July 25, 2008
NFL and NBC to Stream Free Football on the Internet
According to the Wall Street Journal, the NFL and NBC Sports will announce on Monday a deal to stream 17 regular season football games over the internet for free live. It will cover only games that air already on NBC and won't include any playoff games or the Super Bowl.Viewers will be able to choose from at least 5 different camera angles and get updated stats during the game. NFL and NBC will share the ad revenue. ESPN pays $1.1B a year, FOX $712M, Direct TV $700M, CBS $622M, and NBC $600M to air football games.
July 14, 2008
Netflix and Microsoft Announcing Video Streaming Deal
Microsoft and Netflix announced today that coming this holiday season customers of Netflix and Xbox Live Gold members will be able to stream movies and videos to their TVs from the Xbox 360.
The current streaming library is 10,000 movies and TV shows will continue to expand by the time it launches in the fall. This functionality will be very much like the $99 Roku box that Netflix came out with recently.
Microsoft to Launch 60GB Xbox 360 SKU
Microsoft will launch a 60GB SKU for the Xbox 360 in August for $349. In the mean-time, the old 20GB Xbox 360 will go for $50 off at $299 while supplies last.Apple Sells 1 Million 3G iPhones
Apple announced this morning it has sold 1 million 3G iPhones. It launched the phone in 21 countries. When the original iPhone launched in the U.S. last year, it only sold 270,000 in 2 days. It took 74 days to reach 1 million sold.
Apple also said 10 million apps were downloaded over the weekend from the new App store. There are 800 apps already with 200 free. 90% of the pay apps are under $10 in cost.
I tried a dozen of the apps yesterday and I must say they are pretty awesome. Yelp, New York Times, AOL Radio, etc., it truly is a next gen mobile computing platform.
July 11, 2008
iPhone 3G Launch Day and Impressions
I went to the local mall today around 5PM. There were about 100 people on line at the Apple store outside. Inside the store looked like a total zoo. I asked the guy out front and he said the wait would take 1-2 hours. Then I remembered there was an AT&T store in the same mall.Hilariously there was only 5 people on line at the AT&T store. They also had an iPhone 3G display. My initial impressions were pretty mixed. It seems the 3G iPhone has the same crappy screen that the iPod Touch has. My day one iPhone has crisp color renditions and great viewing angles. The 3G iPhone's colors look like a crappy TN LCD panel with dithered colors, weak dark detail, and bad view angles. Suffice it to say, I won't be upgrading anytime soon. However if you must get an iPhone 3G in the coming days, go to the AT&T store to save yourself some time.
