subscriptions

YouTube eyes subscription-based services for content providers

Although advertising has been the most-desired way for YouTube to generate revenue, the company is reportedly considering another way to rake in cash.

Speaking at the D: Dive Into Media conference last night, YouTube CEO Salar Kamangar said his company is considering allowing content providers to create their own, unique subscription-based video service on the site, according to GigaOm, which attended the event in Dana Point, Calif. That said, Kamangar reportedly cautioned that YouTube has yet to decide if it will, in fact, launch such a service and hasn't even gotten to the point of determining how it could … Read more

Beware the fake subscription app

I miss software. I miss buying a tiny CD swimming in a big box of air for $49.99, installing the program on my PC, and not worrying about paying for the product again.

Today, thanks to "The Cloud," consumers are being sold subscriptions to products that should really be one-shot purchases.

Many services deserve to be subscription-based. But not all. And while you can finagle a justification to charge a few dollars a month for almost anything, that doesn't mean you should.

Here's are some guidelines to see if the app or service you're … Read more

Internet now active with 2.1 billion users

You're one of the 2.1 billion people actively using the Internet.

Looking at the state of the online world throughout 2011, traffic site Pingdom found that the number of Internet users has jumped from a mere 360 million at the end of 2000 and now accounts for 30 percent of the planet's population.

Sweeping across the continents, Asia holds 922 million Internet users, Europe has 476 million, and North America is in third place with 271 million. Drilling down to individual countries, China is on top with 485 million people using the Internet, more than 36 percent … Read more

Adobe has change of heart for CS6 upgrade pricing

Adobe Systems has responded to complaints about its Creative Suite upgrade prices with a new option for customers who bought earlier versions of the software.

The company, which plans to release its CS6 software bundles in the first half of 2012, had offered upgrades only to those who'd bought CS5 or CS5.5. That raised a ruckus, especially after Scott Kelby, president of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals, griped about the upgrade pricing in an open letter.

Adobe's now changed course with an upgrade offer for CS3 and CS4 users, too. That offer, though not yet detailed, … Read more

How Apple could shake up TV: A la carte channels

Apple can set its much-expected television set apart from those of competitors--and shake up the TV industry to boot--if it can figure a way to introduce a la carte pricing for shows and channels on Apple TV, a new analyst report suggests.

In a note today to investors, Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu asserts that Apple's strength lies less in the hardware innovation it might bring to the TV market than in letting customers subscribe to particular channels or shows of their choosing.

Such a model would run counter to traditional TV packages offered by cable providers that sell … Read more

How to set up your tablet

A few weeks ago at CNET Gotham, I gave a quick live presentation called Tech Boot Camp: Tablet setup.

It consisted of a look at some of my favorite bits of advice for new tablet owners.

My focus was mainly on the iPad, but much of what I discussed could apply to Android owners, too.

So, here's a video we shot at CNET that recaps what I said then. Topics covered:

Picking a case that makes senseUnderstanding the cloud, and using itGet your "free" content! (Or, how to find things you've already paid for and get … Read more

Hearst Magazines expects 1M digital subscribers in 2012, thanks iPad

As the year is coming to close, many companies step back and take stock of the decisions they have made over the last 12 months and determine if they are heading in the right direction. For Hearst Magazines, finally giving in to Apple's steadfast App Store rules has proved a wise--and lucrative--choice.

Talking to Reuters this week, Hearst Magazine President David Carey said that he expects to reach a million digital subscribers by the end of 2012, due in large part to the success of Apple's iPad and the ease of the new-to-iOS 5 Newsstand, which makes subscribing … Read more

Apple yanks 'first' subscription-based game app

Despite considerable fanfare from Big Fish Games as having the first subscription-based game on the App Store, it turns out the company was breaking Apple's rules, and has since paid the price.

As picked up on by iLounge earlier, Big Fish's software called Play Instantly! was pulled down by Apple today, shortly after its introduction.

A source familiar with the situation said the app should not have made it through Apple's app review process for its use of a monthly subscription to unlock gameplay, something Apple does not allow, and has not announced plans to offer to … Read more

Subscription games headed to the App Store

One day you might not own the games on your portable device. You might be renting them instead.

At least that's the vision from Seattle-based Big Fish Games, which has become the first developer to get a subscription-based video game on Apple's App Store, Bloomberg reports.

For $6.99 a month, users of the company's upcoming iPad application can play "dozens" of game titles within the single piece of software, versus the publisher coding each title as its own application and submitting it to the App Store. Those games are streamed to the app, versus … Read more

Facebook's Buffy: The Smartphone Slayer

Amazon is selling many smartphones for just a penny through Cyber Monday, Microsoft uses bacon to entice potential employees to its Kinect for Windows group, and Facebook may be working on a smartphone with HTC codenamed Buffy after the TV show.

Links from Tuesday's episode of Loaded: