Verizon now sells the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014, offers Google's Nexus 7 2013 for $49.99 on contract

Verizon today launched the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition - which, despite what its name suggests, is a tablet that’s been available from other locations since October last year. We knew that this would eventually come to Verizon.

Verizon is offering the Note 10.1 2014 for $699.99 off contract, and for $599.99 to customers willing to sign a new 2-year contract agreement. Although it's not the newest tablet around, the Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 remains a high-end offering. Its features include a 10.1-inch display with 2560 x 1600 pixels, S Pen Stylus, LTE connectivity, 8MP rear camera, 2.3GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of internal memory, and a 8,220 mAh battery.
The Note 10.1 is the second Samsung-made tablet released by Verizon this year. Earlier this month, the carrier launched the newer, bigger and arguably better Samsung Galaxy Note Pro, which costs $749.99 on contract, or $849.99 outright. Yes, we know, these on contract prices are ridiculously high.

In related news, Verizon has cut the price of its Nexus 7 2013 from $249.99 on contract to just $49.99. As you may know, the carrier started selling the Nexus 7 with LTE last month.

sources: Verizon (1), (2) Share: Discuss12 Tweet

View the Original article

Hulu sells its Japan operations to a local broadcaster, licenses brand name and tech

Hulu jumped into overseas expansion of subscription video streaming services around the same time as its competitors Netflix and Amazon, but now it's taking a step back. New CEO Mike Hopkins announced one of his first big moves in a blog post, revealing that Hulu Japan has been sold to Nippon TV, one of the top TV networks in the country. In Japan the Hulu Plus-style approach has been the only one offered, with a pay subscription opening up access to a mix of local and imported-from-the-US programming, including HBO. According to Hopkins, not a lot should change for subscribers. While Nippon TV will take over day-to-day operations and expand the content available with some of its own stuff, Hulu is licensing its brand and technology to the company.

0 Comments Share

Source: Hulu Blog, Nippon TV

Tags: hdpostcross, hulu, japan, mikehopkins, nippontv, sale Next: Pieces might be falling into place for a Minecraft movie from Warner Bros. .fyre .fyre-comment-divider

View the Original article

Hulu Says Sayonara, Sells Off Japanese Unit To Nippon TV

Video streaming site Hulu is doing away with its Japanese subsidiary, the company announced today, selling the unit to Nippon TV. The sale might mark the end of the company’s international ambitions, as Hulu focuses more on its catchup TV service in the U.S.

Hulu has been operating in Japan since 2011, when it launched its subscription streaming service there. Over the years, the company had amassed a huge content library, which include more than 13,000 video assets from 50 different content partners.

When it first became clear that Hulu was looking to launch in Japan, it seemed like that market might be the first in many new international markets that the company looked to expand into.

It was, after all, around the same time that Netflix began its own international expansion. And such a move would give content owners new revenue streams from licensing their content in foreign markets.

But after that first international launch, Hulu more or less stayed put.

Over time, Hulu apparently found that the Japanese unit wasn’t core to its long-term plan to offer up streaming, ad-supported video from U.S.-based content partners. And that maybe the business was more valuable to someone else — in this case, Nippon TV.

In a blog post, new Hulu CEO Mike Hopkins wrote:

“We have now reached a point in the growth of the business in Japan where we feel the best path forward is to sell the company to a strategic buyer. I’m announcing today that Hulu’s Japan business is to be acquired by Nippon Television Network Corporation (Nippon TV), who will assume the day-to-day operations and management of the business at the closing of the transaction.”

According to the blog post, Hulu will continue licensing its brand and content to the Nippon TV, and it appears that the company will also provide some infrastructure services to the new owner as well. But with the change in ownership, Japanese users will also get access to more content, as the broadcaster will bring on a wide range of its own TV shows onto the Hulu Japan site.

“In addition to assuming the day-to-day management of the Japan business, Nippon TV will be adding popular Nippon TV titles to the service,” Hopkins wrote.

