demand

The Netflix box is finally a reality.

The Netflix Player by Roku is the first product that allows subscribers to have movies and TV shows from the service's Instant Viewing feature (aka "Watch Now") to be streamed directly to their TV screen. Previously, Instant Viewing was available only to Windows PC users through the Internet Explorer browser. With the release of the Netflix Player, subscribers need only have a wired or wireless broadband connection to access the entire Instant Viewing catalog through their TV. The full review--with hands-on video--is available at CNET Reviews. But for those who prefer to cut right to the chase, here's the short and sweet version: … Read more

This weekend I attended a book party in San Francisco for Jonathan Zittrain. His book, The Future of the Internet--And How to Stop It, was recently published and received good reviews. I will be interviewing him at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society 10th anniversary conference on the future of the Internet this week.

At the party, I talked for a few minutes with Oracle Chairman and CEO Larry Ellison. The book party was hosted by Ellison's novelist wife, Melanie, and HuffPo's Arianna Huffington. It turns out that Zittrain and Melanie Ellison met in junior high school.… Read more

The "Watch Now" feature on Netflix is a great idea: instant access to thousands of movies and TV shows, available for instant streaming to your browser at the touch of a button. There's just one big problem: despite an advertised library of over 8,000 titles, very few of them seem to be movies or TV shows that I want to watch.

Out of 41 titles currently in my queue, only 4--The King of Marvin Gardens, Das Boot, The Good German, and Pickup of South Street--are available to be streamed. OK, fine--my taste for older movies is probably throwing things off. Surely plenty of newer, more popular movies are available to be streamed, right?

Wrong.… Read more

It's not as flashy as solar panels or dramatic as wind turbines, but energy efficiency is fast becoming viewed as a significant "source" of energy. Some people refer to megawatts not used as "negawatts" (for negative watts).

EnerNoc is one of a handful of demand response companies in the field. To ease the load on the power grid during peak times, demand response systems can turn down electricity usage at commercial buildings or consumers' homes.

It's a field that's getting serious attention from policymakers who are looking to avoid constructing new power plants, … Read more

NetSuite, the on-demand business software provider, on Thursday reported a boost in revenue and a smaller quarterly loss.

The company posted a first-quarter loss of $2 million, or 3 cents per share, compared with a loss of $9.3 million, or $1.24, in the same quarter last year. Revenue rose to $34.1 million from $23.2 million.

NetSuite said its net loss for the period, excluding one-time charges, was a penny a share. Analysts have been estimating NetSuite would post a loss of 2 cents a share for the quarter, and $33.5 million in revenue.

The company … Read more

Business software maker SAP on Wednesday reported a steeper-than-expected drop in its first-quarter profits, due mainly to acquisition costs and the slumping dollar.

The company said net income fell 22 percent to 242 million euros, or $376.7 million, from 310 million euros in the year-earlier quarter. The latest quarter included charges of 130 million euros related to the 4.8 billion euro acquisition of French software company Business Objects, Dow Jones reported on Thursday.

One bright spot, however, is software-license fees, a closely watched indicator of future maintenance-and-consulting revenue, which rose 11 percent to 622 million euros. Software and … Read more

Intacct announced Monday it raised a $15 million round of venture funding, led by Bessemer Venture Partners.

The on-demand financial management and accounting applications company also received a portion of the round from its existing investors Emergence Capital, Sigma Partners, and Sutter Hill Ventures. That brings total funding for Intacct, which was founded in 2000, to approximately $80 million.

Intacct, which also raised a $14 million round last summer, plans to use the funding to accelerate its growth via product line additions and enhancements to its channel and sales force, said Mike Braun, Intacct's chief executive. He added that … Read more

With $35 million in new financing disclosed Monday, Demand Media has now raised $355 million in about two years. This leads to an obvious question: what exactly are they planning to do with that money, take over the Internet?

A spokeswoman for the Santa Monica, Calif., social-media company declined to say if reports of plans for Internet conquest are true. OK, she really said the company didn't intend to comment on the new funding other than to point people to new regulatory filings. This is just the latest in a long string of funding announcements for the company. Demand … Read more

Constrained by the technical limitations of its satellite television service, DirecTV has watched from the sidelines as cable operators and phone companies' high-end TV services have rolled out increasingly popular video-on-demand features.

The company is now preparing to launch its own VOD service this spring, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

Called DirecTV On Demand, the service, now offered in beta, is designed to deliver VOD content to customers in two ways: via automatic transmission of selected movie titles, which will be stored on subscribers' digital video recorders and then ordered up for viewing whenever the subscriber … Read more