Online Video Viewing Soared In 2009
The media sector performed well in 2009, recovering $200 billion of value, or 63 percent of what it lost in 2008, online content providers and distributors made up more than half of these gains, according to a new report by consulting firm Oliver Wyman.
The largest gains were in China, where the media sector market value increased by 200 percent. The report indicates that the trend toward online media cannibalizing traditional platforms could push the industry toward a "zero-sum game" and increase the pressure on existing companies to sharpen online strategies.
Online video viewing minutes increased in 2009 by 50% in the U.S. and 30% in Spain, with TV shows and movies accounting for around half of these minutes. "These averages, however, mask the full extent of the change among the subset of the population that watches long-form content online," said Robert C. Fox, a Partner in Oliver Wyman’s Communications, Media, and Technology practice.
"In the U.S., for example, among those who watch long-form video online, 15% of their total long-form viewing is online and their linear TV and DVD viewing decreased in 2009. Similarly among all 18-34 year-olds, a key advertising demographic, all forms of viewing other than online and mobile dropped in 2009."
"The pace of growth in online-video viewing is striking," said Mr. Fox. "However, while the platform is still in its infancy, the behavior of today’s online population suggests that much of this growth will come at the expense of traditional platforms. Video could be headed for a zero-sum game," he added.
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Intel Shows Off Interesting Way to Access Content
At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas earlier this month, Intel had a lot of things going on. For one, they introduced a whole new family of Intel Core Processors. They also had a cool proof-of-concept device on display. This was something they call the Intel Infoscape.
Infoscape is a giant display featuring cubes of information, and users can walk up to it and access all kinds of different content – Google News, Tweets, blogs, Flickr images, etc. While on display at CES, the content dealt with CES-related info.
Being a proof-of-concept device, Infoscape is designed to look at different ways of presenting content down the road. The giant cube is powered by Intel’s Core I7 processor, and pulls from about 20,000 different content sources.
The Infoscape displays its content on a double HD screen at 1920×1920 resolution, running at over 100 frames per second. For the event, it was organized into content areas like healthcare, habitat, the environment, communications, transportation, etc.
According to Intel, the device is aimed at exploring how people might access and organize their content in the future. What do you think?
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Polaroid Talks About Lady Gaga’s Role with the Company
Earlier this month, Polaroid announced a multi-year strategic partnership with Lada Gaga, which will see the pop superstar serving as the company’s creative director for a specialty line of Polaroid Imaging products. This was highlighted at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, which WebPronews attended.
While we were there, we had the opportunity to speak with Polaroid Chief Marketing Officer John Pollock, who talked about some of Lady Gaga’s duties with the company. "She’ll be in charge of directing us creatively, and she’ll also be in charge of working with us on a co-branded line, a Polaroid-branded sub-brand with a lady Gaga twist to it," he said.
"I am so proud to announce my new partnership with Polaroid as the creative director and inventor of specialty projects", said Lady Gaga said upon the original announcement. "The Haus of Gaga has been developing prototypes in the vein of fashion/technology/photography innovation–blending the iconic history of Polaroid and instant film with the digital era–and we are excited to collaborate on these ventures with the Polaroid brand."
"Lifestyle, music, art, fashion: I am so excited to extend myself behind the scenes as a designer, and to as my father puts it–finally, have a real job," she added.
The products that will come from Lady Gaga’s partnership with Polaroid are expected to be available in late 2010. On a related note, Polaroid also gave WebProNews an exclusive look at its new photo sharing site PolaroidStudio.com.
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Australian Open Betting Odds: Williams And Federer Keep Trucking
If there is anything that has been certain over the past couple of years in professional tennis, it is that Serena Williams and Roger Federer at the top of their games are unbeatable.
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Choctaw Casino Resort Preparing For Grand Opening In February
The Choctaw Casino Resort is in the final stages of preparation for their grand opening on February 9th in Texas. The resort is expected to bring thousands of jobs to the community.
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Oracle Casino Becomes First Under New Russian Gambling Laws
Today, the Oracle Casino opened in Above City, marking the first time that a casino has opened in Russia under the new gambling laws laid down last year in the country.
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Bathroom Scale Now Connects To Google Health
We know, we know: many individuals will view this as an invasion of privacy, or at least a potential cause for embarrassment. Still, you may find it interesting to learn that a bathroom scale is now able to inform Google Health (along with users’ Twitter followers) of a person’s weight.
No one’s kidding around here. According to an official press release, "[T]he Withings WiFi Body Scale can provide updates to a user’s Google Health profile wirelessly in real-time using its built-in WiFi connection. . . . [T]he scale will automatically update the user’s weight and fat mass to their Google Health profile."
As for the Twitter integration (which isn’t enabled by default), that’s actually been in effect since November. It just seemed worth mentioning.