For Hulu, the decision may have come as the company moves to focus more on its U.S. operations and double down on becoming the TV Everywhere home for broadcast TV. While it continues to add paid subscribers to its $7.99 Hulu Plus offering — now at 5 million in the U.S. — it’s also working on getting more broadcast content available through authentication deals with networks and distributors.

That should come as little surprise, especially since Hulu’s owners 21st Century Fox, NBCUniversal, and The Walt Disney Company have committed an additional $750 million to fund the company’s operations. Also since Fox veteran Mike Hopkins was named CEO of the company.

Nevertheless, with $1 billion in revenue in 2013 and no signs of slowing down, Hulu’s not going anywhere in the U.S. It just might not be going anywhere internationally, either.

View the Original article

Aereo Sells Out Of Capacity In NYC

Aereo, a TV streaming service looking to change the way we consume media, has just sold out of capacity in New York City.

Founder and CEO Chet Kanojia confirmed the news via Twitter.

The company launched in 2011 with NYC as a pilot market, and has since expanded to 11 markets total. The service, much to the chagrin of major network broadcasters, acts as a remote, mini antenna, letting subscribers pull OTA TV signals out of the air and stream them live across any internet-connected device.

And if that wasn’t enough, users have the option to use Aereo as a remote DVR service for as low as $8 month.

That said, Aereo has worked tirelessly to ensure that this type of business is actually legal. In much the same way that it’s legal for an individual to use rabbit ears to access broadcast television, it’s legal for an Aereo user to rent out an individual Aereo antenna and access, or record, TV content.

However, a single antenna that sends a signal to multiple, separate users is illegal. In other words, Aereo needs one antenna available for every active user of the service, and at this point, there’s simply not any room left for new users in NYC.

Some have misreported that this is a product of power issues, though recent conversations I’ve had with founder Chet Kanojia suggest that Aereo has been trying to build out more capacity to keep up with subscriber growth.

For a startup, it’s not a bad problem to have. Though, if the company wants to foster growth in its first, and likely strongest, market, it will need to offer extended capacity as quickly as possible.

Broadcasters must be equally displeased by this news, considering that they’ve been bullying Aereo in the courtroom since the service launched. It started with a lawsuit in NY, which migrated to Boston, and again to Utah, until most recently the Supreme Court decided to hear the case and make a final, federal ruling.

Based on the track record, I predict Aereo will win in court and will lead the revolution as a stepping stone from bundled TV packages and middle men to an on-demand, TV consumption structure.

Here’s Aereo’s official statement on the matter:

We’re fortunate that Aereo continues to experience strong growth across all our markets. Our team has been working overtime to add more capacity in our existing markets. As soon as additional capacity is added, new consumers will be notified that they can sign up and create an Aereo account.

View the Original article

End Of An Era As VKontakte Founder Durov Sells His Stake To Russian Mobile Giant

Pavel Durov, the elusive founder of VKontakt (VK) — at 100 million users Russia’s biggest social network — has confirmed that he has sold his 12 percent stake to Ivan Tavrin, the CEO of major Russian mobile operator Megafon. The telco’s second-largest shareholder is Alisher Usmanov, one of Russia’s most powerful oligarchs, a man who has long been lobbying to take over VK.

According to Reuters Usmanov and his allies now control some 52 percent of the company, from his 40% stake via Mail.ru and now Durov’s 12%, while another shareholder group owns 48%. So it looks like he’s pretty much got what he wanted.

Russian business daily Vedomosti has reported that the deal was sealed last month, possibly based on a valuation of $3-$4 billion for all of VK, which is heavily based on an earlier version of Facebook.

Via Google Translate, we present for you an edited version of what Durov posted to his personal VK page today:

View the Original article

AOL Sells Winamp And Shoutcast Music Services To Online Radio Aggregator Radionomy

Some more detail on the fate of Winamp and Shoutcast, the legacy digital music services that owner AOL (which also owns TechCrunch) originally planned to shut down but then halted pending a sale. They are not being bought by Microsoft, as we had heard when we first reported news of a sale. The properties are instead being acquired by Radionomy — an international aggregator of online radio stations headquartered in Brussels, Belgium.

