Category: Software

MUMBAI: Comcast Corp, the largest US cable operator, has reached a comprehensive 10-year programming carriage deal for TV, Web and handheld devices with Walt Disney Co.

In all, the agreement covers more than 70 services.

The deal that covers Disney‘s various networks including ABC and ESPN, will allow Comcast‘s Xfinity TV customers to watch those networks live or on-demand on multiple devices.

“Given the scope of assets Comcast and Disney/ABC/ESPN are making available to consumers, this agreement is unprecedented in our industry,” said ESPN executive chairman George Bodenheimer.

“It reinforces the value of the multichannel subscription and takes full advantage of new technologies, which serve all of our viewers,” he added.

The deal gives a big boost to the cable TV industry‘s push for programmers and distributors to reach agreements that will enable paying subscribers to watch their favourite shows anytime. Distributors have pushed back over whether they should pay extra so their subscribers can watch the shows online or on other devices.

Also included in the deal is a broadcast retransmission agreement for ABC‘s seven broadcast stations. Comcast will launch Disney Junior – a new 24-hour basic channel for preschool-age children and will also provide its Xfinity customers with access to live Disney networks.

MUMBAI: Leading social interactive entertainment company SuperBox, Inc. which creatively develops and distributes original content across various media platforms, has appointed Hollywood producer Gavin Polone to its Advisory Board.

“We could not be more excited to have an entertainment industry giant like Gavin Polone join our Advisory Board,” SuperBox, Inc. founder and CEO Russell Stuart has been quoted to have said. “His proven track record of success and industry experience will be an invaluable resource for SuperBox,” Stauart added.

Added Polone, “An association with SuperBox is a great opportunity for me to extend my business into new areas and I‘m looking forward to helping them increase their creative output in any way I can.”

Polone recently produced Sony‘s horror-comedy hit Zombieland and also Sony‘s $200 million grosser Panic Room directed by David Fincher.

Polone and his production company Pariah have long been a force in television with numerous credits including HBO‘s long-running hit Curb Your Enthusiasm.

MUMBAI: Telecommunications major Bharti Airtel plans to take its popular campaign ‘har friend zaroori hai, yaar’ (HFZ) to the next level with the launch of a new online viral campaign at its YouTube channel.

Taproot has created 20 videos for the digital campaign. It is inspired by ‘friend types’ or tags created by the online audience on Facebook during an outreach programme initiated by Airtel earlier. The company will periodically release these videos and use the concept of ‘Gamification’ to excite viewers.

Bharti Airtel director – global brand Bharat Bambawale said, “The youthful rendition of Airtel’s ‘har friend zaroori hai, yaar’ campaign and its accompanying foot tapping friendship anthem have resonated well with people of all age groups and backgrounds – much like the brand itself. Given the theme itself, focusing on the discerning online audience was a natural choice for us. With this in mind, Airtel earlier launched an online campaign that encouraged everyone to create unique friend types on Facebook which received a whopping 65,000 entries in a span of days.”

“We have now chosen interesting friend tags of this crowd sourced lot (like ‘status update fried, activist friend, dhinchak friend’, ‘filmi friend’, ‘chipkoo friend’ and ‘proxy friend’) to create new HFZ online viral videos. These videos will follow the increasingly popular global trend of ‘Gamification’ to encourage viewers to spread the word on these evocative videos that bring alive ways in which friends touch different aspect of our lives,” he added.

The original HFZ soundtrack is now also available in new interpretations like laavni, bhangra and hip-hop folk.

Gamification is an infusion of gaming techniques and unique story telling that makes discovery content more fun and engaging. As part of ‘Gamification’, everyone keen on watching these videos will need to visit the YouTube channel and will then be provided cues, by responding correctly to which, they will be able to unlock video levels and gradually move ahead watch all videos.

Tagging others and sharing these videos on social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Google+ will allow viewers to gather points on the leaderboard. And then finally one can upload his own friend type video in order to win a Nokia Lumia 800 and a trip to Ibiza, Spain to party with your
friends as the grand prize.

Airtel released these videos on the web yesterday for the online audience for view and share.

MUMBAI: Yahoo! has named Scott Thompson, president of eBay‘s PayPal division, as its new CEO. Thompson will assume charge on 9 January.