Now, for the ramifications. The Withings scale costs a somewhat pricey $159, so this development isn’t likely to have any big effect on everyday life. Still, since it’s not unaffordable, doctors who like the idea of Google Health may start recommending the scale to patients, giving it real traction.
From there, the price of the tech would almost certainly go down, and more models would come out, leading to a greater market share.
Or not. Internet-connected ovens, washers, and dryers haven’t been overly successful, and there’s no question that the Withings WiFi Body Scale would take a lot more getting used to.
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Delicious Launches New Features, More on the Way
Delicious has introduced some new features. These come in the categories of bookmark display options, tag options, and bookmark browsing.
Bookmark display options have been combined into one place – just to the right of the Tagbar, and just beneath the bookmark count. New features here include a privacy filter, a send recipients option, and an "open bookmarks in" option. The privacy filter allows users to filter bookmarks by "only private" or "only public." The send recipients option gives users the ability to either show or hide display info like @twitter and email addresses. Users can also hide the history of who they have sent bookmarks to. The "open bookmarks in" option gives users the option to open bookmarks in either the same window or a new one.
Delicious has moved the tag options out of the blue action box and into the sidebar where the tags are actually listed. The feature is the same as before, just in a new location.
A new feature called "Browse these bookmarks" comes in the form of a link in the action box that lets users open the first bookmark and display a small frame at the top of the page, where they can paginate forward through the bookmarks.
"We’re still working on the feature and more functionality will be added over the coming months, but based on how useful we’ve found it, we wanted to give you a chance to start using it sooner rather than later," says Simon on the Delicious blog. "We’d love to get your feedback on this feature and suggestions for other features. We know what we want to add to it, but your responses will help us gauge what we should work on adding next."
Delicious has also improved the tag management functionality on its mobile site and fixed over 50 other minor bugs (which they do not specify). Delicious also promises more tweaks and new features by the end of March, but does not give any details.
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Laws Banning Cell Phone Use While Driving Have Little Impact
State laws that ban cell phone use and texting while driving fail to reduce accidents, according to a new study by the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI).
HLDI researchers calculated monthly collision claims per 100 insured vehicle years for vehicles up to 3 years old during the months immediately before and after hand-held phone use was banned while driving in New York, the District of Columbia, Connecticut and California.
Month-to month changes in rates of collision claims in places with bans did not change from before or after the laws went into effect.
"The laws aren’t reducing crashes, even though we know that such laws have reduced hand-held phone use, and several studies have established that phoning while driving increases crash risk," says Adrian Lund, president of both the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and HLDI.
In New York the HLDI researchers did find a decrease in collision claim frequencies, relative to comparison states, but this decreasing trend began well before the state’s ban on hand-held phoning while driving and actually paused briefly when the ban took effect. Trends in the District of Columbia, Connecticut, and California didn’t change.
"So the new findings don’t match what we already know about the risk of phoning and texting while driving," Lund points out.
"If crash risk increases with phone use and fewer drivers use phones where it’s illegal to do so, we would expect to see a decrease in crashes. But we aren’t seeing it. Nor do we see collision claim increases before the phone bans took effect. This is surprising, too, given what we know about the growing use of cellphones and the risk of phoning while driving. We’re currently gathering data to figure out this mismatch."
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Facebook Wants To Be Your News Source
We recently discussed how social media complements the news industry, and how a study has even found news to be a top priority of Twitter users. Facebook wants to let users know that it can also be used to keep track of news, when you set up a news list.
This isn’t so much a new feature, as it is a way to use the social network that you may or may not have thought of. Basically, Facebook is encouraging users to set up a list for news, as if they were setting up a list of co-workers, or a list of friends from high school.
"You can even create a ‘News’ list to filter news-oriented Pages into one view on your News Feed," says Facebook’s Malorie Lucich. "Simply add relevant Pages to the list, just as you would with a friends list. The next time you sign on to Facebook, you can click the ‘News’ filter to see stories from all of the news outlets of which you’ve become a fan."
"In addition to reading news on Facebook, you can share news with your friends on external sites with Facebook Connect," says Lurich. "Outlets like The Huffington Post, The Washington Post, USA Today and countless blogs have become more social by adding Facebook Connect to their websites and iPhone applications. You can sign in with your Facebook login to see what articles your friends are reading and comment on articles with your authentic identity."
The fact of that matter is that a lot of people around the world are spending a great deal of their online time (which is growing itself) on Facebook. Far more people use Facebook than use Twitter. Facebook has the reputation of being where your real friends are, but most news outlets have Facebook pages at this point, which can be followed just easily as Twitter accounts. Facebook seems to simply be reminding people that this is one use of Twitter that they can get from the larger social network as well.
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