The Radionomy connection was first noticed by a couple of people, including one Bryon Stout on the Winamp forums and Carsten Knobloch, who saw that Winamp’s nameservers, but not Shoutcast’s, had been transferred to Radionomy. We have since learned from a reliable source that the deal is for both properties and should be finalised by Friday, if not sooner.

Radionomy has some 6,000 stations in its catalog already, with an emphasis on a do-it-yourself platform that anyone can use to create a channel. Shoutcast’s 50,000-strong catalog of radio stations will be a major boost on that front. Winamp’s media playing software could be used to help program those radio stations and offer additional services.

The acquisition may also see the two products and platforms put to work in more commercial settings. One of Radionomy’s strategic investors is MusicMatic, which develops audio and video experiences for stores and other venues.

View the Original article

Vringo Sells Infomedia Its Mobile Content Business To Sharpen Focus On Patent Suits Against Google, ZTE And More

Vringo, a publicly-traded patent-holding company that has been locked in infringement lawsuits against Google, ZTE, (TechCrunch owner) AOL and others, today announced that it has sold off the last remaining assets of its mobile business that were not directly related to those patent suits, throwing its hat into the ring as a full-on patent chaser.

Infomedia Services, a UK-based company that provides CRM and mobile monetizing platforms to third parties, is buying Vringo’s “video ringtone,” Facetone and other mobile products, existing mobile partnerships, and a portfolio of internally developed patents related to them. It is an all-share deal, in which Vringo will take an eight percent stake in privately held Infomedia.

A spokesperson for Vringo declined to give a valuation for that stake.

Infomedia — which works with publishers like Gameloft and EA Games; carriers EE, Orange, T-Mobile and Virgin Mobile; and mobile device makers Samsung, HTC, Sony and Alcatel — had revenues of $20 million in 2013 and says that included “over 750 million mobile engagements, 300 million portal sessions, 75 million billing transactions and over 5 million downloads.”

It will now add video ringtones (for little clips to play when people call you), “Facetones” (a Facebook integration that lets profile pictures appear when a friend calls, example pictured here), a DIY music video product called Remix, and a fan loyalty platform to its portfolio.

The idea behind the sale is that it will mean Vringo can focus more of its attention on existing patent lawsuits and those it may file in the future, effectively transforming the company into more of a full-fledged patent assertion entity (or patent troll, if you are less charitable).

“We believe this transaction with Infomedia unlocks additional value,” said Andrew Perlman, Vringo’s CEO, in a statement.  “Infomedia has achieved consistent high growth and we believe that combining our global distribution platform and research and development platform with Infomedia’s product offerings and services will create a valuable synergy.  Vringo looks forward to being an equity owner of Infomedia and working closely with the company as it continues to grow.”

As part of the deal, Perlman will join Infomedia’s board of directors after the transaction closes (by March 31, 2014).

Existing Vringo lawsuits include an ongoing search patent case between I/P Engine (a subsidiary of Vringo) and Google, AOL Inc., Google, IAC/InterActiveCorp-owned IAC Search & Media, Gannett Co Inc. and Target Corp.; a multinational case against ZTE (which most recently saw ZTE receiving an injunction on selling base stations in Germany) ; and a case against ADT and Tyco.

Microsoft, which had also been in I/P Engine’s crosshairs, last May agreed to pay Vringo a settlement of $1 million, and enter into a licensing agreement for future use of search patents.

Provisionally, Vringo has won the larger I/P Engine case, too, although without as lucrative a finish as it had hoped. The company had been asking for $696 million in damages, but in the end the judge ruled for $30 million.

There are some more developments on that case to come. The Vringo spokesperson says that his company is meeting with defendants in a settlement conference on January 22, and there is also an appeals court meeting after that, likely at the end of Q1 or early Q2.

View the Original article