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Sep 2010 23:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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