Thompson‘s hiring comes at a time when the company is reviewing its strategic direction and deals with the fallout from its previous CEO Carol Bartz, who had joined Yahoo without much online-advertising experience.

Yahoo! had asked Bartz to go in September 2011 after losing patience with her attempts to turn around the company in the two and half years she was at the helm. Since then, Yahoo CFO Tim Morse has been interim CEO.

“Scott brings to Yahoo! a proven record of building on a solid foundation of existing assets and resources to reignite innovation and drive growth, precisely the formula we need at Yahoo!. His deep understanding of online businesses combined with his team building and operational capabilities will restore the energy, focus, and momentum necessary to grow the core business and deliver increased value for our shareholders,” Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock said in a statement.

Thompson has also been appointed to the company’s board of directors.

“Scott’s primary focus will be on the core business, and as CEO and Director, he will work closely with the board as we continue the strategic review process to identify the best approaches for the company and its shareholders. As part of this process, Yahoo! is considering a wide range of opportunities for the company’s business, as well as specific investments or dispositions of assets,” added Bostock.

Thompson has served as president of PayPal, eBay‘s online payment service, since January 2008 and earlier, he served as the company‘s senior VP and chief technology officer.

Thompson said, “With the ultimate goal of delivering the value our shareholders expect, my immediate focus will be on getting to know the entire team and hearing more from all Yahoo!s, working closely with the engineers and product teams, and diving deeply into our products and services to learn more about what our more than 700 million users find most engaging and useful.”

MUMBAI: Zack Wickes has joined PNI Digital Media, the leading innovator in online and in-store digital media solutions for retailers, as its vice president of Technology.

As a member of the Company‘s management team, Wickes will be responsible for all technical innovation-related to the PNI Digital Media Platform.

This includes finding and implementing new technologies, realising efficiencies from existing technologies, integrating content providers and third-party solutions and finding new ways that the world‘s leading retailers can use the PNI Digital Media Platform to create transactions from on-demand products and personalised content.

PNI Digital Media CEO Kyle Hall said, “In conjunction with the promotion of Chris Egan as VP of Business Services last month, the addition of Wickes as VP Technology completes our leadership transition and positions the company with the right team for the next phase of growth.”

Wickes brings more than 20 years of senior management and leadership experience to PNI Digital Media in the software engineering and software sales and marketing fields.

Wickes‘ past positions include VP Software Engineering at MMX Software Inc. and CTO and VP Software Development at Yummy Interactive Inc. He also founded SoftwareShield Technologies Inc, which he sold in 2006.

MUMBAI: CTA Digital, the leading video game peripherals manufacturer, has revealed its plans for its upcoming booth at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), scheduled to be held between 10 – 13 January in Las Vegas, Nevada.

At the show, the company will announce a major licensing partnership and will unveil the new product-line for the first time. The company will also be launching new products for two new device categories – the PlayStation Vita and the iPad.

In addition to the new product-lines, CTA will also be showcasing new and existing accessories for 3DS, PS3, Xbox, Wii, Kinect and Move. Among the new products that would be demonstrated at the show will be the Horizontal Cooling Power Station for PlayStation3 that uses TempSense technology.

CTA will also be announcing the winners of their holiday giveaway campaign, ‘12 Words to Win $100 in Gaming Accessories‘ on the first day of the show through Twitter and Facebook.

CTA Digital has a history of innovating and is behind some of the most unconventional and bold video game accessories in the market that includes the Bowling Ball and Inflatable Karts.

MUMBAI: Sales of digital music has increased by 26.6 per cent in 2011, over the year ago period, according to the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). Figures from the BPI show that while CD sales have fallen, digital sales increased last year and the industry enjoyed a fourth consecutive good year.

As per the report, the sale of CD albums fell by 12.6 per cent. However, the CD is still “very, very important, according to the BPI.

“British music fans understand that the album remains the richest way to connect with an artist‘s work. Digital developments grab the headlines, but the CD remains hugely popular with consumers,” BPI CEO Geoff Taylor said.

“Physical ownership is important to many fans and the CD will be a key element of the market for years to come,” he added.

