A sneak peek at YouTube’s future as it rolls out new channel design for everyone
ESPN Moving X Games Out Of LA
eginning in 2014, LA residents will no longer able to hear the sound of snapping fibulas and ulnas echoing throughout the basin on hot summer days. That’s because ESPN announced today it is officially ending the 10-year run of its made-for-TV extreme-sports event X Games Los Angeles and moving it to one of four cities: Austin, Chicago, Detroit, or Charlotte, NC. The shift comes as the latest four-year LA deal, with AEG, is set to expire after this year; with the company pondering a sale (it eventually reconsidered), no new deal could be reached, the network said today. ESPN whittled down qualifying bids from nine (including Pasadena and Long Beach) to these four, with a winner to be announced this summer. This year’s X Games Los Angeles runs August 1-4 and is part of an expanded schedule of 2013 events that includes overseas stops in France; Brazil, which just wrapped; Spain, the next games on the calendar May 16-19; and Germany. The Winter X Games Aspen were in January and that longtime home likely will shift too after the current contract expires after next year.
Google Chromebook – Pixel is here!
With 239 Pixels / inch compared to 118 on your average laptop, Google is making it’s presence know in the hardware space. But with prices starting at $1,299, this is for serious users only. With built-in Touch-screen, it will be interesting to see how well their entry does.
See details and ordering info below:
http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/chromebook-pixel/
New Jeff Lynne of ELO Music?
Just saw Jeff Lynne of ELO at the Grammy museum and he mentioned he has nine new songs ready for a new album some time in the near future. With all the of the new music, we fans are really happy to hear this news!
Changes at Dreamwork Animation…
DreamWorks Animation Board of Directors Chairman Roger Enrico Resigns
GLENDALE, Calif., Oct. 25, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc. (Nasdaq: DWA) today announced that Roger Enrico has resigned as Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Company, effective immediately. DreamWorks Animation’s Board of Directors has named fellow Board member Mellody Hobson as the Company’s Chairman of the Board.
Mr. Enrico has served as Chairman of DreamWorks Animation since its inception as a public company in 2004. Mr. Enrico formerly served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of PepsiCo, Inc., where he spent 31 years.
“Roger has been an invaluable leader to our Board of Directors and his guidance helped put DreamWorks Animation on a path to success from day one,” commented Jeffrey Katzenberg. “On behalf of the Board of Directors and our entire management team, I’d like to deeply thank Roger for his unfailing service over the past eight years and wish him the very best in the future.”
Microsoft Said to Debut Its Own Windows Tablet Next Week
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) will announce plans to sell a tablet running the next version of the Windows operating system under its own brand, a major departure from its strategy of partnering with computer makers, according to a person familiar with the plans.
The Redmond, Washington-based company may demonstrate the device at an event in Los Angeles on June 18, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the plans haven’t been made public. The company has said it aims to release the new Windows 8 operating system in time for the holiday season.
Microsoft Said to Plan Branded Tablet Computer Debut Next Week
Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
The Windows 8 software on tablet devices at the Microsoft Corp. Windows 8 software consumer preview event at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
Microsoft has been working with personal-computer makers to produce Windows 8 tablets, designed to win back consumers who have shunned Windows machines in favor of Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s iPad. The world’s largest software maker may be taking steps to exert more control over the hardware that runs its programs — as Apple does — in order to mount a more successful challenge.
“If Microsoft wants to control the entire user experience and the entire quality of their products, they have to build their own hardware,” said Michael Cherry, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft, a Kirkland, Washington-based market-research firm.
Frank Shaw, a spokesman for Microsoft, declined to comment.
Yesterday, the company invited press via e-mail to an event in Los Angeles on June 18 at 3:30 p.m., at a location to be disclosed later.
“This will be a major Microsoft announcement — you will not want to miss it,” the invitation said.
Software Focus
Since the release of International Business Machines Corp.’s first PC in 1981, Microsoft has focused on software for the machines and left design and branding to hardware makers. While the company has in the past decade played a larger role in working with some PC makers on design, it has shied away from developing the machines and selling them under the Microsoft brand.
The shift in strategy has the potential to sour Microsoft’s relationship with some PC partners, many of which have been investing to develop Windows 8 tablets themselves and may not want to compete directly with Microsoft.
