Top Items:
Michael Barbaro / New York Times:
Wal-Mart and Studios in Film Deal — Wal-Mart Stores may have lost the online DVD rental battle, but it has no plans to lose the higher-stakes video downloading war. — Today the company will introduce a partnership with all of the six major Hollywood studios — Walt Disney, Warner Brothers …
Discussion:
Between the Lines, mathewingram.com/work, MacUser, IP Democracy, Frank Barnako, Reel Pop, 901am, Download Squad, I4U News, SearchViews, Blogging Stocks and Podcasting News
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Gizmodo:
Breaking! Wal-Mart First to Offer Digital Movies From All "Big Six" Studios — Interrupting my sleep and scoring a major coup in digital distribution—one not even his Jobsness has pulled off (yet)—Wal-Mart has become the first (and thus far, only) digital distributor to go into business …
Ken Fisher / Ars Technica:
Wal-Mart signs all six studios to new service, beating Mr. Jobs (for now) — Wal-Mart has officially entered the commercial download video business, but the real story isn't the features or the pricing—all of that remains disappointing. The big news is the Wal-Mart has beat Mr. Jobs to an important milestone.
USA Today:
Wal-Mart to launch video downloads — NEW YORK — Hollywood's love affair with DVDs will face its biggest test beginning Tuesday as Wal-Mart unveils a movie and TV-show download service with participation by all major studios. — The retailer that accounts for 40% of all U.S. DVD sales …
InterActiveCorp:
IAC Reports Q4 Results — IAC (Nasdaq: IACI) released fourth quarter 2006 results today, reporting $1.8 billion in revenue, an 8% rate of growth over the prior year, and $268 million in Operating Income Before Amortization, reflecting slight growth. Adjusted EPS was $0.67, compared to $0.50 in the year ago period.
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Danny King / Bloomberg:
IAC Profit Declines 98% on Writedown of Coupon Unit (Update3) — Feb. 6 (Bloomberg) — IAC/InterActiveCorp, the Internet and media company assembled by billionaire Barry Diller, said fourth-quarter profit fell 98 percent after the company wrote down the value of its entertainment coupon division.
Discussion:
Screenwerk
Reuters:
Gorbachev to Gates: Show software 'pirate' mercy … MOSCOW, Russia (Reuters) — Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on Monday asked Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates to intercede on behalf of a Russian teacher accused of using pirated software in his classroom.
Tropical SEO:
Andy Hagans' Ultimate Guide to Linkbaiting and Social Media Marketing — Is anyone else sick of link baiting yet? I sure am. It's dominating talk on all the SEO forums and conferences; it's gumming up the works of all of my favorite social bookmarking sites; and it's forcing me get off of my lazy rear and make good content.
Google Blogoscoped:
Google Links Tool Shows Other Sites' Links, Too — The new backlinks checker of the Google Webmaster Tools has a bug that lets you see all the backlinks of unverified sites, too. This allowed me to check all backlinks for Google.com, for example, and download the links table as CSV file.
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USA Today:
Kodak plans to sell inkjet printers with cheaper ink — Struggling photo giant Eastman Kodak is launching a new line of inkjet printers aimed at luring digital shutterbugs back to Kodak paper. The pitch: cheap ink. — Kodak's ink will sell for about $25 when the printers hit stores in March.
VoIP News:
Hacking Skype: 25 Tips to Improve Your Skype Experience — How versatile is your Skype? Ours can podcast, translate French, take conference calls from 15 people, and tutor calculus. — HACKING SKYPE: 25 TIPS TO IMPROVE YOUR SKYPE EXPERIENCE — How versatile is your Skype?
Joseph Menn / Los Angeles Times:
Disney yet to refresh website as promised — Walt Disney Co.'s commitment of late to new technology has boosted the company's stock and earned Chief Executive Robert Iger a reputation as a far-seeing leader in a hidebound industry. — Now for the downside.
Katie Fehrenbacher / GigaOM:
Helio hits 70,000, 100K by next quarter — Helio, the MVNO backed by $440 million from Earthlink and South Korean mobile company SK Telecom, is finally ready to give some subscriber numbers. Because the company is backed by public companies, the announcement is partly as a result of the fact …
Kotaku:
What's Wrong With You? — Seriously. Microsoft pulls out the annoying with its WHATS WRONG WITH U campaign aimed at Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea. A click on the English language Korean version pulls up the following question: … Select from these choices: — GREAT JAPANESE GAMES
Bill Carter / New York Times:
A New Boss at NBC, and Even Newer Issues — When Jeff Zucker is named the new chief executive of NBC Universal today, succeeding Bob Wright, he will be completing one of the most spectacular ascents of any recent media executive: from part-time sports researcher in 1986 to corporate C.E.O two decades later.
Discussion:
PaidContent
Mike / Techdirt:
Now The RIAA Wants You To Believe That You Should Be Paying Much, Much More For CDs — from the nice-try dept — By now, it's no secret that the folks running the RIAA have no clue about basic economics, but that's no excuse for some of their more ridiculous claims.
Jon Udell:
Critical mass and social network fatigue — At the MIT Enterprise Forum tomorrow in Boston, I'll be moderating a panel with three social software entrepeneurs on the topic of getting to critical mass. I want to ask the panelists about overcoming the friction involved in joining and learning to use their services.
Mike / Techdirt:
Destroying The MPAA's Claims On The Canadian Camcording Epidemic — from the let's-try-that-again dept — Over the last few weeks, we've noted that the MPAA is on a new publicity campaign to make Canadian laws stricter when it comes to people caught videotaping movies in the theater with camcorders.
Matt Marshall / VentureBeat:
Greenplum, and the Web 2.0 server — Greenplum, a San Mateo company offering businesses an affordable way to sort though hundreds of terabytes of data to become more intelligent about their customers' habits, has raised $19 million in financing. — Greenplum is significant because it says it provides …