MUMBAI: News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch has defied his traditions and joined the micro-blogging platform Twitter while on a holiday to end 2011.

The media mogul who has been in quite a controversy over the past year was reportedly joined by his wife Wendi-deng. One of his first tweets was about his current reading material (“The Rational Optimist”); this
followed up with a tweet criticising the recent Steve Jobs biography saying, “Steve Jobs biog interesting but unfair. Family must hate.”

Murdoch is operating with the handle rupertmurdoch, it was reported. While at first many thought that it was a fake account, Twitter chairman Jack Dorsey and a spokesperson from News International confirmed that it was indeed the real Murdoch tweeting.

In keeping with his track record, Murdoch’s tweets have stirred a storm and within two days of starting the account, he had an estimated 88,900 followers.

Though new to the world of Twitter, Murdoch succeeded in grabbing eyeballs with his tweet “Maybe Brits have too many holidays for broke country!” This particular post was then taken down by the 80-year-old media veteran and his wife defended in her tweets that it was a ‘joke’.

NEW DELHI: Noting that Satellite platforms ‘will greatly help our economic growth’, President Pratibha Devisingh Patil said tele-education and tele-medicine are among the readily identifiable areas for this.

Patil said space-based applications had revolutionised the way Government machinery reaches out to its citizens, even in the far flung remote areas of the country. Utilising the application of its research and work for the benefit of society should be one of the overriding objectives of any discipline of science and technology.

The President was speaking at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, where she interacted through videoconferencing with the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) members. Patil inaugurated the new Mission Control Centre and Launch Control Centre. She dedicated the new control centre to the nation.

Isro chairman K Radhakrishnan made a brief presentation on the Indian space programme and explained the exhibits displayed at the control centre.

The President also lauded the way Isro had reached out to other countries, and noted that during her last visit to Austria, she had been informed that two mini-satellites built by researchers from the technical universities of Vienna and Graz are being launched by Isro. There are many other instances of Isro launching satellites of other countries. India does enjoy a niche amongst the space faring nations of the world, she said.

During her visit, she experienced what she described as ‘a fascinating simulation of the launch of a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle from our new Mission Control Center’. She also saw the integration of the soon to be launched PSLV – C19 being assembled in full swing at the launch pad.

Noting that satellite navigation was coming up as a whole new vista in the Indian space programme, she said she was happy that a constellation of seven navigation satellites would provide navigational services for civilian and strategic applications in the coming days.

The President was accompanied by Andhra Pradesh Governor E S L Narasimhan; Minister of State (PMO) V Narayanasamy; Minister in waiting Sunitha Lakshma Reddy; Members of Parliament and a Member of the Legislative Assembly from Andhra Pradesh.

MUMBAI: PostSecret, the popular blog and new-media project that‘s long given people a place to share their deepest, darkest thoughts, announced that its iPhone app has been shut down due to malicious postings.

PostSecret founder Frank Warren receives hundreds of postcards and letters from strangers every week and posts about 20 of them on his blog on Sundays. The app was launched in September 2011.

Warren said that anonymous acts of kindness and malice played out in a creative and complex online culture of two million shared secrets.

The PostSecret app let users take photos and upload 140 characters worth of ‘secret‘ to the PostSecret mobile community with absolute anonymity which was part of the reason why the app became popular.

“Unfortunately, that absolute anonymity made it very challenging to permanently remove determined users with malicious intent,” Warren wrote on the PostSecret blog. “99 per cent of the secrets created were in the spirit of PostSecret. Unfortunately, the scale of secrets was so large that even 1 percent of bad content was overwhelming for our dedicated team of volunteer moderators who worked 24 hours a day 7 days a week removing content that was not just pornographic but also gruesome and at times threatening.”

It was reported that users complained to Warren, Apple, and the FBI about bad content. “Threats were made against users, moderators and my family. (Two specific threats were made that I am unable to talk about). As much as we tried, we were unable to maintain a bully-free environment. Weeks ago I had to remove the App from my daughter‘s phone,” Warren added.

He said that PostSecret fought hard the decision to close the app, even attempting to prescreen 30,000 secrets a day. “Deciding to remove the App from the App Store last week and holding back the release of the Android version cost us money but we feel it was the right thing to do.”