Still, PC makers may have limited recourse, said Colin Gillis, an analyst at BGC Partners LP in New York. Apple doesn’t license its software to computer makers, and Google Inc. (GOOG), which makes the Android operating system, will probably make its own tablets through its recent acquisition of Motorola Mobility.
Tablet Options
“If you’re a computer maker, you don’t love it,” Gillis said. “But what are you going to do? Build an Android tablet? Google is going to build its own tablet, too. Everyone is making their own hardware now. It’s like having a poodle in your purse. All the cool kids are doing it.”
The addition of a tablet would radically alterprofitability in the Windows business, which now sells just software with operating margins of more than 60 percent. By comparison, computer maker Dell Inc. (DELL)’s operating margin for the most recent fiscal year was about 7 percent.
A move into tablets would be a similar strategy to the one Microsoft employed with its Zune music and video player. Microsoft initially provided software to partners, who failed to gain share against Apple’s iPod, forcing Microsoft to produce its own hardware. The Zune failed to dent Apple’s dominant market share, and Microsoft canceled the product last year.
Controlled Experience
For Microsoft, sticking with devices from its PC partners only may be equally risky. Sales in the Windows group have missed analysts’ estimates in four of the six most recent quarters as consumers shifted to purchasing tablets rather than lower-cost laptop PCs running Windows. Microsoft, which initially released a version of Windows for tablet machines in 2002 before scaling back, has zero share of the market now, according to researcher Gartner Inc.
Selling a branded tablet would help the company make sure the new Windows dovetails exactly with the hardware, avoiding issues that have cropped up when computer makers have added their own software that has degraded or limited the performance or design of Windows.
“The idea would be to make sure Microsoft’s vision for such a device is translated exactly into the consumer experience without a third-party interpretation,” said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Gartner.
Apple’s Dominance
Apple has expanded its grip on the tablet market even as companies such as Amazon.com Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. release new tablets running Google’s Android software and PC makers work to prepare their Windows 8 tablets. Researcher IDC yesterday boosted its forecast for the tablet market on strong demand for the iPad.
Worldwide shipments of tablets this year will be 107.4 million units, up from an earlier projection of 106.1 million, Framingham, Massachusetts-based IDC said in a statement. Unit sales may reach 142.8 million next year and 222.1 million by 2016, the researcher said.
IDC predicts the iPad will account for 62.5 percent of global shipments this year, up from 58.2 percent last year. Apple’s share could rise even further if it introduces a smaller, less expensive tablet, IDC said.
Microsoft’s tablet plans were previously reported by entertainment website The Wrap and the All Things D blog.
To contact the reporters on this story: Dina Bass in Seattle at dbass2@bloomberg.net; Kathleen Chaykowski in New York at kchaykowski@bloomberg.net
Hatsune Miku virtual japanese popstar coming to LA…
This seems a bit out there, but read about the ticket sales…
(Tokyo) – Having just closed a 4-concert tour in tokyo, japanese pop star hatsune miku is among the most successful contemporary
japanese performers, but she is also virtual: an avatar with a computer-programmed voice, who sings songs compiled
of lyrics written by her fans.
The voice-synthesizing program that powers the popstar is the work of crypton future media, which bills hatsune miku
as ‘a virtual singer who can sing any song that anybody composes’. and indeed her songs are generated by her own fans,
arranged based on suggestions from as many as twenty different people. she originated as a way of showcasing
the company’s music software, but has since encouraged an entire movement of consumer-generated media,
spread originally via the nico nico douga sharing website further facilitated by crypton via the piapro portal for collaboration
and posting.
The 10,000 tickets for the four tokyo performances last week, each priced at 6300 yen (76 USD) sold out within hours,
as thousands more watched telecasting of the performance in movie theatres in shanghai, hong kong, and taiwan,
and others paid about 40 USD for their own access to the live video streaming feeds. the virtual popstar has also already
sold out shows in LA, and aluminum plates with her image on it composed part of the spacecraft akatsuki (launched may 21st, 2010)
after a petition towards the project received over 14,000 signatures. ‘project diva‘ by sega offers both at home video games
and standing arcade models of rhythm-testing games featuring the singer, with a new release called ‘project MMT’ expected in 2012.
The story of Keep Calm and Carry on
You have heard this, or seen this. Now, here the story behind this iconic phrase..
Congratulations to Universal – 100 Years!
Here is the new opening banner for Universal, celebrating 100 years!
studio systems group 